To someone who has not read this satirical allegory by Orwell, Animal Farm seems like a children’s book. The picture that comes to mind is of talking animals living on a farm. Well Animal Farm is anything but a children’s book. It is profusely political and gets diabolical with every turn of the page. Pigs becoming dictators, animals starving, hens smashing their eggs and dogs forming a deadly army, you have it all. It was so controversial and considered an attack at Stalin and Russia that Orwell failed to find a publisher but when ties with Germany began to sour, it was allowed to be published. It was banned in Russia until 1991 when the Soviet Union collapsed. Even then, it was banned in a lot of countries such as North Korea, Cuba, and the United Arab Emirates. It is still used as a political weapon and a means of propaganda.
Animal Farm is a fable like no other. Storytelling is the most effective way to understand anything. We learn better through stories and they make it amazingly easy to understand. Animal Farm does just that. It is an allegory of 20th century Russia. It is a history lesson. If you want to ace your history paper, you better learn it by heart.
The 20th century was a turbulent time period for Russia. The incompetence of Tsar Nicholas II (Mr. Jones) in managing the country had led to riots and hunger and the Bolshevik party was on the rise. Ultimately, Lenin (Old Major) overthrew the monarchy and established the communist rule. However, soon after, he died and the power fell into the hands of Stalin (Napoleon) and Snowball (Trotsky). Russia was in a state of confusion and Trotsky wanted to take some time out from the chaos caused due to Lenin’s death. But Stalin remained and everyone assumed he was in charge. When Trotsky returned, Stalin exiled him just like Snowball was ousted from the farm. Trotsky was a great orator and won over the crowd with his clever antics but Stalin was a star behind the curtains. He rarely made elaborate speeches. Instead; he used the newspaper Pravda (Squealer) as his propaganda tool. It moulded the public opinion in favour of Stalin just as Napoleon claimed Snowball’s victories as his own. Animal Farm is rich with symbols. Napoleon’s army of dogs is the symbol for the NKVD established by Stalin to carry out purges (Moscow Show Trials). Pravda represents the hypocrisy and propaganda spread by the Stalin government.
Apart from its political nature, Animal Farm brings with it psychological relevance that cannot be overlooked in today’s world. The prominent question that arises is ‘Were the pigs corrupted from the start or did power corrupt them?’ Lord Acton’s famous quote “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely”, may have a lot of truth in it but think about this that even before the rebellion, it was the pigs that took charge, particularly Snowball and Napoleon. Power makes you see the real face of people beyond the courtesy and falsity of everyday life. When you are in power, you don’t have to please anyone for no one will dare go against you. Only with no restrictions can you see someone’s true colors. As Abraham Lincoln said “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.” A lot of people have a lot to say on this subject. Frank Herbert said this in Dune “All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the corruptible.” At least everyone agrees on one thing: the character of the person in power cannot be trusted. For more details, check out this article.https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/why-power-corrupts-37165345/
Then is the question of religion. Marx thought religion kept the people distracted from real issues. He suggested it was a servant of the oppressor/ the capitalists. That is why, when Napoleon became the oppressor, he brought back Moses the Raven just like he was there in Jones’ time, who used to tell the animals to dream of a Sugarcandy Mountain, an allusion to the promise of heavenly bliss that comes with faith. There is a clichéd saying Marx is associated with that ‘Religion is the opium of the masses.’ But here is the full context, ‘Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.” Marx considered religion to be the illusion people have of this world. He believed that for man to be free of this illusion, he will have to find the truth in himself.
The Windmill has an interesting significance in Animal Farm. Apart from the fact that the animals built the windmills with their sweat and blood, it universally symbolizes hope, life, and serenity. All the animals hoped that once the windmill is built, they can live a comfortable life. But that does not happen. Don Quixote by Cervantes uses the windmills to represent imaginary enemies and impractical battle that cannot be won as Don Quixote charged on the windmills thinking they are giants. The same way, the animals can never live a good life under Napoleon’s rule.
The fate of Boxer, who represents the poor and working class. does destroy your faith in humanity, more like animality. He did nothing but work hard all his life but, in the end, he was sold and forgotten like a worthless commodity. C.S. Lewis, wrote that, “The great sentence, ‘All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others,’ bites deeper than the whole of 1984.”
Animal Farm continues to inspire pop culture and keeps its relevance even in another century when so much significant political changes have taken place all over the world. Orwell was anti- communist and Animal Farm is a proof of that.
Here is some food for thought. What if Snowball and Napoleon had ruled together? What if there had been no conflict and Stalin and Trotsky both were the leaders of the Soviet Union. Would it have been for better or for worse? Is it for the best they did not come together? Afterall, Snowball could not have been better if not worse than Napoleon?
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