Animal Farm Totalitarianism

The animals flung out at Mr Jones while he was whipping them and drove him out of his own farm. "This was more than the hungry animals could bear...they flung themselves upon their tormentors.”

After the animal have gathered around to listen to Old Major's dream, he quickly segues into a speech about their rights. He States, “I have had a long life, I have had much time for thought as I lay alone in my stall, and I think I may say that I understand the nature of life on this earth as well as any animal now living.” Major uses his name in a clear representation of ethos, and because of his reputation and experience with humans, the animals are more likely to agree with his speech.

One magnificent part of Orwell’s Animal Farm is the fact that many of the characters show a great amount of symbolism. Two perfect examples of this are the pig Old Major, and the maleficent Farmer Jones. When the old pig is close to dying, Old Major tells the animals that after his death, he feels that a rebellion against man will happen in the animal world. He practically lays down his suggestions of how the rebellion should occur: all

Jones. The animals conformed by working like slaves for Mr. Jones who doesn’t even provide enough food for their strength. After Old Major motivated the animals to revolt, they wished for change and fair treatments, and the only way for that to happen is to get rid of the humans and rule the farm themselves. Old Major had admitted “The life of an animal is misery and slavery: that is the plain truth” (page 7). What Old Major said had triggered the animals and made them consider the idea of a rebellion. The consequences of their conformity was bad treatment, labor, poverty and injustice. After they overthrew all the humans who ruled the farm, which cause more consequences for their nonconformity, the animals felt free and rich. Although, after they have revolted and kicked the humans out, they proved that conformity was no longer apart of their farm, and showed the upsides of

In Chapter one, Old Major gives a speech about how the animals should rebel against Mr Jones, the human and leader of the farm in order to please all of the animals by having satisfactory amounts of the essentials. This rebellion would lead into Animalism. Animalism represents communism and how all animals should be equal. Old Major symbolizes Lenin. Lenin was a revolutionary thinker who came up with the basic concept of the Russian Revolution.

At the start of the story, the animals of Manor Farm begin to comprehend that their means of existence is to slave away to the needs of Mr. Jones or man in general. They then make a successful attempt to take over the farm in a rebellion. However, later on in the story they were able to slip back into the grasp of oppression since the pigs become corrupt due to their high position of power in the farm. The pigs are so blinded by greed that they don’t even bother to see how much the animals are suffering. At the end, the pigs are now the new Mr. Jones and so closely resemble man that the rest of the animals cannot even tell the difference between them. Showing the reader that one of the main themes that Animal Farm contains is the abuse of power with language.

Now that the Old Major isn't around, the animals have to plan for the rebellion themselves. “The work of teaching and organizing the others fell naturally upon the pigs, who were generally recognized as being the cleverest of the animals.” George Orwell employs irony in writing this because there are two young boars who are “preeminent among the pigs,” so all animals are not equal. Among the animals there are some who are better than the others. After the rebellion the pigs lead the animals and tell them what to do and what not to do. After the animals successfully overthrow Mr.Jones, they change the name of the farm from “Manor Farm” to “Animal Farm.” The name of the farm is significant because it signifies that the farm belongs to the animals.

When the animals were under Jones’ rule, they lived a life of misery and slavery. He was a very cruel master; he abused and enslaved the animals and furthermore, he locked away all the food so the animals were left to starve. Jones was a despicable, incompetent and drunken farmer; he was in the position of power on the farm but he did not fulfil his duties as leader, as all he does is drink, as Orwell described it: "Mr Jones, of Manor Farm, had locked the hen-houses for the night, but was too drunk to remember to shut the pop-holes." (Ch.1; P.1). He was a tyrant, as he operated the farm with absolute control, only for the benefit of himself with no cares about how his animals were being treated in the process, which was how Napoleon came to treat his subjects. And as Old Major described him "Man is the only creature that consumes without producing." (Ch.1; P.4). The fall of Jones’ tyranny

Jones. When giving a speech to the animals Old Major says, “The life of an animal is misery and slavery: that is the plain truth”(Orwell 7). This illustrates how unhappy the animals are with the way that they are being treated. They are fed the bare minimum, and are enslaved to work for Mr. Jones against their will. Later when Old Major is speaking to the animals he says, “That is my message to you, comrades: Rebellion!”(Orwell 9). This demonstrates how the animals are considering rebellion. They are planning on rebelling against Mr. Jones to gain back their freedom. The animals were fighting Mr. Jones and the neighboring farmers when, “all the sheep... rushed forward and prodded and butted the men from every side”(Orwell 41). The animals were trying to keep the farmers from taking back the farm. In doing so, they were sacrificing their safety in order to keep the freedom they fought for earlier in the book. To conclude, the animals had to fight in order to gain their freedom from Mr. Jones.

