Animal Farm Sexism

Patai views Animal Farm through a feminist lens and argues that Orwell is sexist in his support for the patriarchy and for linking masculinity with superiority. Patai makes a really interesting observation that the pigs that run the farm “are not just pigs but boars, that is, uncastrated male pigs kept for breeding purposes” (Patai). Old Major, the progenitor of the revolution even brags about being “twelve years old and [having] over four hundred children” (Orwell). Every leader of Manor Farm, including Mr. Jones, has been male, and the animal leaders of the farm have all had their reproductive potency central to their identity as boars. Femininity, in any sense, isn’t associated with leadership. For instance, the “male porkers (castrated

Kubal discusses evil of civilization as shown in Orwell’s Animal Farm through a biographical and formalist lens, analyzing Orwell’s experiences with animals and connecting it to the animals portrayed in the book to argue that civilization degrades the instinctual man. Orwell, according to Kubal, “admired their ability to endure human tyranny as well as their faithfulness” (Kubal). In “Marrakech,” Orwell describes the donkey as “peculiarly pitiful [in] that it is the most willing creature on earth, it follows its master like a dog [, and after it dies,] its master tips it into the ditch and the village dogs have torn its guts out before it is cold” (Orwell). In “Marrakech” and his other works, the primitive animal is held as a paragon of virtue while the civilized man and his domesticated animals are painted barbarically, not even waiting for the corpse to become cold before tearing into it. Orwell also uses a character’s relationship with animals to reveal their inner character. George Bowling in Coming Up for Air is positive attitude towards fish “indicates his vital connection with life” (Kubal). In Animal Farm, the animals are initially good. They respect one another and all provide for the common good. It’s only when they repel an invasion by the humans and come into contact with humans and their instruments that conditions really start to worsen. The pigs’ initial downward turn towards greed and corruption is marked by their decision to reside in Jones’ old house. They gradually add more human attributes as they gradually get more corrupt and greedy. At the very end, when the pigs congratulate themselves on working the other animals to exhaustion, they’re indistinguishable from the humans. Orwell implies that humans and their society is a corrupting influence on the natural instinct of animals. As social commentary, Animal Farm serves to argue that “man possessed inherent virtues which were the foundation for a moral life and which contemporary