Life On The Farm Essay, Research Paper
What if the animals ran the world? George Orwell tried to answer this question on a smaller scale in his 1945 novel, Animal Farm. Animal Farm is a satire on Stalinism and the Russian revolution. Orwell wrote this novel at a time when communism was on the rise and Joseph Stalin ruled with an iron fist. The ideas in Animal Farm parallel in many ways the communist ideology. Orwell illustrates how easily swayed the public can be, and how easily susceptible to corruption are those in power.
The story takes place on a farm somewhere in England. An all-knowing narrator in the third person tells the story. The action of this novel starts when the oldest pig on the farm, Old Major, calls all animals to a secret meeting. He tells them about his dream of a revolution against the cruel Mr. Jones. Three days later, Major dies, but the speech gives the more intelligent animals a new outlook on life.
The pigs, which are considered the most intelligent animals, instruct the others. During the period of preparation two pigs can distinguish themselves, Napoleon and Snowball. Napoleon is big, and although he is not a good speaker, he can assert himself. Snowball is a better speaker; he has a lot of ideas and is very vivid. Together with another pig called Squealer, who is a very good speaker, they work out the theory of Animalism.
The rebellion starts some months later, when Mr. Jones comes home drunken one night, and forgets to feed the animals. They break out of the barns and run to the house, where the food is stored. When Mr. Jones recognizes this he takes out his shotgun, but it is too late for him, all the animals fall over him and drive him off the farm. The animals destroy all whips, nose rings, reins, and all other instruments that have been used to suppress them. The same day the animals celebrate their victory with an extra ration of food.
The pigs made up the seven commandments, and they wrote them above the door of the big barn. Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy. Whatever goes upon four legs or has wings is a friend. No animal shall wear clothes. No animal shall sleep in a bed. No animal shall drink alcohol. No animal shall kill another animal. All animals are equal. The animals also agree that no animal shall ever enter the farmhouse, and that no animal shall have contact with humans. These commandments are summarized in the simple phrase: Four legs good, two legs bad.
After some time, Jones comes back with some other men from the village to recapture the farm. The animals fight bravely, and they manage to defend the farm. Snowball and Boxer receive medals of honor for defending the farm so bravely. Also Napoleon who had not fought at all takes a medal. This is the reason why the two pigs, Snowball and Napoleon, often argue.
When Snowball presents his idea to build a windmill, to produce electricity to the other animals, Napoleon calls nine strong dogs. The dogs drive Snowball from the farm, and Napoleon explains that Snowball was in fact cooperating with Mr. Jones. He also explains that Snowball in reality never had a medal of honor, that Snowball was always trying to cover up that he was fighting at the side of Mr. Jones.
The animals then start building the windmill, and as time passes on, the working-time goes up, whereas the food ration declined. Although the common animals have not enough food, the pigs grow fatter and fatter. They tell the other animals that they need more food, for they are managing the whole farm. Some time later the pigs explain to the other animals that they have to trade with the neighbor farms. The common animals are very upset, because after the revolution, there has been a resolution that no animal shall make trade with a human. But the pigs ensured that there never has been such a resolution, and that this was an evil lie of Snowball.
Short after this decision the pigs move into the farmhouse. The other animals remember that there has been a commandment that forbids sleeping in beds, and so they go to the big barn to look at the commandments. When they arrive there they cannot believe their eyes; the fourth commandment has been changed to: No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets. The other commandments were also changed: No animal shall kill another animal without cause, or No animal shall drink alcohol to excess (Orwell 61, 80, 96).
Some months later there is a heavy storm, which destroys the windmill that is nearly finished. Napoleon accuses Snowball of destroying the mill, and he promises a reward to the animal that gets Snowball. The rebuilding of the mill takes two years. Again, Jones attacks the farm, and although the animals defend it, the windmill is once again destroyed. Boxer, the strong horse, breaks down with a collapsed lung after working so hard on the windmill. He is sold to a butcher, whereas Napoleon tells the pigs that Boxer has been brought to a hospital where he has died. Three years later the mill was finally completed.
