Animal Farm
(George Orwell)

Socialism and the Soviet Union

Animal Farm is famous for its scathing critique of the Russian Revolution. The animals’ rebellion against the drunken farmer Mr. Jones parallels the overthrow of the ineffective Tsar Nicholas II in the Russian Revolution. Stalin is represented by Napoleon, who overworks the lower classes while basking in luxury.

Napoleon comes out the winner in the power struggle between him and Snowball, who represents Leon Trotsky. The pigs’ accession to power mirrors the Soviet stratification benefiting the intellectual elite. Like Soviet society, the leaders grow to resemble the evil they overthrew in the first place.

Class Stratification

In the end of Animal Farm, the “lower animals” peer into the farmhouse window to see the pigs and human farmers toast to their new relationship. Mr. Pilkington raises a glass and commends the pigs on their control over the hard-working “lower animals”. "If you have your lower animals to contend with," he said, "we have our lower classes!"

Animal Farm comments on the tendency to create stratification even in societies where “all animals are equal.” On Animal Farm, two distinct classes form: The intellectual elite, using brain power to seize power, and the working class, whose naivety keeps them complacent.

Propaganda

Every society makes use of propaganda. The pigs are no different and make great use of the art of propaganda in order to keep the working class in line. Squealer is the propaganda minister for the pigs.

The other pigs say he “could turn black into white.” He reads the animals inflated statistics to make it seem like the farm is producing better than it is. Every time the animals suspect the Commandments have been broken, the talented Squealer is able to convince them otherwise.

The animals also take part in Spontaneous Demonstrations, where they march around with a flag.

Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely

The ideas that spurred the rebellion were benevolent. The animals envisioned a Utopian society where animals lived free of human suppression. The pigs naturally took control, being the cleverest of the farm animals.

The power proved too intoxicating for the pigs, and they gradually seized more power and gratification. The pigs justify the need for such luxury as fresh milk, apples or alcohol by the need to remain comfortable as the brain power behind the operation.

Animal Farm tells the tale of the pigs’ metamorphosis from overthrowing a tyrant to being indistinguishable from him.

Rewriting History

One night, the animals awake to a loud crash. They find Squealer unconscious, having fallen off a ladder. Squealer, at that moment, is caught rewriting history.

As the pigs decide to break the Commandments, Squealer takes advantage of the animals’ dim memory and paints on extra verbiage that justifies the new behavior. History is also rewritten to a new vision of the expelled Snowball.

Squealer informs the animals that Snowball actually fought for Mr. Jones’ side during the Battle of Cowshed. Instead of fighting valiantly, Snowball cowered during the battle. The wounds he suffered were not from Mr. Jones’ gun, but from Napoleon’s teeth.

Naivety

Animal Farm is told through a third person narrator that captures the naivety of the oppressed working class on the farm. Not in a position to become better educated, the working class animals have to trust in their more clever leaders to run the farm.

The tyranny of the pigs would not be possible without the complicity granted by the animals’ naivety in believing the pigs stand for the greater good and would not lie or rewrite history. Boxer represents possibly the most naive character with his maxims of “I will work harder” and “Napoleon is always right.”

Creating an Imaginary Threat

Societies tend to rally around a common threat. Once that threat is gone, they bicker with each other. This was a key element to Orwell’s 1984 and appears in Animal Farm, as well.

Napoleon presents the expelled Snowball as the common enemy of the farm. He is blamed for every misfortune and suspected of sneaking into the farm late at night and sabotaging the workings of the farm.

In addition, the animals are consistently asked to make concessions for the ruling class. The animals are always complacent when Squealer reminds them that such concessions keep the enemy Mr. Jones at bay.

Terror as Means of Control

Napoleon takes a litter of puppies from their parents and raises them in seclusion. When he feels it is time to expel Snowball, he calls for them with an eerie whimper. They veraciously chase Snowball off the property.

From then on, Napoleon is never seen without his entourage of unnerving pups. They guard the entrance of the farmhouse and the paranoid dictator. In a compelling scene, the dogs rip out the throats of accused conspirators confessing to outrageous crimes.

The dogs spread terror by their presence, the executioners of Animal Farm. Soon, the populace is too frightened to speak their minds.

Apathy

Benjamin the donkey represents the members of the populace so cynical, that they believe nothing can be done to avoid misery. He answers every question with the cryptic “Donkeys live a long time.

None of you has ever seen a dead donkey.” Benjamin can read as well as any pig but chooses not too. Some say Benjamin represents Orwell himself in later days.

By the end of the book, many of the characters become as apathetic as Benjamin, relegated to a life where they feel they have no voice or way to change anything.

Human Rights

Even as life deteriorates under the pigs’ rule, the animals brighten at the idea that at least their hard work remains for the benefit of animals and not human beings. However, there is little dignity left in their lives.

The animals’ work ethic and naivety is taken advantage of as the pigs reserve the fruits of their labor for themselves. Animal Farm may be a story about animals, but above everything, Animal Farm is a call for basic human rights. However, the novella fails to supply any answers on how to achieve this and even makes totalitarianism seem somewhat inevitable.