LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 20:1 January 2020
ISSN 1930-2940

Editors:
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         T. Deivasigamani, Ph.D.
         Pammi Pavan Kumar, Ph.D.
         Soibam Rebika Devi, M.Sc., Ph.D.

Managing Editor & Publisher: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.

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Understanding the Fundamental Nature of Power through Myths
in George Orwell’s Animal Farm

Shikha Thakur, Ph.D. Research Scholar English

Abstract

This paper aims at examining myths to understand the fundamental nature of power; destructive, authoritative, coercive, omnipresent, and hierarchical. Grounding on the multiple dimensions of myth, predominantly expounded by Devdutt Pattanaik, an Indian mythologist, the study scrupulously engages with divergent connotations of myth while dealing with power. George Orwell’s landmark novella, Animal Farm (1945), while politically satirizing totalitarianism surrounding the Russian Revolution, also sagaciously represents the fundamental structure of power amidst the changing dynamics of relationships. Palpably, the paper cogently lends a fresh angle of analysing power, by meticulously assorting myth and power.

Keywords: Animal Farm, George Orwell, Myth, mythology, mythos, logos, Manor Farm, power, totalitarianism, real, unreal.

Introduction to the Topic

The aetiological understanding of the term ‘myth’ features its colonial meaning referring to the sense allocated by colonizers to the colonized in the nineteenth century. While referring to themselves as real, colonizers described the colonized as unreal/fake, thereby pejoratively introducing them as mythical/unreal. The term myth thus, earned its tenor through its binary association against ‘real’, conclusively amounting to its contemporary meaning; unreal. Progressively, the inbuilt association of ‘myth’ with falsehood/fiction/unreality augmented in so far contributing to its present definition as listed by The Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries, “something that many people believe but that does not exist or is false” (n.pag.). Furthermore, the study of ‘myth’ referred to as mythology has presently forayed into the religious gamut, as is defined by Wikipedia, “ ‘myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives or stories that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. The main characters in myths are usually gods, demigods or supernatural humans” (n.pag.). On analysing myth divergently, one learns that it is rather a value attributed to life in the form of stories, rituals, and symbols.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Shikha Thakur, Ph.D. Research Scholar English
Central University of Himachal Pradesh
shikhamittu1@gmail.com
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