During this time Napoleon deepens the relations with the neighbor farm, and one-day Napoleon even invites the owners of this farm for an inspection. They sit inside the farmhouse and celebrate the efficiency of his farm, where the animals work very hard with the minimum of food. During this celebration all the other animals meet at the window of the farm, and when they look inside they cannot distinguish between man and animal.
Since Animal Farm is a satire on the Russian revolution it is therefore full of symbolism. George Orwell associates certain real characters with the characters of the book. Each character has a different and specific meaning. The characters can represent villains or heroes and even the situations can represent real-life events.
Mr. Jones, the farmer of Manor Farm, is Orwell s chief villain in Animal Farm. Of course Napoleon is also a major villain, however much more indirectly. Orwell says that at one time Jones was actually a decent master to his animals. At this time the farm was thriving. But in recent years the farm had fallen on harder times and the opportunity was seen to revolt. The worldwide depression began in the United States when the stock market crashed in October of 1929. The depression spread throughout the world because American exports were so dependent on Europe. The United States was also a major contributor to the world market economy. Germany along with the rest of Europe was especially hit hard. The parallels between crop failure of the farm and the depression in the 1930s are clear. Only the leaders and the die-hard followers ate their fill during this time period. Mr. Jones symbolizes (in addition to the evils of capitalism) Czar Nicholas II, the leader before Stalin (Napoleon). Jones represents the old government, the last of the Czars. Orwell suggests that Jones was losing his edge. In fact, he and his men had taken up the habit of drinking. Old Major reveals his feelings about Jones and his administration when he says, Man is the only creature that consumes without producing. He does not give milk, he does not lay eggs, he is too weak to pull the plough, and he cannot run fast enough to catch rabbits. Yet he is lord of all the animals. He sets them to work, he gives back to them the bare minimum that will prevent them from starving and the rest he keeps for himself (Orwell 6). So the animals successfully uproot Jones and the old government. Little do they know, history will repeat itself with Napoleon and the pigs.
Old Major is the first major character described by Orwell in Animal Farm. This pure-bred of pigs is the kind, grandfatherly philosopher of change, and an obvious metaphor for Karl Marx. Old Major proposes a solution to the animals desperate plight under the Jones administration when he inspires a rebellion of sorts among the animals. Of course the actual time of revolt is unsaid. It could be the next day or several generations down the road. But Old Major s philosophy is only an ideal. After his death, three days after the barnyard speech, the socialism he professes is drastically altered when Napoleon and the other pigs begin to dominate. It s interesting that Orwell does not mention Napoleon or Snowball any time during the great speech of Old Major. This shows how distant and out-of-touch they really were. The ideals Old Major proclaimed seemed to not even have been considered when they were establishing their new government after the successful revolt. It almost seems as though the pigs fed off Old Major s inspiration and then used it to benefit themselves (an interesting twist of capitalism) instead of following through on the Old Major s honest proposal. This could be Orwell s attempt to dig Stalin, who many consider to be someone who totally ignored Marx s political and social theory. Using Old Major s seeming naivete, Orwell concludes that no society is perfect, no pure socialist civilization can exist, and there is no way to escape the evil grasp of capitalism. Unfortunately when Napoleon and Squealer take over, Old Major becomes more and more a distant fragment of the past in the minds of the farm animals.
