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Introduction Long before the invention of the television or telephone, much less the computer, people had to communicate by word of mouth or written documents. It was not a peculiar happening for a critic of religious, political, or economical affairs to write his opinions in an allegorical and sometimes satirical fashion. Public awareness to many social wrongs has long been fed by such writings. In 1944, even after the modern means of communication had arrived, George Orwell, an Englishman, expressed his concern that Socialism had taken a sharp downfall under the reign of Russias implement of communism. Orwell was inspired to write Animal Farm in response to his participation in the Russian Civil War in which Joseph Stalin, the dictator of Russia, had sent his army to fight for political decency. Although Karl Marx had developed a promising way of life for the Russian people during the reign of Czar Nicholas II, Marxism was turned around and used as the foothold for revolution.
The people of England seemed to admire the Russian war effort and overlooked the faults of the communist regime. Orwell's book opened the eyes if the Western Democracies to the reality of Stalin's conquest. Animal Farm portrays the major developments in the Russian revolution through its characters, events, and symbolism. Animalism vs Marxism In Animal Farm, the term Animalism is used to describe the movement the animals are working toward. Mr.
Jones owns Manor Farm, the setting of the story. Within the first chapter, the situation the animals lived in is described as slavery. The animals were poorly fed and overworked. An outcry for revolution was stirring. Old Major, an old prize pig of the farm passes on the idea of revolution to all of the animals so that they will know what is destined to happen. In Marx's Communist Manifesto, Marx also calls attention to necessary change (7).
The animals resented thy tyranny of the humans and wished to govern themselves where all animals were equal. In comparison, Communism was based on the belief that all people were equal. The common people were tired of the rich getting richer while the poor got poorer. Animalism supported the idea that no one was owned by another. There would be no animals better off than others while no animals would be in bad condition either.
Communism flaunted the same policy. Since the people owned the government and the government owned everything, everyone had equal possessions. In Animal Farm, the animals owned the farm, free from all human beings (10). Orwell believed that it was nave of Marx to think the concept of equality through socialism would emerge successful. The need for leadership is so strong that inevitably the idea of total equality would be undermined by the selfish (5).
Snowball vs Napoleon The animals of manor farm were almost exact replications of the figures in Russia at the time. After driving out the humans from Manor farm, the pigs take on a leadership role. Snowball and Napoleon become the spokesmen for the animals. Snowball was a charismatic speaker that was idealistic about the revolution and felt that he could make improvements to the living conditions of all the animals. Napoleon was more to the point when he spoke and was crueler; he was driven by selfish ambition. Trotsky was a by the book sort of fellow and wanted to improve the lives of the people.
Stalin was selfish and devious and did not follow the exact teachings of Marx. Snowball was chased from the farm by Napoleons pack of dogs. Napoleons dogs represented the Soviet KGB. The KGB was a sort of secret police that ran Trotsky out of office, thus Lenin took control (10).
It should be noted, however, that no matter who would have been left to supervise Manor Farm, the result would have most likely been the same. Orwell wrote in Catastrophic Gradualism thus: a resulting tendency to make all bad developments date from the rise of Stalin; whereas one ought, I believe, to admit that all the seeds of evil were there from the start and that things would not have been substantially different if Lenin or Trotsky had remained in control. Basically Orwell thought that tyranny of any sort, are the same, old or new (6). The People of Russia Several of the characters in Animal Farm represented groups of people.
From the beginning of the book, Mollie, a beautiful mare, shows that she is supportive of those who will grant her wishes. She shows up late to Old Majors meeting flaunting the ribbons in her mane for attention and does not care about the revolution. After the revolution, she was never around when there was work to be done. Mollie resented the rule against clothing. Later she has many rendezvous with a man that pays attention to her. She eventually leaves the farm to work as a carriage horse.
She gets the attention she wants and gets to wear her beloved ribbons. Mollie represents the people of Russia that were vain. These people were apathetic to the revolution in Russia and were only worried about themselves. These people eventually fled to other more prosperous countries to fulfill their selfish needs. In contrast to the vain people, there were loyal, more gullible people that were fooled into thinking that Stalin was good just because he was Communist. Even after Stalin revealed himself to be a ruthless tyrant, these people continued to support his regime.
