Animal Farm is written by George Orwell who was an English essayist, journalist and critic. His work mainly consisted of support to democratic socialism and opposition to totalitarianism. His works remained influential in both popular and political culture. ‘Animal Farm’ was first published in England on 17th August, 1945. It is a satirical allegorical novel which tells about the then society about the Russian Revolution of 1917 which led to Stalinist era in the Soviet Union.
George Orwell commented on ‘Animal Farm’ in his later work called ‘Why I Write’ (Orwell 2014). He said “Animal Farm was the first book in which he tried, with full consciousness of what he was doing, to fuse political and artistic purpose into one whole”. It even won ‘a Retrospective Hugo Award’ in 1996. Orwell was committed to communicate in a straightforward manner unlike politicians who he thought would use words to deceive and confuse. Even though Orwell believed and supported socialistic ideals, Animal Farm represents the most powerful ironies of socialism. One of which is the corruption of its ideas by the one in power.
To briefly summarize ‘Animal farm’, it is a story about a group of animals who live under the rule of a farmer Mr. Jones but wanted to start their own society. So, after ‘Old Major’, the wisest and oldest unites all the animals to fight against humans, they establish ‘Animalism’ which consists of seven rules which are based on democratic principles and one of them is that they should treat All Animals equally. Even if there is plenty of food and life is better, there starts the power struggles among the animals because of the unequal authority that pigs have who are backed by the fierce dogs. Slowly, the seven rules of ‘animalism’ were destroyed and pigs became no different than human dictators. So, to conclude there was no difference among the lives of animals even after the rebellion.
Some of the representations that Orwell used in the tale are Old Major as Karl Marx. Animalism represents the communist theories created by Karl Marx. Napoleon represents Joseph Stalin. Snowball represents Leon Trotsky. Farmer Jones represents Czar Nicholas. When Communist Russia was established after the Russian revolution, it was totally different from its founding principles. Exactly like pigs in the tale, Stalin had complete political authority in the Soviet Union and his opponents like Leon Trotsky were either killed or exiled. Orwell personified Napoleon, the leader of pigs to Stalin who kills other pigs who oppose him or are disloyal to him. In the fiction, Snowball who is an idealistic but politically less powerful figure is thrown out of Animal Farm by using violence methods which symbolizes Leon Trotsky in the Soviet Union.
Two of the important questions that animal farm raises are if it is possible to have complete equal society and if education and knowledge has any role to play to preserve political freedom. The prime message or the answer to the first question that Orwell conveys through Animal Farm is that social stratification in society is inevitable. It is the human tendency to maintain and reestablish class structure even in societies that allegedly stand for total equality. Even if revolution promises equality and the ideals of society, it would soon be eroded by the thirst for power. It would be mainly educated who would rule over the intellectually inferior.
The answer to the second question is answered by Orwell who supports education. He warns that if working classes are not educated and illiterate, they will not be able to challenge the government’s abusive policies. This is explained in Animal Farm how the pigs misinterpret the seven commandments of animalism whenever they break these rules. They used the knowledge and education to spread rumors and to their advantage. One such instance is when Squealer, pro-government or who blows trumpet of pigs reinterpret the statement “All animals are equal” as “All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others” to decriminalize pigs treacheries.
Orwell addresses the problem of ‘intellectual failure’. Even though Pigs and dogs are educated and literate, it does not make them more capable or productive than other animals. In fact, it is other animals who produce milk and food which are required to live. The intellectual knowledge of pigs is used to manipulate other lower animals. Orwell does not blame the pigs only for the decline of animal farm but targets other people too. Some of them are characters like Mollie, apolitical animal who doesn’t care about justice or equality around them. Another is Boxer who represents the hard working proletariat class who do not resist tyrants like Napoleon. Boxer does not prefer to think about the policies of Napoleon or pigs but just blindly believes that “Napoleon is always right”.
Another important idea that Orwell conveys is that the idea of power is always corrupt. From the events in the story, Orwell shows how any ruler in the place of Napoleon would be just as cruel and corrupt as Napoleon is. For example, he explains about how Snowball even went to the theft of milk and apples with other pigs. Even the Old Major did not escape from corruption. Even he viewed himself as above all the animals when he lectures all the other animals from a raised platform. He ultimately shows how even if it is Humans or Napoleon or Old Major or Snowball, the idea of power has the same effect on everyone who tries to wield it.
