Animal Farm Vs. Marxism Essay, Research Paper

Animal Farm vs. Marxism

Characters, items, and events found in George

Orwells book, Animal Farm, can be compared to similar

characters, items, and events found in Marxism and the 1917

Russian Revolution. This comparison will be shown by using

the symbolism that is in the book with similarities found in

the Russian Revolution.

Old Major was a prized-boar that belonged to Farmer

Jones. The fact that Old Major is himself a boar was to

signify that radical change and revolution are, themselves,

boring in the eyes of the proletariat (represented by the

other barnyard animals), who are more prone to worrying

about work and survival in their everyday life. Old Major

gave many speeches to the farm animals about hope and the

future. He is the main animal who got the rebellion started

even though he died before it actually began. Old Major’s

role compares to Lenin and Marx whose ideas were to lead to

the communist revolution. Animal Farm is a criticism of Karl

Marx, as well as a novel perpetuating his convictions of

democratic Socialism. (Zwerdling, 20). Lenin became leader

and teacher of the working class in Russia, and their

determination to struggle against capitalism. Like Old

Major, Lenin and Marx wrote essays and gave speeches to the

working class poor. The working class in Russia, as

compared with the barnyard animals in Animal Farm, were a

laboring class of people that received low wages for their

work. Like the animals in the farm yard, the people is

Russia thought there would be no oppression in a new society

because the working class people (or animals) would own all

the riches and hold all the power. (Golubeva and Gellerstein

168).

Another character represented in the book is Farmer

Jones. He represents the symbol of the Czar Nicholas in

Russia who treated his people like Farmer Jones treated his

animals. The animal rebellion on the farm was started

because Farmer Jones was a drunk who never took care

of the animals and who came home one night, left the gate

open and the animals rebelled. Czar Nicholas was a very

weak man who treated his people similar to how Farmer Jones

treated his animals. The Czar made his working class people

very mad with the way he wielded his authority and preached

all the time, and the people suffered and finally demanded

reform by rebelling. The Czar said “The law will

henceforward be respected and obeyed not only by the nation

but also the authority that rules it – and that the law

would stand above the changing views of the individual

instruments of the supreme power.” (Pares 420).

The animal Napoleon can be compared as a character

representing Stalin in Russia. Both were very mean looking,

didn’t talk very much but always got what they wanted

through force. In one part of the book Napoleon charged the

dogs on Snowball, another animal. Stalin became the Soviet

Leader after the death of Lenin. He was underestimated by

his opponents who always became his victims, and he had one

of the most ruthless, regimes in history. In was not till

very many years later that the world found out about the

many deaths that Stalin created in Russia during the

Revolution. For almost 50 years the world thought that the

Nazis had done the killing in Russia, when in fact it was

Stalin. (Imse 2).

The last characters that are symbolic of each other

are the animal Snowball with the Russian leader Trotsky.

Snowball was very enthusiastic and was a leader who

organized the defense of the farm. He gave speeches and

instructions but was not very beneficial. All the other

animals liked him, but he was outsmarted by Napoleon.

Trotsky and Stalin’s relationship was very much like

Snowball’s and Napoleons. Trotsky organized the Red Army

and gave speeches and everyone in Russia thought he would

win power over Stalin. After Lenin’s death Trotsky lost

all his power to Stalin and was expelled from the communist

party. He was at one time considered the second most

powerful man in Russia. (Trotsky” Comptons 290).

Besides characters there are many items that can be

compared as symbols in the book and in Russia. The whip

that Napoleon used in the farmyard to wield power can be

compared to the power that Stalin used on the Russians.

Napoleon carried a whip in his trotter. Stalin used his

power to starve the Russian people and to have Lenin

arrested. Stalin’s main goal was to maximize his personal

power. (“Stalin,” Britannia 576). Stalin “whipped” his

people into shape by collectivizing agriculture, by police

terror, and by destroying remnants of individual prosperity.

