Pigs or Humans? The book, Animal Farm, has significant values, important symbolism and, useful lessons. It’s about greed, corruption, and distrust among a society, and how an imbalance in knowledge can create social classes that aren’t necessary. Napoleon takes control of Animal Farm little by little, changing the rules one at a time, and using his power to get what he wants. His tactics are smart but are also politically incorrect.
In a Utopia, every basic necessity has been taken care of for because everyone is equal and people are free to achieve their own ends. Or do they? The problem with this form of this idealistic government is that it is impossible to achieve it purely. In the stories, “Animal Farm”, a moral fable and satire that forebodes dystopia while “Childhood’s End,” a sci-fi novel illustrates the difficulty of preserving a Utopia and its inevitable downfall. In Animal Farm, the story begins with Old Major, the elder and diplomatic pig gathering the animals of the farm to listen to his speech about his ideals and vision for a perfect society where animals are free from man’s tyrant.
It takes courage to earn power to become a leader. George Orwell’s purpose in Animal Farm is that cleverer ones are the one with power but can always start to become greedier and greedier which would build to corruption. But it is you giving enabling someone to control you such as Old Major’s speech. “We are born, we are given just so much food as will keep the breath in our bodies, and those of us who are capable of it are forced to work to the last atom of our strength; and the very instant that our usefulness has come to an end we are slaughtered with hideous cruelty (Orwell 3).” What this quote points out is that you are the one who has power over everything and when you are ‘slaughtered with hideous cruelty’ it is you giving others the power to control you. Since the pigs were the ‘brainworkers’, they start to gain more and more power subsequently through leadership which then corrupts them.
Through the use of obfuscation Squealer manipulates the “dumber” class of animals on the farm to believe that even though they cannot see the pigs working they are the ones that are making sure the farm is functioning. This is portrayed in “Squealer told them that the pigs had to expend enormous labours every day upon mysterious things called ‘files’, ‘reports’, ‘minutes’ and ‘memoranda’.” By using these words Squealer is confusing the animals because they do not understand the meaning of them and they just accept it. However, those were used to confuse the animals when Squealer is actually directly lying to them. Symbolism between the Russian Revolution and the revolution on Animal Farm is very closely related. In the extract it describes how the farm has gotten richer but the animals still live their hungry troubling lives.
One such case is that of Boxer, ‘an enormous beast’ who was ‘as strong as any two ordinary horses put together’. This horse’s own ignorance and loyalty lead to his death at the hands of Napolean, the animal Boxer was most loyal to. Boxer does not enjoy dwelling on his own dilemmas and so allows the pigs to decide for him. Thus he adopts two maxims, ‘I must work harder’ and Napolean is always right’. His stupidity blocks him from realising that he could rally all the farm animals to rebel against the tyrannical pigs.
Propaganda in Animal Farm Animal Farm by George Orwell is an allegory of real-life events that took place in the past and representation of human life in which propaganda plays a huge role. Propaganda is information, ideas, or rumors that are intentionally spread in order to influence someone to act or think a certain way. It often associated with deceit and appeals to the emotions instead of the intellect. Those who are guilty of propaganda use it because it easily persuades a certain group of people to think the same way they do, which is what they are trying to accomplish. One example of propaganda in the novel is when the other animals start to assume the pigs are being selfish as they take upon all the apples to only themselves.
One Marxist theory expressed, is that ‘an animal’s labour has more essential value than is required for its own needs. The surplus is stolen by parasitic man’, so in other words the animals/the working class people were over worked in that they produced more than needed and that the higher status people (e.g. the Czar Nicholas II/ Mr. Jones) would ‘steal’ the extra produce. The Lenin side of Old Major’s character is shown in the part of his speech, which reduces complex philosophy to basic statements and ideas, which everyone can understand. Mr. Jones is the cause of the rebellion at the farm the same way that Czar Nicholas II was the cause of the Russian revolution.
Of course Stalin did too in Russia, leaving the original equality of socialism behind, giving him all the power and living in luxury while the common pheasant suffered. Orwell explains: “Somehow it seemed as though the farm had grown richer without making the animals themselves any richer - except of course for the pigs and the dogs.” The perennial topic of satire is to point out the frailties of the human condition, and this is one of Orwell’s central themes in Animal Farm. That it’s not necessarily the system that is corrupt or faulty, but the individuals in power. Old Major made Animalism (or Communism, as we would call it) sound perfect. And it was for the beginning, until Napoleon became power hungry and decided to turn the farm into a dictatorship.
Analysis: Chapter 7 Idea: Strength of Pig’s “indoctrination”. Hate for Mr. Jones vs. Happy lives. The foundation of the Pig’s indoctrination of the farm animals mainly consists of nurturing the hatred for Mr. Jones and their desire to have a free human farm. In addition, the belief that the pigs have the power to repel the humans makes them as supreme authority figures and Napoleon is almost God-like to some, which makes his words become the animal’s laws without much argument.
It would have been unthinkable for them not to own slaves. But I can't imagine Aristotle upholding slavery on principle. Through his lectures and writings on ethics and morals, Aristotle was constantly trying to persuade men that it is to their own benefit to live a virtuous life and to allow the next fellow to do likewise. At the same time, he had no illusions about the nature of man, expressed very directly in this statement: For man, when perfected, is the best of animals, but, when separated from law and justice, he is the worst of all; since armed injustice is the more dangerous, and he is equipped at birth with arms,