What is satire? Please explain how Animal Farm is a satire.
A satire is a work that criticizes an aspect of society through humor. Irony and caricature are often employed to harpoon the perceived weakness or defect. Also, satire always aims for reform, for change for the the better. It is never designed to simply mock its subject: the purpose is to alert readers to the...
(The entire section contains 164 words.)
check Approved by eNotes Editorial
The Cambridge dictionary defines a satire as a form of writing which holds an idea, usually political, up to ridicule and makes fun of it. "Gulliver's Travels" for instance, is one of the most famous satires in literature, where the author Jonathan Swift makes fun of English society and political power, within the context of the story.
"Animal Farm" by George Orwell, was written in 1945 and is set on an English farm. The story describes how animals on this farm, led by the pigs, take control from the humans and begin to run the farm themselves.
It is considered a satire because the events and characters can be directly seen to represent the political leaders from the time of the Russian revolution up to the start of World War Two. Snowball, the lead pig, represents Leon Trotsky and is run off the farm by a pig called Napoleon, who ends up controlling the farm. In real life, this character was Josef Stalin. Napoleon claims that the animals have undertaken a revolution in gaining control but in reality, the book claims they are exactly the same as the humans, and have taken power for their own gain and not for the wider good of society.