Abstract

The word “utopia” was first found in the book Utopia (1516) by Sir Thomas More, implying a fictional island where everything was in a harmonious state. While utopia is always used to describe a perfect place, dystopia, the counterpart of utopia, literally refers to an imagined society characterized by poverty, degradation and oppression. This can be easily judged from the structure of the word: the prefix “dys-” usually means bad or ill.
George Orwell, one of the best dystopian writers in the English literature, relates a fable about animal rebellion in his book Animal Farm. Having been long subjected to the tyranny of human beings, pigs commit to lead all the animals so as to overthrow their human master from the farm. However, after the successful revolt different political views emerge between the two main leaders, Napoleon and Snowball. The whole farm afterwards is under the leadership of Napoleon, with Snowball being expelled. Acting as the think tank in defending the farm against external aggressions, pigs gradually become the upper class and enjoy many privileges over other animals. Since then Animal Farm degrades from the previously equal and democratic community into a hierarchical and despotic one. Eventually pigs abuse their power and restore the corrupt customs of human, which means the revolution is the subversion of one regime and its replacement with another. In this book, the farm is such a typical existence that its dystopian features can be read between the lines.
In my paper, I divide the main dystopian features into three categories, each having two small branches. They are: (1) politically the privileges over members and the manipulation of laws, (2) economically the harsh economic exploitation and the absence of social welfare, (3) culturally the prevailing personal cult and the intolerance of free speech. All these six features conduce to the totalitarian form of the government, which is actually the assailing target of dystopian writers.

Key Words: Animal Farm, Dystopian, Features

摘   要

“乌托邦”一词最早由托马斯•莫尔在其专著《乌托邦》中创立，意指虚构出的一个和谐清净的岛屿。乌托邦通常用来描述一个完美的地方，而反乌托邦作为其对立面，顾名思义便是指一个集贫穷、堕落与压迫为一体的想象中的社会。这从它的构词方式便可窥知：前缀dys-通常表示“坏”、“邪恶”。
乔治•奥威尔是英国文学史上最好的反乌托邦作家之一，他在《动物农场》一书中为我们描述了一个关于动物起义的寓言。不堪长久遭受人类的暴虐统治，猪带领全体动物推翻了人类在农场的统治。然而，起义成功之后不久，两个主要领导人拿破仑和雪球之间便产生了巨大的政见分歧。雪球被驱逐后，拿破仑接管了整个农场。 由于猪在保护农场不受外来侵略的过程中担任智囊团的角色，因而逐渐成为农场中的上层阶级，相较其他动物而言享受了很多特权。自此，动物农场开始由原本平等民主的社会堕落为一个阶级森严的专制社会。最后猪滥用特权，不断复辟了人类的恶习，这意味着早前的起义只不过是用一个专制政权推翻另一个专制政权而已。书中的动物农场是一个十分典型的存在，字里行间都能体会出其反乌托邦特征来。
在这篇论文中，我将主要的反乌托邦特征分成了三大类，每一大类里又分两个小点，分别是：政治上，超越民众享有的特权及对法律的肆意篡改；经济上，严酷的经济剥削及社会福利的缺失；文化上，盛行的个人崇拜及对言论自由的禁止。所有这6点特征都导致了极权主义的政府，而极权主义恰恰是反乌托邦作家们猛烈抨击的对象。

关键词：动物农场，反乌托邦，特征