Conflict is a force which causes issues between individuals and groups. This force can be seen in the novella “Animal Farm” by George Orwell and the picture book “The Rabbits” by John Marsden and Shaun Tan. Both of these texts convey conflict between forces using allegory. In the novella “Animal Farm” conflict is shown between man and animal. This force causes issues between Farmer Jones and the animals. This creates a rebellion, which is inspired by Old Major’s song “Beasts of England”.
This song unites the animals and for them to desire a ‘golden future time’. When Jones is taken out of the picture, a common enemy is required and in this case it is Snowball. Napoleon feels that his leadership is threatened by Snowball and his ideas, for example the windmill. Napoleon sent out his vicious dogs and brought the expulsion of Snowball from the farm. George Orwell shows the consequences of conflict in “Animal Farm” by the corruption of power.
Power on the farm becomes corrupt soon after Snowball’s expulsion. All Seven Commandments are eventually changed, but the animals are persuaded to think that they forgot the commandments to prove that the pigs did nothing wrong, for example “no animal shall sleep in a bed” is changed to “no animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets”. Another example of corruption of power in the novella “Animal Farm” is when the chickens admit to be working with Snowball.
“Animal Farm”, the novella, shows the issues between the pigs and the rest of the animals. The pigs are very selfish characters and symbolise communist leaders. The pigs are the ones who change the commandments for their benefit, they misuse their power, and manipulate the other unintelligent animals to thinking that their ways are correct, for example the pigs steal all the milk and apples for their own good and tell the other animals that they need all the food because they are the ‘brainworkers’ of the farm.
The Essay on "Animal Farm" Speech – Snowball
Comrades, I stand here before you on this Sunday morning to bring forth my final solicitation to you for the ratification of the building of the windmill. In a minute or so, I will make all the beauties of the windmill known to you. Weeks ago, when I investigated our farm and surveyed the ground, I discovered that the knoll is the highest point on the farm, and it is certainly the ideal place to ...
In the end, the pigs start acting like humans” and taking on all of man’s behaviour, walking on their hind legs, they change the commandment – “Four legs good, two legs bad” to “four legs good, two legs BETTER” and also change “all animals are equal” to “all animals are equal, BUT some animals are more equal than others”. The pigs change these commandments because they were known to be greater than the other animals and the ones who have the authority. The picture book, “The Rabbits” written by John Marsden and drawn by Shaun Tan shows conflict between Indigenous and Non-Indigenous people in relation to the ownership of the land, Australia.
The rabbits who represent the British, invade the coast of Australia and the numbats who symbolise the Aboriginals in the area. Both cultures believed that they owned the land and the numbats didn’t know what was happening or who they were. “At first we didn’t know what to think. They looked a bit like us. There weren’t many of them. Some were friendly. ” Shaun Tan and John Marsden create conflict within the cultures by the Rabbits invading the numbats territory. By looking at the pictures in detail you can see that the rabbits are larger in size and stronger than the numbats.
This technique is used to show that the rabbits are more dominate compared to the numbats. When the Rabbits come there is confusion and anxiety from the numbats as their environment is destroyed by the invading culture. “They ate our grass; they chopped down our trees and scared away our friends…” Issues between groups or individuals are displayed in the texts “Animal Farm” the novella written by George Orwell and the picture book by Shaun Tan and John Marsden “The Rabbits”. An allegorical fable is used in both of these texts and techniques already talked about make these texts are a great representation of conflict.
