Marxism in Animal Farm

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Recommended: The impact of the communist manifesto

Imagine being in a world where you have to conform to what the government says or else you will be severely punished. Communism didn’t always sound so harsh. In fact, it sounded quite nice on paper, showing that everyone would receive the same rations of food and clothing. The Communist government was easily taken out of its original ideas, however. Communism is based off of the ideas of Marxism, which is the thought that every person should give up his/her individual rights in order for the good of society. In the book Animal Farm, Marxism found its way into the world, helped take control over the farm, and was demonstrated well with the exception of a few differences.
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels created Marxism. Marx wrote the communist manifesto which in summary tells that Communism wants to override capitalism and allow everyone to be equal.
Marx's economic analysis of capitalism is based on his version of the labor theory of value, and includes the analysis of capitalist profit as the extraction of surplus value from the exploited proletariat. The analysis of history and economics come together in Marx's prediction of the inevitable economic breakdown of capitalism, to be replaced by communism (Wolff, 2003).
Marx argues that religion is just a man-made thing to create a community because humans can’t survive without community. He says that the communist government can replace the feeling of “being equal in God’s eye” to “being equal in the eyes of the law” (Wolff, 2003). Marxism fights for the freedom of the working class, who are usually paid minimum wage just to survive (Blunden, n.d.).
Old Major not only represents Marx and Lenin, but also the power of speech and how it was used to inspire people. He tells the animals...

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...e relevant to how Marxism played out in the book. The Marxist ideas are better said than done. It seems like everyone would be equal but in reality there would be no room to have a personality or make a better life for oneself. The true Communist government is not realistic. Overall, Communism is not a fun government to mess with because Marxist ideas want to break capitalism and remove religion in the form of harsh ruling.

Works Cited

Blunden, Andy. "Marxism." , by Andy Blunden. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 May 2014. .
Orwell, George. Animal Farm. N.p: n.p, 2003. http://www.george-orwell.org/Animal_Farm/0.html. Pdf file
Wolff, Jonathan. "Karl Marx." Stanford University. Stanford University, 26 Aug. 2003. Web. 2 May 2014. .

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