ANIMAL FARM – AN ANTI – UTOPIAN / DYSTOPIAN NOVEL

The definition of anti – utopian and dystopian is the opposite of utopian, which means a perfect society.

The book, Animal Farm, starts with a utopian beginning as it shows us that all the animals on Manor Farm were acting as equals; all wanted to overthrow Mr. Jones, who was then the master of Manor Farm, and then take possession of the farm. But if we look closely at the story and its beginning, we can see that even in the utopian beginning of the story, there is inequality within the farm.

An example of this was the prize boar, Old Major. He must have been very highly respected on the farm as “everybody was willing to lose an hour’s sleep to listen to what he had to say”. This shows us that there is an underlying contradiction to Old Major’s maxims and speech – if he was making maxims for the animals to follow after the rebellion, and was so highly respected that the animals were willing to lose an hour of sleep, then he would be considered a leader of the animal...