Animal Farm Essay, Research Paper

Animal Farm: Utopia

The definition of Utopia is “no place.” A Utopia is an ideal

society in which the social, political, and economic evils

afflicting human kind have been wiped out. This is an idea

displayed in communist governments. In the novel, Animal Farm, by

George Orwell Old Major’s ideas of a Utopia are changed because of

Napoleon’s bad leadership.

Old Major explains his dreams and ideas to all the animals before

he dies. At his speech all the animals go to hear what Old Major

has to say. This happens on the night that Mr. Jones comes home

drunk. Old Major explains his ideas to all the animals:

Man is the only creature that consumes without producing. He does

not give milk, he does not lay eggs, he is too weak to pull the

plow, he cannot run fast enough to catch rabbits. Yet he is lord

of all the animals. (p.19)

This speech gets all the animals riled up and sends the toughts of

getting rid of man. Old Major then teaches them the song the

Beasts of England which teaches them the “great” life without man

and with no more bad leaders:

Beasts of England, beasts of Ireland,

Beasts of every land and clime,

Hearken to my joyful tidings,

Of the golden future time.

Soon or late the day is coming,

Tyrant Man shall be o’erthrown,

And the fruitful fields of England,

Shall be trod by beasts alone.

Rings shall vanish from our noses,

And the harness from our back,

Bit and spur shall rust forever,

Cruel whips no more shall crack.

Riches more than mind can picture,

Wheat and barley, oats and hay,

Clover, beans, and mangel-wurzels

Shall be ours upon the day…(p.22-23)

After the song the animals were even more excited. They sing the

song so loud it wakes Mr. Jones up. Mr. Jones starts firing his

gun into the darkness. This quickly scatters the animals.

Three days later Old Major dies so Snowball and Napoleon take over

but Napoleon wants all the power. Snowball does a lot of research

and planing but Napoleon wants to take over completely by

himself. So Napoleon frames Snowball so he can become the leader.

Orwell tells about the meeting to discuss the windmill:

By the time he had finished speaking, there was no dought as to

which way the vote would go. But just at this moment Napoleon

stood up and…uttered a high pitched whimper of a kind no one had

ever heard…nine enormous dogs wearing brass studded collars

came…they dashed strait for snowball. (P.57)

This scene shows Napoleon is a tyrant and wants all the power to

himself and that he has been sneaky. Napoleon has trained nine

mean attack dogs for his protection and other purposes. This

foreshadows some of his later actions. Later Napoleon starts to

become a hypocrite and tries to erase old memories and ideas that

were not his own when he went against his own rules by going into

Mr. Jones house:

Nevertheless, some of the animals were disturbed when they heard

that the pigs not only took their meals in the kitchen and used

the drawing-room as a recreation room, but also slept in

beds…Boxer passed it off as usual with “Napoleon is always

right!”, But 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 which were inscribed there. Finding

herself unable to read more than individual letters, she fetched

Muriel.

“Muriel,” she said, “read me the fourth commandment. Does it not

say something about never sleeping in a bed?”

With some difficulty Muriel spelt it out.

“It says, `No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets,’” she

announced finally.(p.69)

Clover did not remember the fourth commandment saying anything

about sheets. The pigs were also seen eating in a kitchen and

playing in the drawing-room, even though Napoleon was against all

of this in the beginning he became a big part of these

activities. From this scene some animals are starting to notice

their “Equal and Perfect” world is becoming not so equal any

more.

As the years pass by there are more incidents that prove, Napoleon

wants to have more power. Also the “Utopia” idea is going away.

Napoleon uses Snowball to blame for all his problems. When the

windmill is first destroyed he explains:

Comrades,”Do you know who is responsible for this? Do you know

who has come in the night and overthrown our windmill? Snowball!!

(p.72)

Napoleon says this when in reality the storm knocked the thin

walls down. Also after this scene Napoleon takes more rations

when food is low. Napoleon starts to drink alcohol and wear

clothes near the end. This gets the other animals mad but very

confused:

It was a pig walking on his hind legs. Yes, it was Squealer. A

little awkwardly, as though not quite used to supporting his

considerable bulk in that position, but with perfect balance,”out

came Napoleon himself, majestically upright,”He carried a whip in

his trotter,”all the sheep burst out into a tremendous bleating of-

“Four legs good, two legs better!” “Four legs good, two legs

better!” “Four legs good, two legs better!”

It went on for five minutes without stopping”Benjamin felt a nose

nuzzling at his shoulder. He looked round. It was clover” “My

sight is failing,” she said” For once Benjamin consented to break

his rule, and he read out to her what was written on the wall.

There was nothing there now except a single Commandment. It ran:

All animals are equal. But some animals are more equal than

others.

After all of this confusing the animals are very confused. They

just go along with the scenario but some do not approve. The

animals start to see there “perfect” world disappear.

Orwell shows Old Major ideas of a Utopia vanish by having Napoleon

emerge as a tyrant leader and shows that he is power hungry from

the start. Throughout the story Napoleon starts to change his own

regulations so he and the other pigs can have more comfort. The

animals are extremely confused because Muriel is the only one who

can read, so know one can remember the original Commandments.

Napoleon like any tyrant blames his problems on everyone else and

in the end ruins the animal’s ideas of a perfect world

completely. This story teaches people there is no perfect world

and somebody always wants more.

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