动物农场中修辞手法的分析

The Rhetoric Devices in Animal Farm

Abstract: Animal Farm is a well clarified political novel. It depicts the process of how the animals seize power from human beings, how they intend to create a democratic society and how their society degenerates into the one of severe dictatorship. This thesis analyzes the rhetoric devices, such as irony and hyperbole and how they are used to illustrate why the endless revolutions in human society come to a tragic end, reflect the selfishness, greed and corruption of human nature and bring forth that it is the weakness of human nature that makes totalitarianism and dictatorship possible.

Key words: Animal Farm, irony, hyperbole

中文标题：《动物农场》中的修辞手法

摘要：《动物农场》是一部主旨鲜明的政治小说。它描绘了动物们如何从人类手中夺得农场，如何建设一个民主社会，以及他们的社会又如何堕落为一个严重专制社会的过程。这篇论文旨在分析《动物农场》中所运用的修辞手法，如反语，夸张，以及渐进等。来探索奥威尔如何通过这些修辞手法来展现无数革命的失败，揭露人性的自私贪婪，腐败，以及这些弱点所催生的集权的可能性。

关键词：《动物农场》，反语，夸张

Body: Animal Farm was written by George Orwell in 1945 and is highly acclaimed as his best novel. Throughout history, many critics think this novel to insinuate the dictatorship of Stalin in Russia. Orwell, by his unique literary skills, fully enfolds to us a society clouded by lies, and thus to raise people’s awareness of the danger caused by the concentration of power and of Stalin’s hypocrisy and cruelty. However, still, it is also sarcasm to the selfishness, greed, and corruption of human nature.

The story tells the revolution of the animals in the Manor Farm. The animals, enlightened by Old Major’s visionary dream, realize d that their life was a suffering under human control. So, they launched a revolution, evicted Mr. Jones, their master and began to rule the farm of their own. They changed “Manor Farm” into “Animal Farm”, and implemented “Animalism” which decreed that all animals were equal. Confronted with all difficulties though, the Animal Farm flourished with the effort of all the animals. Two pigs Snowball and Napoleon became the leader of the farm because of their high intelligence and their contributions in the revolution. Snowball came up with various innovative ideas to improve and modernize the farm, but before the methods were carried out, he was persecuted and evicted by Napoleon.

Thus Napoleon became the only leader of the farm and bit by bit threw the farm into total dictatorship. He imparted great burden on the animals and fed them with less food. To improve the production, the animals desired a windmill, which toiled the animals to the last bit of energy, but which twice built, was twice destroyed. Boxer, a firm adherent of Napoleon who got ill in building the mill, was sent to the butcher’s in exchange of two boxes of wines. Y ears’ later, the windmill was built, but the animals except the ruling class, the pigs and the dogs, lead the same life as before the revolution. The pigs gradually became detached from other animals and got involved in human activities and human behaviors, like walking with their two hinds. And finally, they became the same oppressor as humans, and only one of the Seven Commandments left and was changed to”All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.”

The tricks napoleon takes in this story to hone his position, such as deceiving, coaxing, and massacring to threaten, are not only allusion to Stalinism and Stalin’s cruelty in governing his