Farahnaz Yousefi [1]
George Orwell (1903)[2] born in India and died at the age of 47. His original name was Eric Arthur Blair. The controversial content of his novels based on political events perhaps forced him to write under a pseudonym. Animal Farm depicts the misuse of power by the powerful.George Orwell began to write Animal Farm at the end of 1943.
After the first appearance of industrialization in Britain, industrialization spread in Germany, France, Russia and the United States. However, soon critics attacked the capitalists’ exploitation, particularly the use of child labor. Under capitalism, working class was exploited by the capitalists. The workers though had a share in the production, they did not receive the benefit of their work they produced. Marx criticized capitalism as a system which creates two conflicting classes in the society: working class who did not own production and capitalist class who owned production and exploited the working class. It was then that Marxism erupted as a vigorous and hostile competitor to overthrow capitalism. Marx believed in communism, a political system that [in theory] abolishes classes. Communism as a social and political system made its first appearance in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (1917 revolution). The Russian empire was transformed into what became known as the USSR. The goal of those who carried out the revolution was the creation of social equality and economic democracy in Russia. The principle figure in the genesis of Russian communism was the radical socialist Lenin who believed in the necessity of political revolution to achieve communism. Thus, revolution of 1917 brought about the communists under Lenin to power. The communists won the civil war aided by Trotsky. Subsequently, Lenin’s death resulted in the struggle for power between Trotsky and Stalin. Stalin eventually seized power. But, these events led to the gradual perversion of Marx’s socialist ideas. The Stalin’s regime gave communism a bad name. It came to be associated with undemocratic connotations of state ownership and control of the economy. Finally, the failure of working-class revolution and impact of capitalistic pressures led to the fall of USSR in 1991.
Geroge Orwell intended to criticize the communist regime he saw sweeping through Russia and spreading to Europe and even to the United States. Though, Orwell agreed with many Marxist principles, he was unable to accept the communist interpretation of socialism, because he saw many similarities between the communist government and the previous Tsarist regimes in old Russia.
Communism, which appears in the novel as ‘animalism’ was based on the ideas of Karl Marx, who believed that workers or the proletariat did not enjoy the rewards of their labor, and predicted that they would one day turn against their employers and would create equality. These ideas became part of the communist manifesto and they provided the basis for Major’s speech, a speech that inspired the animals to overthrow their cruel owner and bring about justice.
The Tsars rule was seen as corrupt and oppressive and the revolution of 1917 brought about the communists under Lenin to power. The communists won the civil war aided by Trotsky’s leadership of the red army. A clear parallel is made with Orwell reference to Jones’ invasion and the battle of the cowshed. The animals win the battle as a result of Snowball’s brilliant planning.
Lenin’s death resulted in the struggle for power between Trotsky and Stalin, reflected in this novel in the disagreement between Snowball and Napoleon. Stalin eventually seized power and Trotsky was exiled in 1924. Just like Snowball who was chased off the farm. So, daily life in the Soviet Union was harsh but this became worse when Stalin began to punish anyone who could possibly challenge his authority. Here, we see the link with Napoleon who suppressed those disagreed with him. His executions are directly associated with Stalin’s purges. The seven commandments[3] are gradually destroyed as the novel progresses. This represents the gradual perversion of Marx’s original socialist ideas by Stalin. Stalin cleverly utilized the party apparatus to place his supporters in key party positions. He had adopted the phrase “socialism in one country” as the basis for his regime, but instead it turned into a dictatorship, as Napoleon becomes a dictator in Animal Farm.
The animals in Animal Farm are representative of those under communist ideology. We see the author making a parody of the ideals of communist manifesto put forth by Marx. The quarrels and fights between Napoleon and Snowball are identical to the clash between Stalin and Trotsky who was exiled like Snowball. In the novel, the sheep were the blind working class, who followed the edicts of socialism. The hens were representatives of the nasty elements of socialism out only to destroy. The cows were the numerous workers of socialism, who would not lift a finger to help themselves. The pigeons were symbolic of the spy network that was set up to keep an eye on every soul. The most common phrase of those days was “Big brother is watching.”
Mr. Fredrick and Mr. Pilkington are the hoarders and black marketers who become rich, while keeping the society poor. This, according to the author, is the biggest warning to the future generation. The author derides the concepts of equality. He confirms the Vedic idea that each individual is unique and any attempts to bring in equality would be foolish. Orwell upholds the spiritual duty of a litterateur, to warn his society about the evils of totalitarianism. In Animal Farm we see the author deeply wounded by the failure of socialist ideology, almost warning future generations not to be taken for a ride by any ideologies. In the end of Animal Farm, we see the end of communism. The author was disgusted with the methods of socialism.
Most critics look at Animal Farm as a political satire on communism. George Orwell almost predicts the fall of communism and the Soviet Union years before. He was able to visualize the inherent contradictions in community and social welfare work. He realized, while it was important to give the less fortunate an opportunity to better themselves, it was a bad idea to give them the key to governance. He proposes, small minds in positions of power tend to turn into authoritarian figure heads. This is because they lack the vision to look at life in its broadest sense. We must also take into account that while the author runs down socialism, he does not make in any part of the book, a case in favor of democracy.
[1] Farahnaz Yousefi (Ph.D) is a Faculty Member at the Department of English, Islamic Azad University, Zahedan Branch.
[2] George Orwell, Animal Farm (1946).
[3] 1) Whoever goes upon two legs is an enemy. 2) Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend. 3) No animals shall wear clothes. 4) No animal shall sleep in a bed. 5) No animal shall bring alcohol. 6) No animal shall kill any other animal. 7) All animals are equal.