Animal Farm, written by George Orwell in 1945, challenges the utopist perspective of Communism. The Fable starts by Old Major Dream in which animals out throw human beings. After Old major tragic death, animals were motivated to achieve his dream; two pigs, Napoleon and Snowball lead a successful revolution and defeated Mr. Jones, and after throwing him out Manor Farm was renamed The Animal Farm. At first Animal Farm prospers, however, it was a matter of time before this trial of Utopian Society fails. The fable uses irony to highlight shameless leaders’ betrayal. After spreading rumors and kicking Snowball out of the farm, Napoleon and the other pigs begin engaging in anti-animalism behavior, such as doing business with men and drinking whiskey. Morals changed and the dream of “All animals are equal” changed into the reality of “All animals are but some animals are more equal than others.”
Orwell creates his characters to imply the roles he needs them to play. The pigs play the role of the manipulative leaders who benefit from oppressive leadership. One of the pigs, Napoleon uses military force to intimidate the other animals and consolidate his power, and he uses Squealer as the manipulative tool in the farm. The other pig was Snowball, who challenges Napoleon for control of Animal Farm after the Rebellion. They are also another group of loyalist who are misused by the system to gain advantage over the common person as Boxer, the cart-horse whose incredible strength, dedication, and loyalty. He was quick to help but rather slow-witted, He naively trusts the pigs to make all his decisions for him. His two mottoes are “I will work harder” and “Napoleon is always right.” Boxer character leads me to conclude that true power neither lays in strength nor in authority but it lays in knowledge, making me realize that if you want to control another country just destroy their education system and brain wash them to whatever you want. Another character I was really affected by was Benjamin; however he was minor figure in the plot of Animal Farm, the old mule Benjamin represents an important point of view in the novel. He shows great insight into the thought processes of what is happening, recognizing the pigs’ strategies of social control and seeing through their promises of a brighter future. Benjamin appears to be the only animal in a position to set things right, but, for whatever reason; he chooses not to organize the lower animals or to oppose the pigs openly, which make me think of the idea that we are surrounded with people who have the same mentality of having knowledge but not enough power, voice or even courage to declare that.
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In my opinion, George Orwell manages to highlight the fact that the biggest political problem is not capitalism but authoritarian rules because of the insatiable nature of human beings. It clearly portrays the social tendency toward class satisfaction. New leaders like Napoleon, who takes on power on the platform of change; abandon the idea as soon as they come to power. Most of them end up being worse than the ones they replaced. It also clarifies the danger of a naive working class, Orwell sketch how situations of oppression arise not only from the motives and tactics of the oppressors but also from the naive of those who are oppressed, who are not necessarily in a position to be better educated. One of the most touching theme for me was Boxer death a noble but naive horse that lives by his twin mottos. In the end, Napoleon abuses Boxer’s loyalty by working him to the breaking point, then vending him to a glue factory. When the animals realize what is happening, they attempt to warn him that the supposed “veterinary” van he is riding is taking him to his death. One of Orwell’s central concerns is the way in which language can be manipulated as an instrument of control. In Animal Farm, the pigs gradually twist and distort rhetoric of socialist revolution to justify their behavior and to keep the other animals in the dark. Orwell’s novella also uses the trappings of fables to create a world that is accessible to a wide audience.
There are some problems however, with Orwell’s fable. One of these concerns the theme he uses all over the fable of all simply remains constant. It suggests revolution is useless, that things will remain how they have always been neither getting better nor worse. Can’t agree with what Orwell has to say on that as humans have a strong desire for control, as a result most of them are afraid to take an action towards things they hate so I can’t provide them with “NO” as an answer, and this what Orwell did. He simply takes the readers by hand to show them that no matter how hard you are trying everything will stay the same.
An alternative ending to animal farm, as I’ve always imagined it, after Boxer’s death, Clover his closest friend got very affected by his death and start to realize what Napoleon is doing in their farm. So she trusted her inner voice that always told her that the pigs are violating one or another of the Seven Commandments, and started to teach herself to read and write. After mastering those skills she dedicated herself to begin her operation to remove the brainwashing Napoleon had implemented upon animals by teaching young animals the true animalism principles from old major song, besides reading and writing, as she realize the knowledge is their only way out. A few meetings were hold animals were supporting her, seeing their present life as hell, to defeat Napoleon. The day come, animals took over the dogs due to the element of surprise, Napoleon was easily arrested because of his old age, and the animals return their farm back. Yet there was still too much to do, so Clover told animals that the best thing for the farm is to work collaboratively with no one to tell them what to do instead the love of the farm is what motivates them. Animals were relived; they start making schedules, and deadline for renewing their farm. The educated animals deducted themselves to teach young animals everything they knew, a senate was chosen to discuss important decisions, and all animals are equal again.
An alternative name for animal farm can be “Frailty” as it helps employing the main theme of the fable which speaks so much of human nature, as Orwell rightly exposes the hypocrisy and corruption of the ruling classes in whatever from they may appear (human and animal).
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