Absolute Power In Animal Farm
Essay by 24 • December 28, 2010 • 836 Words (4 Pages) • 1,691 Views
In George Orwell's Animal Farm, "power corrupts" is the central focus, because human nature is filled with too much avarice to allow for complete equality. He writes Animal Farm to prove to the world isn't practicing true Communism; this is contrary to what Russia is saying. Orwell Passionately hates political lying and inequality, and Russia is guilty of both acts. The leaders say it is true Communism, but they're lying because there are people in charge (inequality). Orwell must be subtle in accusing Russia leaders though, because his punishment could involve an axe whistling towards hi neck for making the government look bad, so he uses animals instead of people in his novel. To ensure everyone is able to read Animal Farm, he writes with simple language so it can be translated to other languages. With these precautions and guarantee of many readers, Orwell proceeded to spin an enthralling satiric tale.
Throughout the novel, the pigs slowly take over the farm and slowly take over the other animals. He first hint of corruption among the influential was over food distribution. "So it was agreed without further argument that milk and the windfall apples (an also the main crop of apples when they ripened) should be reserved for the pigs alone." When all the animals had still believed in true "Animalism," they had agreed that the farmhouse of Jones should be preserved as a museum. The pigs broke this resolution, "It was about this time that the pigs suddenly moved into the farmhouse and took up their residence there." Although all the pigs gained a feeling of self-importance, Napoleon, the leader, became the cockiest of all. He wanted luxuries no other animal had, "Napoleon himself was not seen in public as often as once in a fortnight... It was also announced that the gun would be fired every year on Napoleon's birthday, as well as on the other two anniversaries." The power the pigs had gained went to their heads so they thought themselves better than the other animals and that they also deserved more and better privileges. This behavior isn't just part of Orwell's made-up world though; it has happened in real life too.
As stated before, Orwell wrote Animal Farm to disprove Russia's claim of practicing true Communism, but he was specifically indicating the events before and after the Russian Revolution. Many of the key players of the Russian Revolution were represented in Animal Farm like Napoleon was Joseph Stalin, Snowball was Leon Trotsky, Jones was the old czar, Moses was Orwell's view of the church, Boxer and Clover were the proletariat, and numerous other important connections to the world. In real life, Communism wasn't achieved either. After Lenin, leader of the radical socialist party, died, Stalin and Trotsky fought for power over Russia. Stalin eventually won and established hi9mself as the supreme ruler of a supposedly Communist country. He later
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