He also led the Soviet Union into the nuclear age (Clarkson

442).

Propaganda is another item that was used in the

Russian revolution. It can be compared to Squealer in

Animal Farm. Squealer brainwashed (a form of propaganda)

the barnyard animals into believing that they did not like

apples and milk, while he and Napoleon were stealing the

food for themselves. In Russia, the Bolsheviks carried out

propaganda on the people by passing out leaflets and

putting stories in the newspapers that were not true. They

told workers, soldiers, and peasants to not trust their own

hands and to take away land from the landowners. (Golubeva

and Gellerstein 80).

Another item that is similar in both Animal Farm and

Russia are the dogs and the secret police. Napoleon trained

his dogs when they were puppies to guard him and to obey his

every command. They chased Snowball away. Stalin trained

his secret police to do his bidding whenever he issued an

order. Stalin had his secret police kill between 60,000 to

70,000 people. These police were called the Checka and the

graves filled with bodies stacked upon each other with

bullets in each skull were found many years later. (Imse,

C2).

Another symbolism that exists in the book and in

Russia is a similarity to events that took place. The

windmill that is present in Animal Farm can be compared with

the growth of industry in Russia or the Industrial

Revolution. Snowball first introduced the windmill concept

to the farm but Napoleon disagreed with him and had the dogs

chase him away. Napoleon then presented the windmill as a

good idea and the animals were presented with hope that

things would get better on the farm. When it blew down,

Napoleon blamed it on Snowball. Napoleon thought that if he

could keep the barnyard animals busy all the time replacing

the windmill that they would not realize how bad their

living conditions were, and he could blame the destruction

all the time on Snowball. The windmill is the only thing

that was holding the animals together as a unit. In Russia

the growth of factory and industry was very depressing but

depended on the obligatory labor of serfs. Russia hoped

that by keeping the serfs working all the time and promising

them a better world that they would not realize how bad

their living conditions were. The Industrialists were

pressing their own constitutional demands. (Clarkson 352).

None of the social classes were fighting each other because

there were no classes left. What Russia got working was to

make the people think that the prospect of loss of potential

improvements in conditions of life of the here

and now, could only be attained by stimulating labor to

unprecedented efforts.

The last event that was similar in the book and in

Russia was the animal rebellion on the farm and the Russian

Revolution of 1917. Farmer Jones was drunk a lot and would

forget to feed the animals on the farm. The withholding of

this food is what finally forced the animals on the farm to

rebel against Farmer Jones. In Russia, there were many food

shortages which caused the people to demonstrate and then

the Russian soldiers refused to suppress them and the

leaders demanded that Nicholas transfer his power to

parliamentary government because everything was getting out

of control. Soviet workers and soldiers formed a special

committee and established a government. The same day the

emperor abdicated. (“Russian Revolution,” Grolier npa).

This actually backfired in Russia and the war continued and

the people still starved.

Many lessons can be learned by reading Animal Farm

that can help countries and governments around the world

from making mistakes in wielding their power against their

people. If a population is suppressed and not allowed to

accumulate things for themselves then an overthrow of the

government that is suppressing them will be the result.

689

Clarkson, Jesse. A History of Russia. New York: Random

House, 1969.

Golubeva, T. and L. Gellerstein. Early Russia – The Russie.

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Imse, Ann. Mass Grave Seen as Evidence of Massecure by

Stalins Police. “Hunstsville Times,

13, August. 1990.

Orwell, George. Animal Farm. Signet 50th Anniversary

Edition, Harcourt Brace & Company,

1996.

Pares, Sir Bernard. The Fall of the Russian Monarchy. New

York: A division of Random

House, 1939.

“Russian Revolution of 1917.” Grolier Electronic

Publishing, Inc. 1992 ed.

“Stalin, Joseph.” Encyclopedia Britannica. 1917 ed.

Zwerdling, Alex. Orwell and The Left. New Haven: Yale

University Press. 1974.