Power is a strong and influential element. In the book Animal Farm, by George Orwell, it can be seen that abuse of such uncontrolled power can lead to types of treason, greed, and discrimination as shown by characters Farmer Jones, Napoleon, and Squealer. In a communistic society, power and authority can easily be abused when put in the wrong hands, which is why the exploitation of power and mistreatment of others is extremely conspicuous in this book. The root of the animals’ hatred for the human race starts from Farmer Jones, the drunken farmer who cares little about the Manor Farm and animals that live on it.

Subsequent to being introduced to the animals within the first chapter, there is a major change within their behavior. After reading chapters 2-4, the author utilizes themes such as good versus evil, discovery, and courage and ambition to demonstrate the courage of the animals as they engage in their revolution. Here, the author reveals another side to Mr. Jones and the animals on the farm. To commence, Old Major passes away and his death highly influenced the other animals. Through his elaborate speeches, he encouraged the animals to secretly plan the rebellion, even if they did not know when it is supposed to unfold.

Unquestioning obedience leads to tyranny At the beginning of Animal Farm, Old Major preached to the other animals about future independence from Jones. He believed in a communist farm which most of the other animals also embraced. The animal run farm began well but the pigs abuse of power lead to conditions more oppressive and distressing than when Jones was there. Immediately following the rebellion the animals began setting ablaze all reminders of Jones’ reign.

Many of the animals in the story were unhappy with the way that society was being run and felt that they were not living their best lives due to the way Mr. Jones, the farmer, was treating them. When a pig named Major, who stands out as a leader of the animals, explains how he feels something needs to be done about the loss of happiness in the farm, he tells the other animals that their, “‘lives are miserable, laborious, and short. [They] are born, [they] are given just so much food as will keep the breath in [their] bodies, and those of [them] who are capable of it are forced to work to the last atom of [their] strength;’” and that, “‘the very instant that [their] usefulness has come to an end [they] are slaughtered with hideous cruelty,’”

In the first chapter of Orwell’s Animal Farm, Mr. Jones, owner of the Manor Farm, goes to bed drunkenly after he forgets to completely lock the farm buildings. With the exception of Moses, Mr. Jones’s “spy” raven, all the animals in the farm congregate in the big barn to hear a speech from Old Major, a wise and respected boar. Because Old Major feels he will die soon, he seeks to impart the wisdom he has acquired over his lifetime to the other farm animals. Old Major talks about the terrible lives of animals due to the wickedness of humankind, describing how humans treat animals like slaves. Animals are fed the minimum amount to sustain themselves, and Man slaughters the animals when they are not needed for labor anymore. Man uses the animals’

The rebellion was to escape from people and their cruel ways, but can they escape the death-grip of their own kind? The animals of animal farms are mistreated and have no rights. Mr and Mrs. Jones were the owners of Manor Farm, the human oppressors, and authoritarians of the animals. The animals rebel against the Jones and take over the farm. They create a utopian society for themselves, but the utopia quickly turns into a dystopia when the pigs take control of the farm. In many ways, Animal Farm is a complete allegorical / fable –like retelling of the founding of the Soviet Union, complete with a rebellion and eventual installation of a dictator. Like the ideological battle that was raged in Russia between the classes, the one that is played out in this novel have many of the same themes, including an initial push to strengthen the working class, a strong beginning movement of nationalism and unity, a series of successful efforts to topple the ruling authority (Mr. Jones), all followed by a complete totalitarian takeover by a dictator who is a hypocrite and goes back on many of the promises he made at the height of the revolutionary action.