Destruction Of Society In George Orwell's Animal Farm

Imagine a world where the people holding power always did what was good for everyone. As history has taught us, this doesn’t always happen. Animal Farm, by George Orwell, is a complex story about the dangers of too much government power, and the ones in power are definitely not doing things for the good of others. When the pigs take control of the farm, they become greedy, dishonest, and deceitful. Orwell lived in Europe during the time of the Russian Revolution, when there were countless dictatorships around the world. He wrote this story to symbolize (and mock) the Russian Revolution; which includes Karl Marx, Leon Trotsky, Joseph Stalin, and Vyacheslav Molotov. Orwell uses this story, where the oppressed become the oppressors, to warn the world about the power of the government. He also warns the reader not to let the corrupt control and not stand by and let it happen. He shows that the abuse of absolute power can lead to corruption, violence, and finally, chaos.

Societies are built on a hierarchy. There is a leader, an upper class, a middle class, and a lower class. This representation of human society is built by our natural need for a leader no matter how tyrannical. George Orwell firmly exposes and attacks this flaw of human nature in his allegorical novel, Animal Farm. In Animal Farm Orwell displays situations mirroring that of the Russian Revolution, and how it failed to produce the utopia that was promised out of the revolution. George Orwell, before writing the novel, was disillusioned by the Communist revolution, a revolution that promised to provide all its people with a government that owned everything, but in turn was owned by the people. Orwell quickly concluded that all revolutions will fail, as the Russian Revolution did, because those who attain power are then corrupted by it. In this view of revolutionary efforts Orwell presents his views on human nature as a whole, that humans are unable to maintain an utopia, unable to abstain for consuming power, and that humans will subjugate and oppress one another if given the power to do so.

Most believe when George Orwell wrote Animal Farm he was trying to warn us about several thing, some of those things include communism, revolution, and class divide. Orwell points out the dangers of communism by putting the dangers in a understandable, digestible cute story with animals. He shows the dangers of revolution by remind us how some revolutionions just end up being a switch a power to someone worse. And he reminds us about the dangers of class divide by have a big ruling class destroy all others. George Orwell wrote “Animal Farm” to remind us the dangers of communism, revolution, and class divide.

George Orwell’s Animal Farm is, first and foremost, a political satire warning against the pursuit of utopian desires through unjust and oppressive means. Operating under the pretense of an animal fable, Orwell disparages the use of political power to poach personal freedom. He effectively alerts his readers to the dangerous price that can accompany the so-called “pursuit of progress”. And he illuminates how governments acting under the guise of increasing independence often do just the opposite: increase oppression and sacrifice sovereignty. While the cautionary theme Orwell provides proves widely applicable, in reality his novel focuses on one tale of totalitarian abuse: Soviet Russia. The parallels between the society Orwell presents in his Animal Farm and the Soviet Union – from the Russian revolution to Stalin’s supremacy – are seemingly endless. Manor Farm represents Tsarist Russia, Animalism compares to Stalinism, and Animal Farm, with the pig Napoleon at its helm, clearly symbolizes Communist Russia and Joseph Stalin. But Orwell does more than simply align fiction with fact. He fundamentally attacks Soviet Russia at its core. And in so doing he reveals how the Communist Party simply replaced a bad system with a worse one, overthrowing an imperial autocracy for a totalitarian dictatorship. This essay will demonstrate that Orwell’s Animal Farm is

Elie Wiesel in Night and Snowball from Animal Farm are very similar characters because they were victimized by tyrants and used as scapegoats, but they are also unique and individual characters because Elie knew he was being taken advantage of and Snowball did not. Animal Farm is written by George Orwell, and it is about a farm of animals that take over the farm. Napoleon, a large pig, slowly takes away food and supplies from the other animals until he starts walking on two feet and becomes a “human.” Because of him Snowball is expelled from the farm and acts as a scapegoat for everything that goes wrong on the farm. Night is an autobiography written by Elie Wiesel, and in it Elie tells the story of he was taken from his home and put into a concentration camp under the control of Adolf Hitler.

The idea of power, and how it is abused through communism, can be clearly shown in George Orwell’s “Animal Farm”. Orwell cleverly uses the allegory of describing what the Russian revolution would be like when portrayed through actual farm animals who have the ability to communicate with humans, and each-other. The two most important topics that heavily influence the novel are: dreams, hopes, and plans for the greater good, and the idea of corruption through leadership.

People respond to control and power differently for various reasons, however, one of the main reasons is based on their personality; their confidence and intelligence. In, Animal Farm by George Orwell, confidence and intelligence is a big factor for why certain animals obtained power and control and why other ones did not. People with confidence and intelligence are likely to gain most of the control and power. People with little intelligence, but lots of confidence are more likely to have some power or work underneath the leader. People with intelligence, but no confidence seem to have no power at all and shy away from it. Both intelligence and confidence are needed for someone to take total power. Therefore, the amount of confidence and intelligence a person has will decide how they respond to control and power.