Napoleon is Orwell s chief villain in Animal Farm. The name Napoleon is very coincidental since Napoleon, the dictator of France, was thought by many to be the Antichrist. Napoleon, the pig, is really the central character on the farm. Obviously a metaphor for Stalin, Comrade Napoleon represents the human frailties of any revolution. Orwell believed that although socialism is good as an ideal, it could never be successfully adopted due to uncontrollable sins of human nature. For example, although Napoleon seems at first to be a good leader, he is eventually overcome by greed and soon becomes power-hungry. Of course Stalin did too in Russia, leaving the original equality of socialism behind, giving him all the power and living in luxury while the common peasant suffered. Thus, while his national and international status blossomed, the welfare of Russia remained unchanged. Orwell explains, Somehow it seemed as though the farm had grown richer without making the animals themselves any richer except, of course for the pigs and the dogs (Orwell, 57). The true side of Napoleon becomes evident after he slaughters so many animals for plotting against him. He even hires a pig to sample his food for him to make certain that no one is trying to poison him. Stalin, too, was a cruel dictator in Russia (Byrne 14). After suspecting many people in his empire to be supporters of Trotsky (Orwell s Snowball), Stalin systematically murders many. At the end of the book, Napoleon doesn t even pretend to lead a socialist state. After renaming it a Republic and instituting his own version of the commandments and the Beasts of England, Comrade Napoleon quickly becomes more or less a dictator who of course has never even been elected by the animals.
Squealer is an intriguing character in Orwell s Animal Farm. He s first described as a manipulator and persuader. Orwell narrates, He could turn black into white (Orwell 13). Many critics correlate Squealer with the Pravda, the Russian newspaper of the 1930s. Propaganda was a key to many publications, and since there was no television or radio, the newspaper was the primary source of media information. So Stalin and his new Bolshevik regime seized the monopoly of the Pravda. In Animal Farm, Squealer, like the newspaper, is the link between Napoleon and other animals. When Squealer masks an evil intention of the pigs, the intentions of the communists can be carried out with little resistance and without political disarray. Squealer is also thought by some to represent Goebbels, who was the minister of propaganda for Germany. This would seem inconsistent with Orwell s satire, however, which was supposed to metaphor characters in Russia.
Orwell describes Snowball as a pig very similar to Napoleon at least in the early stages. Both pigs wanted a leadership position in the new economic and political system (which is actually contradictory to the whole system of equality). But as time goes on, both eventually realize that one of them will have to step down. Orwell says that the two were always arguing. Snowball and Napoleon were by far the most active in the debates. But it was noticed that these two were never in agreement: whatever suggestion either of them made, the other could be counted to oppose it. Later, Orwell makes the case stronger. These two disagreed at every point disagreement was possible (Orwell 43). Soon the differences like whether or not to build a windmill, become too great to deal with, so Napoleon decides that Snowball must be eliminated. It might seem that this was a spontaneous reaction, but a careful look tells otherwise. Napoleon was setting
Orwell cleverly uses the name for the workhorse, Boxer, as a metaphor for the Boxer Rebellion in China in the early twentieth century. It was this rebellion which signaled the beginning of communism in red China. This communism, much like the distorted Stalin view of socialism, is still present today in the oppressive social government in China. Boxer and Clover are used by Orwell to represent the proletariat, or the unskilled labor class in Russian society. This lower class is naturally drawn to Stalin (Napoleon) because it seems as though they will benefit most from his new system. Since Boxer and the other low animals are not accustomed to the good life, they cannot really compare Napoleon s government to the life they had before under Jones. Also, since usually the lowest class has the lowest intelligence, it is not difficult to persuade them into thinking they are getting a good deal. The proletariat is also quite good at convincing each other that communism is a good idea. Orwell supports this contention when he narrates, Their most faithful disciples were the two carthorses, Boxer and Clover. Those two had great difficulty in thinking anything out for themselves, but having once accepted the pigs as their teachers, they absorbed everything that they were told, and passed it on to the other animals by simple arguments. Later, the importance of the proletariat is shown when Boxer suddenly has a drastic decrease in work productivity. But still he is taken for granted by the pigs, who send him away in a glue truck. Truly Boxer is the biggest poster-child for gullibility.
Orwell uses the pigs to surround and support Napoleon. They symbolize the communist party loyalists and the friends of Stalin, as well as perhaps the Duma, or Russian parliament. The pigs, unlike other animals, live in luxury and enjoy the benefits of the society they help to control. Orwell, who criticized Marx s oversimplified view of a socialist, utopian society, expresses the inequality and true hypocrisy of communism here. Obviously George Orwell does not believe such a society can exist. Toward the end of the book, Orwell emphasizes, Somehow it seemed as though the farm had grown richer without making the animals themselves any richer except, of course, the pigs and the dogs (Orwell 57).
