Fascism in Animal Farm

In 1943 George Orwell started to work on Animal Farm, a “Fairy Story” that speaks against the political and social dangers of totalitarianism. Animal Farm incorporates the corruption of the bourgeoisie with the false consciousness of the proletariat to create a society that mirrors the one ruled by Joseph Stalin. Orwell replaces his real life inspirations for the book with animal characters, which fit in perfectly with his theme of the manipulation of language within society. Orwell’s Animal Farm gives its readers the perfect example of how corrupted a government can become, while the society its governing will not even notice.

Animal Farm begins with an inspiring speech by Major, one of the oldest and most respected animals on the farm. Major’s speech emulates the utopia that leaders like Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin dreamed of. He criticizes the workplace, where “nearly the whole of the produce of our labour is stolen from us by human beings (7).” Marx believed that in order for the classes to all be truly free each person must be free to follow their own goals and desires, but it cannot come at the cost of harm to another person. Like Marx, Major agreed that one should not make a profit off of the labor of another. They believed that the profit must be shared equally between all of the people—or animals—who helped contribute to it. Major also went on to say that “no animal must ever tyrannise over his own kind (11).” Major’s statement falls in line with Lenin’s form of thinking. Lenin believed that in order for there to be a revolution, there must be a vanguard party to lead the proletariat to rebellion. This was not one person tyrannizing over his own kind but instead it was a group to introduce a revolution to the working ...

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...me unequal with the other animals he changed the rules in a way that made the animals question if they had even been changed at all. For example, even though one of the seven commandments was “no animal shall kill any other animal (25),” along the way Napoleon changed the rules so that it said “no animal shall kill any other animal without cause (91).” This way Napoleon was free to kill anyone who stood in his way without the animals ever getting angry enough to attempt another rebellion. He used their inability to read—or remember—as a weapon against them, to control them further. Napoleon utilized the proletariat’s false consciousness to further his own agenda, when everyone’s starting goal was to create a utopian society under socialism—or animalism— where everyone worked together and they all shared the same agenda.

Works Cited

Animal Farm by George Orwell