ジョージ・オーウェル『動物農場』の使用言語

This essay examines the role of the raven Moses and the solicitor Mr Whymper in
George Orwell’s Animal Farm, focusing particularly on the change of animal language
from mere bleating or grunting to the human language English. Moses is seen as
representing the religious situation on the farm, with attention paid to the historical
and mythological background of crows, rooks and ravens, birds that have been
considered to be gloomy and sinister since Aesop. There is mention of ravens’
remarkable ability to mimic human voice and how Poe’s “The Raven” and Grip in
Dickens’ Barnaby Rudge influence Orwell’s characterization of Moses, who
supposedly speaks English after coming back to the farm. Mr Whymper is viewed as
an intermediary between the farm and the outside world, showing how Orwell avoided
spoken language in order to suggest that human beings cannot possibly speak to
animals. The impact of the description that some pigs, including the leader Napoleon,
speak English, wear clothes and stand upright while holding a whip in their trotters is
seen as the result that Whymper’s role is not merely in trading but also in concealing
the pigs’ gradual transformation from beasts to humans.