Orwell uses the dogs in his book, Animal Farm, to represent the KGB or perhaps more accurately, the bodyguards of Stalin. The dogs are the arch-defenders of Napoleon and the pigs, and although they do not speak, are definitely forces the other animals have to contend with. Orwell almost speaks of the dogs as mindless robots, so dedicated to napoleon that they cannot really speak for themselves. This contention is supported as Orwell describes Napoleon s early and suspicious removal of six puppies from their mother. The reader is left in the dark for a while, but later is enlightened when Orwell describes the chase of Snowball. Napoleon uses his secret dogs for the first time here; before Snowball has a chance to stand up and give a counter-argument to Napoleon s disapproval of the windmill, the dogs viciously attack the pig, forcing him to flee, never to return again. Orwell narrates, Silent and terrified, the animals crept back into the barn. In a moment the dogs came bounding back. At first no one had been able to imagine where these creatures came from, but the problem was soon solved: they were the puppies whom napoleon had taken away from their mothers and reared privately. Though not yet full-grown, they were to huge dogs, and as fierce-looking as wolves. They kept close to Napoleon. It was noticed that they wagged their tails to him in the same way as the other dogs had been used to do to Mr. Jones (Orwell 48). The use of the dogs begins the evil use of force, which helps Napoleon maintain power. Later, the dogs do even more dastardly things when they are instructed to kill the animals labeled disloyal. Stalin, too, had his own special force of helpers. Really there are followers loyal to any politician or government leader, but Stalin in particular needed a special police force to eliminate his opponents. This is how Trotsky was killed.
Mollie is one of Orwell s minor characters, but she represents something very important. Mollie is one of the animals who is most opposed to the new government under Napoleon. She doesn t care much about the politics of the whole situation; she just wants to tie her hair with ribbons and eat sugar, things her social status will not allow. Many animals consider her a traitor when she is seen being petted by a human from a neighboring farm. Soon the dedicated animals confront Mollie, and she quietly leaves the farm. Mollie characterizes the typical middle-class skilled worker who suffers from this new communism concept. No longer will she get her sugar (nice salary) because she is now just as low as the other animals, like Boxer and Clover. Orwell uses Mollie to characterize the people after any rebellion that are not too receptive to new leaders and new economics. There are always those resistant to change. This continues to dispel the belief Orwell hated that basically all animals act the same. The naivete of Marxism is criticized socialism is not perfect and it does not work for everyone.
Moses is perhaps Orwell s most intriguing character in Animal Farm. This raven, first described as the especial pet of Mr. Jones, is the only animal that does not work. He is also the only character who does not listen to Old Major s speech of rebellion. Orwell narrates, The pigs had an even harder struggle to counteract the lies put about by Moses, the tame raven. Moses, who was Mr. Jones especial pet, was a spy and a talebearer, but he was also a clever talker. He claimed to know of the existence of a mysterious country called Sugarcandy Mountain, to which all animals went when they died. It was situated somewhere up in the sky, a little distance beyond the clouds, Moses said. In Sugarcandy Mountain it was Sunday seven days a week, clover was in season all the year round, and lump sugar and linseed cake grew on the hedges. The animals hated Moses because he told tales and did no work but some of them believed in Sugarcandy Mountain, and the pigs had to argue very hard to persuade them that there was no such place. Moses represents Orwell s view of the Church. To Orwell, the Church is just used as a tool by dictatorships to keep the working class of people hopeful and productive. Orwell uses Moses to criticize Marx s belief that the Church will just go away after the rebellion. Jones first used Moses to keep the animals working, and he was successful in many ways before the rebellion. The pigs had a difficult time getting rid of Moses, since they thought that the lies about Heaven would only lead the animals away from the equality of socialism. But as the pigs led by Napoleon become more and more like Mr. Jones, Moses finds his place again. After being away for several years, he suddenly returns and picks up right where he left off. The pigs do not mind this time because the animals have already realized that the equality of the revolt is a farce. So Napoleon feeds Moses with beer, and the full-circle is complete. Orwell seems to offer a very cynical and harsh view of the church. This proves that Animal Farm is not simply an anti-Communist work meant to lead people into capitalism and Christianity. Really, Orwell found loopholes and much hypocrisy in both systems. It is interesting that in Russia, the government has allowed and supported religion again. It almost seems that like the pigs, the Kremlin officials try to keep their people motivated, not in the ideology of communism, but in the old-fashioned hope of an afterlife.
