The Road To The Corruption Of Totalitarian Government-an Analysis Of Animal Farm From The Perspective Of Relationship Between Power And Discourse

Animal Farm, which is written by British writer George Orwell, is recognized asone of the most outstanding work of the20thcentury. The novel reflects human societythrough the description of animals’ revolution. In the novel, pigs gained and strengthenedtheir power by the abuse of language. In the beginning of its publication, the studies ofAnimal Farm were focused on the themes of anti Soviet Revolution and anti Utopia.With the end of Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union, more and more scholarspaid close attention to its theme of anti totalitarianism. Michel Foucault is one of themost brilliant ideologists of the20thcentury. His study on power of discourse has greatinfluence on many fields. This thesis aims to study the political allegory from Foucault’sperspectives of power and discourse, power and knowledge.The first chapter is an introduction which contains the basic review of the authorand his work, the study home and abroad, also a brief introduction to Foucault’s ideasabout power and discourse. The second chapter is the explanation of formation ofNapoleon’s totalitarianism from Foucault’s perspective of power. This chapter iscomposed of three parts: the formation of Napoleon’s dictatorship, the factors of formingtotalitarianism and the damage of totalitarianism to the Animal Farm The third chapter isthe analysis of Snowball’s political life from Foucault’s perspective of power andknowledge. It is mainly about the reasons of Snowball’s failure through the analysis ofhis characters and the relationship between power and knowledge. The forth chapterexplores the significance of language from Foucault’s perspective of power anddiscourse. The analyses are based on another main character–Squealer. The last chapteris the conclusion. George Orwell has shown readers the formation and harm oftotalitarianism through Animal Farm. The purpose of studying Animal Farm is to remindreaders to avoid being controlled by language of those who have ulterior motives and tobe cautious of totalitarian rules.