A Critical Discourse Analysis of George Orwell's Animal Farm

“All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others” is George Orwell’s suggestion of the hierarchy of power in a society where the voices of deception, injustice and subversion are more often heard by those who are manipulated to believe and operate under a particular ideology. The present study is a descriptive-analytical investigation of the selected speeches of political discourse given by the two most influential speakers of Animal Farm (Old Major and Squealer), a novel written by Orwell (1945). To investigate and uncover the ways in which ideology and power relations are subtly reproduced in discourse, we have examined what makes Old Major and Squealer persuasive in the expression of their ideologies. The analysis is grounded on the main tenets and principles of Critical Discourse Analysis. Unlike any other forms of linguistic analysis, the main purpose of CDA is explicitly socio-political, since it seeks to better represent the role of discourse in the reproduction of dominance and power struggle. Therefore, we have adopted Fairclough’s three-dimensional framework: description, interpretation and explanation. In addition, we have capitalized on Aristotle’s approach of persuasion (ethos, pathos and logos) to be as a supporting analytical tool of linguistic and rhetorical devices. Thus, the analytical part of this research work has analyzed the possible interrelatedness of textual properties and their conveyance of a particular ideology by giving it an eclectic treatment as far as the application of framework is concerned. The findings of this investigation uncover the linguistic and rhetorical techniques that contribute to the overall process of persuasion, which have different ideological attachments. The study concludes that the analysis of Fairclough’s three dimensional framework and three modes of persuasion under the main tenets of CDA has shown that politicians – even in a fictional political world – depend significantly on linguistic manipulation to demonstrate ideologies, steer people’s thoughts, manufacture consent and rise to power.