Animal Farm And Totalitarianism Essay, Research Paper

Totalitarianism has become a fact that can hardly be ignored. During World War

II when Hitler had total control to the Russia of Stalin and later Soviet

leaders. For many years people have dreamed or believed in the perfect society

of mandkind and of an ultimate utopia, a world where we can live together in

peace. George Orwell expresses a different kind of view for the future of

mankind, a view where freedom is limited, total control and there isn’t any sign

of hope or peace. George Orwell expresses his totalitarianism and communist view

of the world in his work Animal Farm. Power was emphasized in his work Animal

Farm. Orwell set a political satire and an allegory. He used animals to

represent the government. The pigs were the one with all the power. Orwell gave

the pigs the brain and the rest of the animals practically slaves of the pigs.

The more power the pigs had the more power the pigs wanted: This is demonstrated

by the continuity between Mr. Jones, the original proprietor of the farm, and

Napoleon, the young boar who contrive to drive out snowball, the only competing

boar on the premises, and assumed Jones’s former position as well as that of

Major, The old patriarch. (Pati 215). Orwell makes it explicit that the

struggles goes on between the only two boars among the pigs. Napoleon ran out

Snowball in order to take total control of the farm, and to run his

totalitarianism rule over the animals. Presently the tumult died down. The four

pigs waited, trembling, with guilt written on every line of their countenances.

Napoleon now called upon them to confess their crimes. They were the same four

pigs as had protested when Napoleon abolished the Sunday Meetings. Without any

further prompting they confessed that they had been secretly in touch with

Snowball ever since his expulsion, that they had collaborated with him in

destroying the windmill, and that they had entered into an agreement with him to

hand over Animal Farm to Mr. Frederick. They added that Snowball had privately

admitted to them that he had been Jones’s secret agent for years past. When they

had finished their confession, the dogs promptly tore their throats out, and in

a terrible voice Napoleon demanded whether any other animal had anything to

confess.(Bloom 18). The pigs then gradually show human characteristic. First by

sleeping in bed, then by drinking. The pigs had the farm in their hands. Orwell

did this to show how come of the animals were unequal to the pigs. The role or

rank that the characters play determine the special privileges they have.

Napoleon traded eggs, milk and other things with the humans just to provide for

the pigs. He left the other animals with old dried out food. Napoleon

contradicted himself, but later on he changed the commandments and made it look

like it was good business to trade with the humans. Orwell showed how powerful

Napoleon has become. Napoleon lied, stole, and made empty promises and gotten

away with it. The Seven commandments was like a brain washing tool the pigs used

to get the rest of the animals to follow. 1. Whatever goes upon two legs is an

enemy. 2. Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend. 3. No animal

shall wear clothes. 4. No animal shall sleep in a bed. 5. No animal shall drink

alcohol. 6. No animal shall kill any other animal. 7. All animal are equal. This

"unalterable law" provides the major structural basis for the rest of

the animal. From this point on the plot reveals a gradual alteration of these

commandments, ending in the well-known contradiction that epitomizes the new

nature of the farm at the end of the book. The commandments change throughout

the story. The changes were only made to benefits the pigs and only the pigs.

The other animals weren’t surprise or didn’t care much for the change just as

long they had gotten their share of food. Totalitarianism and a little bit of

communism were notice able in the farm. The capability of the pigs, and their

management, is reflected in the success of the farm. "There its no wastage,

no stealing. It is the biggest harvest in the farms’s history; in addition,

though the animals work hard, there is no leisure. Each animal works

"according to his capacity"(Bloom 15). No matter how hard each animal

works they still get the same amount of food they had gotten ever since Animal

Farm was born. Orwell stressed the total control the pigs have over the rest of

the animals. Most of the animals do not know how to read or spell, maybe just a

few words and their name. The pigs on the other hand, taught them self how to

read and write, therefore they developed a way to think and understand how to

communicate to the other animals so it would be in their benefits. Orwell was

too a rebel "First, Orwell was a rebel with a remarkably strong sense of

responsibility. When he was a child, he revolted against the religious teaching

and discipline of his school. The mature equivalents of his boy hood feelings

were his hostile attitudes toward organized religion and toward social,

political, and cultural authority. Orwell thought, the churches were

demoralizing; as moral and political forces, they were puritanic and

reactionary; as a spiritual force, they were worthless" (Vorhees 56).

Animal Farm had a destructive ending. The ending shred the freedom and the

equality of the animals to pieces. Orwell shoed the pwor of totalitarianism and

what chaos and horror it could bring. Mankind’s future in Orwell’s eyes was not

a good one. We may say that is was on his affirmation of the middle-class

virtues that Orwell based his criticism of the liberal intelligenstia. The

characteristic error of the middle-class intellectual of modern times is his

tendency to abstractness and absoluteness, his reluctance to connect idea with

fact, especially with personal fact (Bloom 37). Orwell expresses his

totalitarian and communist view of the world in his work Animal Farm. Orwell’s

view of society in general was that of his own experience with the world. People

know that totalitarian governments always fall down after a period of time. That

history will probably never be repeated again. Hopefully it won’t happen in our

life time. Communist is a government that is said to be equal, but under blanket

of the public eye is a very corrupt government and unequal society. You might

work harder than the person next to you but you still going to get pay the same

amount no matter how hard or how less you work. It doesn’t matter what kind of

job you have, the only thing that matter is that if you are willing and able to

work and represent the communist country. If the people don’t obey or oppose the

government, they shall be executed. Us Americans take our rights for granted,

other countries can only dream about having our rights and freedom.

Work Cited Bloom, Harold, ed. Modern Critical Views: George Orwell. New York:

Chelsea, 1987. Orwell, George. Animal Farm. New York: Penguin Group, 1956. Patai,

Daphne. The Orwell Mystique: A Study In Male Idology. Amherst: U. of

Massachusetts P., 1984 Voorhees, Richard J. The Pardox of George Orwell. West

Lafayette: Prudue U.P., 1961.