The Anatomy of the Animal Farm Revolution

The Anatomy of the Animal Farm Revolution Written By: Nolan History just loves to repeat itself. Sometimes that’s none too obvious then in revolutions. They can be good, but in the case of novel Animal Farm written by George Orwell, and based on the Russian revolution, things don’t exactly go to plan and we can analyze what exactly went wrong with Crane Brinton’s theory. His theory on how revolutions happen is broken up into four sections, and each section can be clearly seen in the book Animal Farm. Most revolutions start in similar ways, what Crane Brinton called the Incubation Stage. This Stage can be seen in the book, mainly from the animals feeling of unfair treatment from Mr, Jones. This unfair treatment is summed up by Major. “Man is the only creature that consumes without producing” says the old white boar in a speech to rally the animals towards an revolt of the current leader Mr. Jones, the owner of the farm. At this point the animals are ready to revolt at any moment due to major’s speeches and the on going hard labor and food shortages on the farm. Fortunately, they don’t have to wait long for the last straw to be pulled. The tipping point comes from Mr. Jones losing a lawsuit giving him even more nancial troubles then he already had. This leads to the animals not getting fed for an entire day, and just like that the animals revolt. They stole some grain and drove Mr. Jones o the farm bringing an end to Mr. Jone’s rule and the rst part of the revolution. The second part of Crane Brinton’s theory is the moderate stage, in which new governments are formed that try to enact changes and reform without being to radical and resorting to violence. In the Russian Revolution, the revolution that the book Animal Farm was based on, this moderate government is the provisional government along with the Petrograd Soviet. In the book, this is represented by the pigs, spearheaded by two in particular, Snowball and Napoleon. This new government manages to get along at rst, and the revolution is looking good with many changes being made that improve the lives of the animals drastically. They also managed to defend the farm from Mr. Jone’s attempt to take it over in the Battle of the Cowshed. However, eventually con ict of interest soon arises and Napoleon takes full advantage. Using his version of the Russian KGB (Secret police) made up of nine fearsome looking dogs to drive out political opposition in Snowball, and bringing upon the reign of terror to the farm. The Crisis stage of Crane Brinton’s theory is always the bloodiest, darkest time for the history of revolutions, and it was no exception in Animal Farm. Once in power, Napoleon starts establishing a dictatorship with himself at the centre. The pigs start living in houses, something they vowed to never do at the start. The majority are kept under control either by force or a multitude of lies. Public Executions are held to shut down any opposing force to the government. Pigs, Chickens, and horses are all sliced at the throat in fear of anti-revolutionary actions. Some resistance from the hens is had, but it is too late for anything to be done about it. Napoleon and his government of pigs has complete control. The rest of the animals are worked like slaves, only continuing under the false hope that their lives were better then under Mr. Jone’s rule. fi ff fi fi fl fi ff Which brings us into the nal stage of the revolution, the recovery stage. In this time, the government goes back to basically what it was at the start, with the pigs even going as far as turning into the humans, the thing the animals swore against at the start of the revolution. Violence dies down as anti-revolutionary actions are suppressed, and peace is made with the neighbouring farms. Life goes back to the way it was before the revolution with the only changes being a di erent person in charge, and probably even worse living conditions Sometimes revolutions are successful with things changing for the better. But sometimes like what happened here, history just loves to repeat itself.