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The political satire of animal farm
Animal farm and the illusion of equality
The political satire of animal farm
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Equality: How It Contributes To The Downfall Of Animal Farm
Does the theme of Equality contribute to the downfall of society in the plot of George Orwell’s classic book Animal Farm? Yes it does. We get to see how the animals are treated differently, and how that results in the collapse of the farm.
Equality is the term used to define fairness, equivalence, and evenness. If you live in a world with equality, there should be no favoring of any kind to one person, place, and thing over the other.
George Orwell’s Animal Farm demonstrates how having no equality in a society can destroy it. The source of this theme comes from the pigs such as Napoleon, Squealer, and Old Major. On Animal Farm, the pigs are the ones in charge. They make the rules, give the orders, and have benefits over the other animals. We get to see that characters like Old Major and Napoleon have a burning dislike for humans, which results in a popular motto on the farm, “4 legs good, 2 legs bad!”. It is clear that the animals and humans don’t view themselves as equals. The animals feel that humans have too much power, and they need to change that.
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All their life, the animals have adapted the phrase “all animals are equal.” Then suddenly, one day that changes. That has to be unsettling, shocking, and confusing for the animals. Although there is no direct evidence, we can assume Napoleon wrote that since he is a pig, and is in charge of the farm. The fact that Napoleon would change a sacred rule, and start acting as if he’s a higher class would definitely spark a flare of shock in the animals. Sure enough, that’s what happens on the last sentence on the last page of the book. The animals can’t tell the difference between the pigs, and the humans. They have become they’re most hated
In the beginning of the text, “all animals are equal” (Orwell 6) and are united under the common goal of freeing themselves from “the tyranny of human beings” (5). However, life on the farm progresses in a manner contradictory to this initial belief, and ultimately does not benefit the masses. Rather, it is driven exclusively by and for the privileged elite, “the cleverest of animals” (9): the pigs. Napoleon and his supporters are able to impose their authority upon the “lower animals” (92) by using language to create “the seven commandments” (15), and consequently re-creating them when they see fit. For example, it was declared in the Commandments that “no animal shall kill any other animal” (61). Yet, when the very pigs that created the law break it, it is re-written such that “no animal shall kill any other animal without cause” (61). These subtle manipulations take place consistently throughout the story, until all previous laws are eradicated and replaced with one overarching commandment: “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others” (90). Here Orwell highlights the fact that by re-writing the past, those in power are able to directly control the future. By monopolizing language, they monopolize progress. Without “the words to express” (59) their opposition, the animals lack agency and are effectively silenced, forced to accept what is written “on the
“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than other.” is one of the most famous quotes from George Orwell’s Animal Farm. From afar, Animal Farm is a fictitious novel with no real substance, but when carefully read, it is a chilling allegory of the horrors of the Russian Revolution. Orwell stresses in the novel, the dangers that go along with a bureaucratic or totalitarian regime. The novel supports the idea that Communism is an unethical and unjust system of government and damages society. While Orwell hides the fact that the novel has information, identical to events pertaining to Russia during the 1940’s, he utilizes it in an innocent way by using simple farm animals to directly compare different events and characters of the revolution.
In the beginning of the story Old Major gives a speech to the animals on the farm, and in this speech he mentions how cruel the humans are. During his speech Old Major uses Boxer the horse as an example when he says “You, Boxer, the very day that those great muscles of yours lose their power, Jones will sell you to the knacker, who will cut your throat and boil you down for the foxhounds.” (Orwell 11). He then proceeds to tell the animals that once they revolt the cruelty will end, and at first it does, but soon the pigs begin to act more like humans. The pigs act so much like the humans that at the end of the book it is said that the other animals can’t even tell the difference between the pigs and the humans.
George Orwell’s Animal Farm revolves around the idea of living in a world without humans, where animals can live equally with each other. According to Old Major, a “perfect world” should be one where certain rules and commandments are required to be followed. This perfect world is soon destroyed when Napoleon and the pigs begin to disregard and even rewrite commandments to their benefit in order to gain more power. Some of these rules include: All animals are equal, no animal should act human, and lastly, no animal should work with mankind. As a result, Old Major’s “perfect world” turns into a dystopian society because of Napoleon’s need for more power over equality.
In today’s world, people have always strived to create a utopian society. In the novel ANIMAL FARM written by George Orwell, the animals strive to create their own utopian society based on equality and prosperity. Animalism was created to, as like the Ten Commandments, Animalism’s Seven Commandments were rules for the animals to live by. However, similar to God’s rules, Animalism was a difficult concept for all the animals to follow and live by. Secondly, the collapse of Animal Farm was due to the animal’s own intelligence and their ability to fully understand how the farm was being run. Finally, the failure of Animal Farm was due to in large part by the pigs power over the other animals and the greed and desires that the pigs wanted to achieve. Therefore, the collapse of Animal Farm had to do with Animalism itself, the animals, and the corruption of the pigs.
Each animal has their own abilities, to find their role in society. The point is that "all animals are equal". Also in this story pigs were the most intelligent animals, they were supervisers of all the animals in farm. In England animals served as slaves. Orwell examined socialism in a number of his nonfiction works, he was prompted to write Ani...
...ll return. By cleverly inducing fear into the animals, the pigs are able to convince them to agree with and support anything they suggest.
What is power? Power means the strength and the right given of controlling anyone else. However, when too much power is given to someone, dictatorship cannot be avoided. In the book “Animal Farm”, George Orwell used a lot of events happened on the farm to illustrate that how did the ‘animalism’ turn into “totalitarianism” and well defined the sentence “Absolute power corrupts absolutely”, which also reflects how the society was like at that time. Therefore, in order to find out the reason why George Orwell wrote the story, this essay will talk about how power is abused and the effect on other "comrades" by using several events and the examples of language features used in the story.