Boxer, a loyal, hardworking horse, exerted himself to the fullest under Napoleons rule. He woke earlier than all the animals to do extra work and if anything were to go wrong, he would state his motto: I must work harder. Later in the book he assumes another motto to explain the tyranny of Napoleon with: Napoleon is always right. Boxer eventually runs out of strength and collapses. Napoleon offers to help by arranging a visit to a veterinarian. Boxers friend, Benjamin, a wise donkey, discovers that Boxer is not sent to a doctor but to a butcher.
Benjamin represents the people that remained skeptical of the revolution. Those who were skeptical did not believe that revolution would improve the conditions of the country and maybe not even change them. They knew that power struggle was contradictory to what communism stood for. Benjamin holds to his motto, which he repeats in order to remain apathetic to either side, that states: Donkeys live a long time.
He knows that Napoleon is bad and realized all along that the revolution would lead them right back to where they started (10). Symbolism of Characters, Objects and Events Besides only representing groups, some animals and objects held great symbolism. Moses, the tame raven, was loyal to the people in the beginning of the book was symbolic of religion. The some of the animals feared that Moses told lies while others believed in the Sugarcandy Mountain he talked of. Ravens symbolize death in literature and the afterlife in Sugarcandy Mountain that Moses refers to can be related to heaven. He tells the animals that if they work hard they will be rewarded by being able to visit this wonderful place.
When the people leave at the beginning of the story, Moses leaves with them; Orwell felt that religion would fad away after revolution (7). The Communists let the people hold onto religion as a means of reducing complaint and increasing work. When Moses returns, Napoleon allows him to stay because he instills hope in most of the animals. Stalin too knew that religion would prevent the need of another revolution. After the downfall of the humans on Manor Fm, the people try to win back the farm. This was referred to as the Battle of Cowshed.
This battle symbolizes the overthrow of the Russian government. The animals recover Jones gun in this battle and use it as a different representative of hope. The gun symbolizes the overthrow of human beings. The animals fire the gun ceremoniously. They also institute a flag that on which the solid color with the hoof and horn symbol remarkably resembles the Soviet flag.
The gun and flag are practically worshiped in the ceremonies, but eventually the attention is drawn towards Napoleon. Later in the book, the pigs led by Napoleon take over the Jones house that was pronounced a museum after the humans were expelled from the farm. Most of the business affairs are conducted from the house. Napoleon seeks refuge in the house and rarely comes out. The house represents the Kremlin, an important meeting place for leaders in Russia (5).
Napoleons spokesman, Squealer, always follows up Napoleons speeches by going among the animals and convincing them that Napoleon is good and that Snowball is bad. Squealer symbolizes the propaganda used by the communist dictators. They both said anything to convince the subjects would follow the leader (10). Squealer changes and manipulates the Commandments that the animals lived by. The Russian propaganda leaders tried to get the people to embrace the distorted type of socialism that the communists created (5). Conclusion George Orwell's Animal Farm gives and excellent representation of the events that happened around the time he wrote the book.
Throughout the book Orwell sides with the animals but against the pigs. The pigs distort the view of revolution to meet their selfish needs just as the communist leaders did with Marxism. By using characters people could sympathize with, Orwell brought the evils of tyranny to the attention of the world. It is ironic that the downfall of the windmill the animals tried to construct several times throughout the book can represent the downfall of the Soviet government. Orwell died long before this took place. Once Russia, the communists changed the countrys name to the Soviet Union, but after its collapse more recently, the country is back to Russia.
In the book, the farm was titled Manor Farm and changed to Animal Farm. In the end, Napoleon converts it back to The Manor Farm. Even after the revolution and all the changes made, the animals reverted back to the same way of life as before it all started. The slogan touted by the sheep -- four legs good, two legs badges changed to four legs good, two legs better. And the underlying theme of the book satirizing tyranny comes out to say that in the end not everyone will be treated equal: All Animals Are Created Equal But Some Are Created More Equal Than Others.
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Research essay sample on Animalism Vs Marxism In Animal Farm
