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Comparing Orwell's Of History And Hope

Decent Essays

The society in Animal Farm and America in “Of history and Hope”, obfuscate history to manipulate memory. However, in Animal Farm, the goal of this change is to control the minds of the less intelligent animals, to the advantage of Napoleon. Both of these literary works deal with concepts of remembering and forgetting, such as in “Of History and Hope” when Williams says in the first line , “We have memorized America,... (WIlliams, 1)” he conveys the severity of how Americans memorize information about the past but do not truly know it. He later relates back to this when he says, “If we can truly remember, they will not forget. (Williams, final line)”. By zeroing in on “truly remembering” Williams emphasizes to his readers the importance …show more content…

First he tricks the other animals into thinking that it is alright to engage in trade, “Once again the animals were conscious of a vague uneasiness. Never to have any dealings, never to engage in trade, never to make use of money - had not these been among the earliest resolutions… All the animals remembered passing such resolutions; or at least they thought they remembered it. (Orwell, 63)”. Napoleon plays with and manipulates the minds of the animals so they they forget what they should remember. Orwell repeats the word “remember” twice to add emphasis on the fact that the animals try to remember certain things but can not and so they move on and accept whatever they are told. Napoleon does this yet again but on a much larger scale when the pigs move into the big house and begin the sleep in beds, “...some of the animals were disturbed when they heard that the pigs… also slept in beds. Clover, who thought she remembered a definite ruling against beds, went to the end of the barn and tried to puzzle out the Seven Commandments… ‘It says ‘no animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets’’... Clover had not remembered the Fourth Commandment mentioned sheets; (Orwell,

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