The Dystopian Roles In Animal Farm By George Orwell

In Animal Farm by George Orwell, the dominating pigs are the ultimate hypocrites. They implement many harsh rules for the farm, but continuously bend and break them according to their own needs. These actions lead to the breakdown of the animals’ supposed communal society and make evident how the dystopian elements in the novel lead to a controlling and dictatorial government. Through the ruling class of pigs, Orwell is able to provide commentary on the authoritarian governments of his time, as well as those in the future. Animal Farm by George Orwell uses the dystopian elements of societal control and the illusion of perfection to provide a critique of authoritarian governments and their tyrannical impact on society. Societal control develops

Throughout the entirety of Animal Farm, the pigs employ the tactics of the illusion of perfection to subliminally persuade the other animals that conditions on the farm are better than they truly are, which in turn makes the animals give up their right to a fair society. An example of this is one of Squealer’s annual reports which is explained in the novel as, “He explained to them that they had more oats, more hay, more turnips than they had had in Jones’ day, that they worked shorter hours, that their drinking water was of better quality, and that there was more straw in their stalls and suffered less and less. The animals believed every word of it” (Orwell 101). The animals wholeheartedly believe these false claims and think they are living in great conditions and are thriving, but this is clearly untrue as any observer of the farm could see. This tricks the animals into working like slaves, as the lies from the pigs make them believe that their society is prosperous as a result of the animals’ labour. These circumstances are mirrored by those in authoritarian societies like the Soviet Union where its citizens believed they were living in a flourishing society when the quality of their lives were poor, and they did not