The Seven Commandments May be the Key to Understanding Animal Farm

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The Seven Commandments may be said to be the key to an understanding of Animal Farm.

The novel, Animal Farm, by George Orwell expresses the idea of self-government through the animals. The animals play the role of humans. Because the animals decide that they want to run the farm by themselves, they make up a way of living called Animalism. The Seven Commandments (Animal Farm's Constitution) under which they live are based on these major principles of Animalism. As time passes, the Seven Commandments undergoes subtle changes as the pigs rewrite it to suit their own agenda. The Seven Commandments may be said to be the key to understanding Animal Farm.

Animalism is an allegorical mirror of the Soviet Union, particularly between the 1910s and the 1940s, as well as the evolution of the view of the Russian revolutionaries of how to practice it. It is invented by the highly respected pig Old Major. The pigs Snowball, Napoleon, and Squealer adapt Old Major's ideas into a philosophy, which they name Animalism. The Seven Commandments are laws that were supposed to keep order and ensure ...

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