Muriel is a knowledgeable goat who reads the commandments for Clover. Muriel represents the minority of working class peoples who are educated enough to decide things for themselves and find critical and hypocritical problems with their leaders. Unfortunately for the other animals, Muriel is not charismatic or inspired enough to take action and oppose Napoleon and his pigs.
Old Benjamin, an elderly donkey, is one of Orwell s most elusive and intriguing characters. He is described as rather unchanged since the rebellion. He still does his work the same way, never becoming too exited or too disappointed about anything that has passed. Benjamin explains, Donkeys live a long time. None of you has ever seen a dead donkey (Orwell 26). Although there is no clear metaphoric relationship between Benjamin and Orwell s critique of communism, it makes sense that during any rebellion there are those who never totally embrace the revolution; those so cynical they no longer look to their leaders for help. Benjamin symbolizes the older generation, the critics of any new rebellion. Really this old donkey is the only animal that seems as though he could not care less about Napoleon and Animal Farm. It is almost as if he can see into the future, knowing that the revolt is only a temporary change, and will flop in the end. Benjamin is the only animal who does not seem to have expected anything positive from the revolution. He almost seems on a whole different maturity level compared to the other animals. He is not sucked in by Napoleon s propaganda like the others. The only time he seems to care about the others at all is when Boxer is carried off in the glue truck. It is almost as if the old donkey finally comes out of his shell, his perfectly fitted demeanor, when he tries to warn the others of Boxer s fate. And the animals do try to rescue Boxer, but it is too late. Benjamin seems to be finally confronting Napoleon and revealing his knowledge of the pigs hypocrisy, although before he had been completely independent. After the animals have forgotten Jones and their past lives, Benjamin still remembers everything. Orwell states, Only old Benjamin professed to remember every detail of his long life and to know that things never had been, nor ever could be much better or much worse hunger, hardship, and disappointment being, so he said, the unalterable law of life.
The pigeons symbolize Soviet propaganda, not to Russia, but to other countries, like Germany, England, France, and even the United States. Russia had created an iron curtain even before WWII. The communist government raved about its achievements and its advanced technology, but it never allowed experts or scientists from outside the country to check on its validity. Orwell mentions the fact that the other farmers became suspicious and worried when their animals began to sing Beasts of England. Many western governments have gone through a similar problem with their people in this century. There was a huge Red Scare in the United States in the 20s. In the 1950s in the United States, Joseph McCarthy was a legislative member of the government from Wisconsin. He accused hundreds of people of supporting the communist regime, from famous actors in Hollywood to middle-class common people. The fear of communism became a phobia in America and anyone speaking out against the government was suspect.
The farm building stands for the Kremlin. In the early days of the USSR there were sightseeing tours through the Kremlin. Later it became the residence of Stalin. The windmill for example stands for the Russian industry that has been built up by the working class. The destruction of the windmill is a symbol for the failure of the five-year plan. Mr. Fredricks of Pinchfield farm represents Hitler, and his farm, Germany. Foxwood farm stands for England.
Orwell s message in Animal Farm was one pointing out the hypocrisy in communism. He illustrates how easily an ideology can be corrupted when the human factor is thrown into the works. Many things seem like a good idea in theory, however in practice, things fall apart. Kingdoms rise and crumble to the ground, that is the point that Orwell tries to illustrate.