The Russian Revolution was led by a few leaders of the common people, promising better work conditions and a Communist government with equality for all. However, when the Communist party was established, so much power was given to the government, that, it quickly went corrupt and abused peoples’ rights far worse than the previous government. In George Orwell’s book, Animal Farm, the pigs promise the animals better lives than their current lives under Jones’s rule. However, mirroring the Russian Revolution, the pigs went corrupt almost immediately afterwards, changing previously declared rules, and killing other animals without reason. In the end, the pigs ended up as bad as man. In Animal Farm, George Orwell utilizes situational irony, displaying the pigs as corrupt leaders, to support Lord Acton’s quote: “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

In the book Animal Farm, by George Orwell, several themes arise, such as the inability of leadership with equity, and the necessity of citizens to be aware of their government. These themes are very applicable to several instances in the world’s history, especially the Russian Revolution.

As a political writer and socialist of the time, Orwell turns the tragedy of the Russian people, whose dreams of a communist utopia were crushed by the Stalin regime, into a message to society. These people of the Russian Revolution were treated just as poorly, if not worse, than before the revolution because of political innocence and an authoritarian government. With his novel, Animal Farm, serving as allegory for the Russian revolution, Orwell warns that any society that gives the leader absolute power is fated to become corrupt and oppressive because of the inevitability of a leader manipulating his power for personal gain. Even revolutions that have the best intentions will ultimately fail if the leaders are not held accountable.

“Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely”(Lord Acton). This quote ties the allegory Animal Farm and the Russian Revolution very well. The allegorical fable was written by George Orwell and has many similarities to the Russian Revolution such as ideas, important people such as Karl Marxs and Czar Nicholas II, as well as hatred of the government. Old Major from Animal Farm and Karl Marxs from the Russian Revolution personify each other in many ways. They both are wise and gave important information to their comrades. The story Animal Farm has characters and events that are similar to the ones in the Russian Revolution.

Animal Farm has shown us what happens when a country (farm in this case) moves towards a more socialistic government. The revolution was meant to bring equality to all the animals on the farm. That was the case at first through the efforts of Snowball. As time went on though Napoleon took over and gave the ruling class (pigs) more rights than the working class (rest of the animals). This can be seen by looking at the past 10 years of the United States History. In the past 10 years we’ve have gone through/ started 3 different political associations. Many changes have taken place other this time. We have gone through many political, inequality, and racial issues in that time, which relates to Animal Farm.

George Orwell captures many aspects of the Russian Revolution and makes his points clear to understand. Animal Farm not only reminds the reader how cruel humans can be, but how power hungry they are. When people become the leader of a nation, corruption is bound to happen. The feeling of power and pride becomes too much and that is all they can think about. While running a country, mistakes are bound to happen. Some leaders may own up to their mistakes, while others find anyone else to blame. In many cases, one person or group of people are being blamed, while they are completely innocent. Animal Farm remind the reader that pride can make blaming other people incredibly easy.

The writing of George Orwell (The Animal Farm) reflects numerous events that occurred during Stalin’s rule. The novel is an allegory for the Russian revolution where the characters reflect different leaders, Mr. Jones and the humans represent the capitalists of the West and the ‘pigs’ represent the leaders of the Russian Revolution (Aven, 2013). The novel portrays the Russian Revolution of 1917 as a revolution that resulted in a government more oppressed and totalitarian than the one it overthrew (Aven, 2013). The Characters and events in the novel parallel the events of the Russian Revolution. The mass sell-off of Russian states assets follow the collapse of the Soviet Union due to income inequality (Aven, 2013). The creation of a new class of men known as the Russian oligarchs whose wealth and power could not save or doom politicians (Aven, 2013). The novel reveals that even the good can fall prey to ambition, selfishness and hypocrisy, as well the abuse of power that any society with leaders that have absolute power is ultimately doomed to failure due to the inevitability of leaders manipulating power for their own personal benefit (Aven, 2013). Creating a fear of man into the people so that they would become even more determined to work hard, Orwell attacks Stalin for betraying the revolution to suit his own needs.

“Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” said Spanish philosopher George Santayana. This brilliant message shows to be present in George Orwell’s satirical novel Animal Farm. In this book, Orwell uses farm animals to illustrate the true nature of the communist Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin. There are many examples in this book and in real life that show the truth of aforementioned Santayana’s statement, for if one does not remember the past, they are only allowing it to repeat. Therefore, learning from the past is an effective way to prevent future mistakes because not doing so has significant repercussions, there are instances of the method working, and it can prepare us for the future.