Class And Communism In George Orwell's Animal Farm

George Orwell’s work brings up the conversation of some of these political issues and their influence on America. He has two full length novels: 1984, published in 1950, and Animal Farm, published in 1945. 1984 displays a dystopian future, something Orwell is warning against in this story. Animal Farm is a metaphor for the Soviet Union and Marxist ideals at the time. Orwell uses farm animals to tell this story.

For example, Napoleon and his council of pigs write the ten commandments, so that everyone can see it and obey to it. The commandments, when they were first written, were fair and just. However, the pigs made small edits to it. For example, “All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others” (133). Napoleon has also released many chants to help rally the animals on the farm.

The horse Boxer represents the Russian working class. Boxer is portrayed as very naive. He constantly says things such as “I will work harder” and “Napoleon is always right”. He represents the working class because he is extremely hardworking and loyal as well as he is quick to trust the wrong person simply because they are in charge. He also ignores obvious signs of corruption in society.

This not only describes many types of political literature well but greatly fits the writings of George Orwell. In chapter 18, “It’s all political” Foster discusses the political underpinnings and historical backgrounds of many literary works. In Orwell’s Animal Farm, he uses a metaphor for Soviet communism to demonstrate the problems with the Soviet regime. Orwell describes the main problem in a scene in which the animal go to re-read the rules of the farm, and see instead only one rule, stating “All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.”(134) In How to Read Literature like a Professor, Foster discuss books that portray countries or events in a positive light, Animal Farm, however, displays the actions of the Soviets, and, by extension their relationship with America and Germany in a very negative light. Another thing to consider in the writing of this book is the historical parallels.

Animal Farm is a novella written by George Orwell, where a pig dictator, Napoleon, tries to gain power by using different types of propaganda. This novella takes place in an imaginary farm in England that focuses on politics. George Orwell said that he was inspired by the Russian Revolution, but the idea of the awareness of corruption applies to the world. Similarly to Animal Farm, World War II “was arguably the most significant period of the 20th century” (historynet.com) that lasted from 1939 to 1945. The corruption and dictation of the government was what inspired George Orwell to write Animal Farm.

For example, before the dogs first had a major role in the story by chasing Snowball away, none of the animals ever felt too troubled or scared about any resolutions they passed. Now, since Napoleon has his own intelligence combined with the strength of the dogs, he can force the animals to do anything− no matter how awful they might think it is, since they no longer have enough power against him. One specific event that would happen as a result of this would be that Snowball would not have gotten chased out of the farm. Unlike Napoleon, he seemed to actually care about Old Major’s ideas, and he truly wanted Animal Farm to prosper. This would have meant that the pigs would not have become like men, so humans could either have forgotten about Animal Farm, or they might have been able to successfully recapture it from the animals, so they would have at least had another chance at freedom if the corrupt pigs had not gained so much of the strength that the moral animals lost.

As old Major discusses the principle of animalism, Lenin was also influenced by Karl’s theory of communism. Old Major was held accountable for converting Manor farm into Animal farm, just how Lenin was accountable for transforming Russia into the U.S.S.R. Snowball is Leon TRotsky, who is Lenin’s ally during the revolution, and is very idealistic. Trotsky felt like a series of rebellions was required to reach the revolution’s victory. Snowball wants to build a windmill and other programs, which his intelligence reflects on Trotsky’s plan of reconstructing the theories into practice. Towards the end, Snowball was chased off the farm by Napoleon’s dogs, just how Trotsky was killed by the secret police of Stalin.

Orwell’s important message Animal farm is a novel written by Eric Arthur Blair, or George Orwell as he called himself when publishing his works. The book is a clear allegory of the events leading up to the Russian revolution in 1917, and during Stalin’s regime. Orwell himself stated that every line of serious work he had written since 1936, was written against totalitarianism (Orwell, 3). In no way is Animal Farm an exception. George Orwell wrote Animal Farm to warn the English people about the dangers of Totalitarian regimes, more specifically a newly present danger - communism.

The Manor farm is allegorical of Russia. The characters in the story are representative of actual historical figures. For example, Mr. Jones represents the Russian dictator. “Some of the animals talked of the duty of loyalty to Mr. Jones, whom they referred to as "Master," or made elementary remarks such as "Mr. Jones feeds us. If he were gone, we should starve to death.” This quote from story signifies the overpowering leader.

When napoleon came into the power there also we see the clear class difference between the pigs and rest of the animals of the farm. There were changes in the seven commandments. In the commandment it stated that every animal is equal but later on it changed into all animals are equal but some are more equal than others. The more important one were the pigs. Other animals were made to sleep on the ground with the availability of nominal amount of food.