Animal Farm And Totalitarianism Essay, Research Paper
Totalitarianism has become a fact that can hardly be ignored. During World War
II when Hitler had total control to the Russia of Stalin and later Soviet
leaders. For many years people have dreamed or believed in the perfect society
of mandkind and of an ultimate utopia, a world where we can live together in
peace. George Orwell expresses a different kind of view for the future of
mankind, a view where freedom is limited, total control and there isn’t any sign
of hope or peace. George Orwell expresses his totalitarianism and communist view
of the world in his work Animal Farm. Power was emphasized in his work Animal
Farm. Orwell set a political satire and an allegory. He used animals to
represent the government. The pigs were the one with all the power. Orwell gave
the pigs the brain and the rest of the animals practically slaves of the pigs.
The more power the pigs had the more power the pigs wanted: This is demonstrated
by the continuity between Mr. Jones, the original proprietor of the farm, and
Napoleon, the young boar who contrive to drive out snowball, the only competing
boar on the premises, and assumed Jones’s former position as well as that of
Major, The old patriarch. (Pati 215). Orwell makes it explicit that the
struggles goes on between the only two boars among the pigs. Napoleon ran out
Snowball in order to take total control of the farm, and to run his
totalitarianism rule over the animals. Presently the tumult died down. The four
pigs waited, trembling, with guilt written on every line of their countenances.
Napoleon now called upon them to confess their crimes. They were the same four
pigs as had protested when Napoleon abolished the Sunday Meetings. Without any
further prompting they confessed that they had been secretly in touch with
Snowball ever since his expulsion, that they had collaborated with him in
destroying the windmill, and that they had entered into an agreement with him to
hand over Animal Farm to Mr. Frederick. They added that Snowball had privately
admitted to them that he had been Jones’s secret agent for years past. When they
had finished their confession, the dogs promptly tore their throats out, and in
a terrible voice Napoleon demanded whether any other animal had anything to
confess.(Bloom 18). The pigs then gradually show human characteristic. First by
sleeping in bed, then by drinking. The pigs had the farm in their hands. Orwell
did this to show how come of the animals were unequal to the pigs. The role or
rank that the characters play determine the special privileges they have.
Napoleon traded eggs, milk and other things with the humans just to provide for
the pigs. He left the other animals with old dried out food. Napoleon
contradicted himself, but later on he changed the commandments and made it look
like it was good business to trade with the humans. Orwell showed how powerful
Napoleon has become. Napoleon lied, stole, and made empty promises and gotten
away with it. The Seven commandments was like a brain washing tool the pigs used
to get the rest of the animals to follow. 1. Whatever goes upon two legs is an
enemy. 2. Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend. 3. No animal
shall wear clothes. 4. No animal shall sleep in a bed. 5. No animal shall drink
alcohol. 6. No animal shall kill any other animal. 7. All animal are equal. This
"unalterable law" provides the major structural basis for the rest of
the animal. From this point on the plot reveals a gradual alteration of these
commandments, ending in the well-known contradiction t
nature of the farm at the end of the book. The commandments change throughout
the story. The changes were only made to benefits the pigs and only the pigs.
The other animals weren’t surprise or didn’t care much for the change just as
long they had gotten their share of food. Totalitarianism and a little bit of
communism were notice able in the farm. The capability of the pigs, and their
management, is reflected in the success of the farm. "There its no wastage,
no stealing. It is the biggest harvest in the farms’s history; in addition,
though the animals work hard, there is no leisure. Each animal works
"according to his capacity"(Bloom 15). No matter how hard each animal
works they still get the same amount of food they had gotten ever since Animal
Farm was born. Orwell stressed the total control the pigs have over the rest of
the animals. Most of the animals do not know how to read or spell, maybe just a
few words and their name. The pigs on the other hand, taught them self how to
read and write, therefore they developed a way to think and understand how to
communicate to the other animals so it would be in their benefits. Orwell was
too a rebel "First, Orwell was a rebel with a remarkably strong sense of
responsibility. When he was a child, he revolted against the religious teaching
and discipline of his school. The mature equivalents of his boy hood feelings
were his hostile attitudes toward organized religion and toward social,
political, and cultural authority. Orwell thought, the churches were
demoralizing; as moral and political forces, they were puritanic and
reactionary; as a spiritual force, they were worthless" (Vorhees 56).
Animal Farm had a destructive ending. The ending shred the freedom and the
equality of the animals to pieces. Orwell shoed the pwor of totalitarianism and
what chaos and horror it could bring. Mankind’s future in Orwell’s eyes was not
a good one. We may say that is was on his affirmation of the middle-class
virtues that Orwell based his criticism of the liberal intelligenstia. The
characteristic error of the middle-class intellectual of modern times is his
tendency to abstractness and absoluteness, his reluctance to connect idea with
fact, especially with personal fact (Bloom 37). Orwell expresses his
totalitarian and communist view of the world in his work Animal Farm. Orwell’s
view of society in general was that of his own experience with the world. People
know that totalitarian governments always fall down after a period of time. That
history will probably never be repeated again. Hopefully it won’t happen in our
life time. Communist is a government that is said to be equal, but under blanket
of the public eye is a very corrupt government and unequal society. You might
work harder than the person next to you but you still going to get pay the same
amount no matter how hard or how less you work. It doesn’t matter what kind of
job you have, the only thing that matter is that if you are willing and able to
work and represent the communist country. If the people don’t obey or oppose the
government, they shall be executed. Us Americans take our rights for granted,
other countries can only dream about having our rights and freedom.
Work Cited Bloom, Harold, ed. Modern Critical Views: George Orwell. New York:
Chelsea, 1987. Orwell, George. Animal Farm. New York: Penguin Group, 1956. Patai,
Daphne. The Orwell Mystique: A Study In Male Idology. Amherst: U. of
Massachusetts P., 1984 Voorhees, Richard J. The Pardox of George Orwell. West
Lafayette: Prudue U.P., 1961.