Much has been said about the analogy of the story and the political period ie. the cold war the Britain and other western countries faced after WWII. Today it might seem frivolous to farewarn people as he did through his fiction but the truth remains about non-elected governments and the menace they can hold over the population they profess to protect and represent.

Political figures and institutions of the day and earlier, are analagous to the ones that held power or were influential then; Napolean whose name is quite clearly identifiable to the late French emporer who led the French to victories across Europe but whose folly for power at no end eventually led to his demise. Napolean in the story was a little more mordern in that he had a few underlings who protected him much as the KGB were conscribed to protect their communist leaders. He and Snowball succeeded in the revolt that kicked out their landlord but like Stalin he eliminated his competition by banishing him from his midst.

Snowball might then be related to Trotsky the less successful figure in Russia’s rise to being a world power. He like Snowball was banished. He was more of an intellectual and less ruthless than Stalin just as Snowball was less cunning. it was Snowball who concentrated on the use of the windmill to be used to generate power when Napolean was more selfish about consolidating his rise to power just as stalin was by sending henchmen to hunt Trotsky down in Mexico in 1940. Thus the story in someway states that one has to be a clever fiend in order to eventually succeed.

The other animals could also be related to people such as the sheep for having repeated Napolean’s commands or better stil Squealer by emitting half-truths as he set claim to the benefits of hard truth when he might have come clear by saying that the animals would have to die for their work.