Orwell's Effective Use of Animals as Characters

Orwell used animals instead of humans in the book Animal Farm for a variety of reasons. One reason possibly could be that the use of animals would be more easily taken by the greater population of the world. If Orwell had used humans in the story, people might have taken the story as a personal insult to humanity.

Orwell effectively used animals as characters in that by the end of the book, we were all very into the story, and we viewed the animals almost as humans. The animals became characters in our minds, completely and effectively personified in situations parallel to those of the Russian Revolution.

Orwell might have also decided to use animals in his book rather than people because that would make the story more like a fairy tale, thus making the story a fable. If the story had been told with humans instead of animals. Animal Farm would have been just a story about what actually happened during the Russian revolution, thus making the book more of a historical fiction, rather than a work of fantasy. Animal Farm, being fantasy, appeals to a wider audience than a straightforward historical fiction work.