Animal Farm: "But some animals are more equal than oth
Uploaded by JarJarBinks on Jun 19, 2005
Animal Farm: "But some animals are more equal than others"
Animal Farm, published in 1945, is widely considered to be one of the cornerstones of George Orwell's literary legacy. Though it is a much shorter and somewhat less developed account of totalitarianism than his later work 1984, muted only by its fairy-tale qualities, it is no less frightening in presenting the dangers of blindly following a leader in a political climate of absolute power.
Orwell presents to us the story of Manor Farm, run by the drunk, laggard farmer, Mr. Jones. The animals of this farm are under the poorly organized rule of their proprietor, mistreated and underfed. One night, the animals, rallied by a speech from one of the senior animals of the farm, the pig, Old Major, decide that the only way to lead a better existence is to rebel - more precisely, revolt - against Jones, thereby pulling themselves from the yoke of human rule and enjoying for themselves the fruits of their own labor. Old Major dies shortly after his portentous speech and two pigs - Napoleon and Snowball - arise from the vacuum to successfully lead the animals in triumph over Jones chasing him and all other humans off the farm. With the renamed Animal Farm under new leadership, committees are formed along with a party flag, party slogans and songs. The pigs assume the top of the political hierarchy and set up rule over the other "lower" animals convincing them of the porcine superiority for planning, oversight of the farm and their new government. Both Napoleon and Snowball are young and intelligent, possessing a lust more for individual power than true equanimity among the other animals. However, it is shown that Napoleon maintains the greater cunning of the two. In the midst of the senior pigs' personal rivalries, political cohesion among the farm's animal populous also splinters. Napoleon ousts Snowball in the midst of this division forever using political machinations to denounce him as a type of "Emmanuel Goldstein" figure, later used by Orwell as the agent provocateur of Big Brother in 1984.
Orwell's use of names in this story serves as a form of irony to guide the narrative in such a way as to present a foreshadowing of the totalitarianism that is to come to Animal Farm. One can see that Napoleon will surely be the despotic lead pig when all is...