Pigs walking on two feet, horses and sheep talking. This is how George Orwell satirizes human nature in his classic novel Animal Farm. Animal Farm is an allegory of the Russian Revolution of 1917. The title of the book is also the setting for the action in the novel. The animals in the story decide to have a revolution and take control of the farm from the humans. Soon the story shows us how certain groups move from the original ideals of the revolution to a situation where there is domination by one group and submission by all the others. The major idea in this story is the political corruption of what was once a pure political ideal. Orwell uses satire to ridicule human traits in his characters such as Napoleon and Squealer. There are several different characters in the novel utilizing animals as symbols of people in real life during the Russian Revolution. Napoleon is the leader of the pigs that ultimately come to dominate the farm. The characteristics that we associate with pigs , lazy, greedy, and pushy are meant to symbolize the characteristics that the leaders of the Russian Revolution exhibited. Napoleon is admired by all of the animals because he is their leader. All of the animals believe that their leader wants to fulfill all of their needs. They also are convinced that Napoleon’s decisions are made the best interest of the animals. Napoleon’s piglike qualities are shown throughout the story. He exhibited greediness when he sold the dying horse, Boxer to a slaughterhouse for money so that he and the other pigs could purchase whiskey. Orwell ridicules human nature through Napoleon in the sense that he is trying to show how the greedy and power hungry eventually end in corruption.
Orwell's book, "Animal Farm", is full of satire. This satire is Orwell's way of communicating problems and resolutions. The main message in Animal Farm is that power cannot be divided equally. There will never be equality for all. Once power is obtained it is always abused, and power causes all to think as the leader does. Equality does not exist, for it is impossible for everyone to be equal.
The cat “was seen one day sitting on a roof and talking to some sparrows who were just out of her each. She was telling them that all animals were now comrades and that any sparrow who chose could come and perch on her paw; but he sparrows kept their distance” (Orwell 39). The cat used this word to try and persuade the sparrows to land on her paw, so that she may eat them. Using the word tactfully she tried to manipulate them into their death, which the sparrows narrowly avoided. Napoleon, after his human transformation, states that the “animals on the farm had had a rather foolish custom of addressing one another as ‘Comrade.’ This was to be suppressed” (Orwell 127). This phrase was used to symbolize unity as equality, but now that the pigs view themselves as above other animals they deem it as inappropriate. This symbolizes the final separation between the pigs and the animals. The pigs no longer view themselves as animals and identify more with the humans. After the humanization of the pigs, they change a long-standing rule about animal equality to “All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others” (Orwell 123). From the very beginning Old Major warned that equality of all animals must stay intact. The pigs did not wish to completely upset the animals be blatantly stating that they are better, so they chose to confuse the unassuming animals by using the same words. Even if the pigs were suggesting all pigs are equal, that is not true because it is clear that Napoleon rules over them. The animal’s word choice and diction portray their own wants as well as how willing they are to get
At the beginning on the text, after the rebellion, the animals are all seen as equal, with a high quality of life. Napoleon and Squealer often mentioned how important it was for all animals to do their equal share of work; however they often did little to no work. They were able to do this by Squealer acting as the media and reminding the animals that the hard work that the pigs did deserved a larger break then everyone else. As the text progressed, Napoleon and his small group of pigs slowly changed the commandments to suit themselves. Many animals didn’t question the change in commandments; and when they did they were either proven wrong or made an example of via public executions. During chapter 6, the pigs are questioned after allegedly breaking the 4th commandment “no animals shall sleep in a bed”. Squealer was quick to react, by stating that the pigs required extra rest due to how smart they were. When Muriel goes to read the commandments to prove that what the pigs are doing is wrong, she finds that the board now states “no animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets”. Through this, the pigs where able to gain control at a rapid pace and adjust the rules to have the most benefits in their
George Orwell’s Animal Farm is a political satire of a totalitarian society ruled by a mighty dictatorship, in all probability a fable for the events surrounding the Russian Revolution of 1917. The animals of “Manor Farm” overthrow their human master after a long history of mistreatment. Led by the pigs, the farm animals continue to do their work, only with more pride, knowing that they are working for themselves, as opposed to working for humans. Little by little, the pigs become dominant, gaining more power and advantage over the other animals, so much so that they become as corrupt and power-hungry as their predecessors, the humans.
Imagine a world where every person is equal: everyone has the same possessions, everyone shows respect to each other, no one kills anyone else, and no authority rises over others to give dictating commands. It sounds wonderful doesn’t it? George Orwell’s haunting book Animal Farm shows however, the near impossibility it is to make that idea a reality. In this fairy tale, a group of oppressed farm animals revolt against the tyrannical bonds of their evil master Farmer Jones, chases him off the farm, and attempt to make a society based on the idea listed above. But instead of having this incredible society, the pigs decide to make one instead where they are the ultimate authority. This book highlights the dangers of trying to establish an equal society under the ideas of communism, and also has poignant symbolic characters that display historical figures in new lights.
The animals in the book “Animal Farm” hoped to achieve unity, equality. trust/truth, prosperity, better quality of life, freedom and individuality, in terms of the revolution. This was achieved at the beginning of the revolution, which made it a success, but in the end the revolution was a failure. The farm, in many ways, was very prosperous when the revolution began. The animals were given an education, “the reading and writing classes were however a great success,” which made them feel equal to the humans because they were now learning in the same way the humans did.