Expose of Inequality Animal Farm by George Orwell

George Orwell’s Animal Farm exposes inequality, social injustice, and exploitation. George Orwell’s gloomy view on human nature is expressed in this satirical fable. He provides a satire of the Russian uprising here, as well as an important statement of his own feelings about it. He clearly portrays communism as an unfair and dishonest society in which a few profit at the expense of the many. George Orwell, like everyone else in the universe, desires equality, and it is for this reason that he actively opposes communism. However, he understands that it is in the nature of human beings to fight for and crave power.

Hunger for power

The animal’s virtuousness helps Orwell to clarify the story of the Russian Uprising more sincerely and candidly and helps the more prejudiced spectators to see both sides of the coin since the story had sentiments taken out of the actual situation. This kind of helps them subconsciously comprehend the accountabilities of socialism by themselves. All animals are equal. This idea of equality as well as socialism creates the ideal society (Minter, 2014). The hunger that the pigs had for power (Orwell, 2014), which is natural to humanity, made the creation of this kind of society impossible and ineffective. The society we are living in today needs to judge itself and compare the past with the present and how we hope the future to be like. The animals on the farm were subjected to a lot of lies on a daily basis being ignored and betrayed by their fellow animals. The more clever animals held back from speaking since it always brought negative results, as in the case of the hens. Being led to as well as betrayed is not something a person would take lightly since one expects a reasonable explanation thereafter. The pigs set themselves aside and betrayed the cause they had taken up the seats to uphold. They looked down upon all the other non-pigs bringing about social oppression. Failing to concentrate on such an issue brings about more retrogression than progression.

Stealing and Greed

Humans naturally steal. In one way or another, humans take possession of that which is not theirs. It can be something materialistic like a pencil or something subjective like time. In the book, the pigs stole a lot of things hence exhibiting this kind of humanistic characteristic. The lives of the animals slaughtered by the dogs under the command of Napoleon was also something that was stolen (Orwell, 2014). Napoleon went ahead and stole the windmill idea from Snowball. The pigs, on the other hand, stole the privileges of the other animals and the equines, for instance, lost a lot of their free time since they were always laboring to build the windmill. This act made the pigs gain a lot more power and at the end, they started stealing from among themselves. The animals were led by greed to steal from each other (Minter, 2014). Greed is another form of human characteristic. All the animals on the farm were greedy and this included the hens who were motivated to go on strike only because they were not allowed to keep as many eggs as they wanted, which was also an egotistical and a materialistic act (Orwell, 2014). The results of the hen’s action led to all the other animals getting fed lesser than they should.

Ignorance

Ignorance is yet another aspect of humanity that is brilliantly out in the piece of literature, the Animal Farm. Boxer is the perfect definition of how ignorance ran wild in the animal farm. Boxer was not the most intelligent animal in the farm and as soon as Napoleon seized power, Boxer came up with 2 mottos; “I will work harder (Orwell, 2014)” and “Napoleon is always right” (Orwell, 2014). Napoleon made all the animals think that whatever he did was for the best of everyone and he was driven by the thirst for power. Orwell used the stereotyped animals to bring out the desired image of his characters, for instance, he uses pigs to represent authority figures like snowball and Napoleon along with the communist parties’ loyalists. The pigs are known to be both disgusting and repulsive with the name itself describing a very much disliked person. This might have been what led Orwell to brand the corrupt authority figures as pigs for the easier recognition of their traits (Orwell, 2014). By boxer firmly believing that Napoleon is always right, other animals followed suit and began admiring Napoleon and others were so in awe of him that they wanted to be like him. This gave Napoleon the satisfaction he needed to control the farm. The animals basically ignored the warnings of other animals who found out that Napoleon was playing them (Orwell, 2014).

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Corruption

Corruption is seen by the pigs and basically all the animals in power especially Napoleon who his cohorts always assuring the other animals that they are far off better with Napoleon as their leader and not under the rule of Mr. Jones. The reality of the situation the animals found themselves in was contrary to this claim as they were underfed, cold, and overworked for the satisfaction of the needs of both Squealer and Napoleon (Lenigan, 2005). This corrupt regime knew no bounds such that when a battle ensued between the farmer Frederick and the animals on the destruction of the windmill Boxer was injured and taken to the glue factory (Orwell, 2014). This was contrary to what the other animals were told and assured that Boxer had been taken to hospital. The money that would have helped Boxer recover was used to buy more whiskey and Boxer died for absolutely nothing. The only rule that seemed to survive the rebellion in the animal farm was “Two legs good four legs bad (Orwell, 2014)” since they could not easily tell either the pigs or Squealerapart from the humans. Although Power does corrupt, absolute power is evil and finishes off what power leaves behind. Corruption, just like in the leaders that we have today, blooms slowly and eventually destroys a person’s morality. In the book, corruption began when Napoleon and his allies drank all the cow’s milk after their udders were relieved. He also had snowball driven away and used dogs to maintain ‘order’ (Orwell, 2014).

Conclusion

Various aspects are brought out in the piece, Animal Farm by George Orwell. These include hunger for power, inequality, and social injustice. Through this ironic parable, George Orwell presents his pessimistic opinion of human nature. The author makes a parody representation of the Russian revolt, offering an indispensable expression of his own sentiments about it. He exposes communism plainly as the unjust and corrupt system with which few get to benefit at the expense of the others. Similar to all the other people in the world, George Orwell is no exception at wanting equality and that is the main reason he actively challenges communism. However, he demonstrates a deep understanding of various aspects related to the nature of human beings to fight for and crave power. In the piece, various animals are demonstrated to have various motivations for power, which are often inspired by self driven forces or attempts to benefit oneself.

This novel is a satirical impersonation of the modern-day politicians and how they use their position and power to undermine the civilians while using their resources for their individual benefits. Napoleon describes himself as one worthy of the love and support of the other animals since he is “Working for them” just like modem day politicians do. The true motives of such a leader are between the lines of enriching himself and those around him. Snowball also manipulates the seven commandments to favor him and his close allies which is what actually happens in modern-day lives where the rich and powerful twist and turn laws to favor them.

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References

Lanigan, R. (2005). Semiotics and national identity (Fabulous Political Semiotic: The Case of George Orwell’s Animal Farm). New York: Legas, pp.421 - 435.

Minter, D. (2014). Animal Farm - English Works. [Online] English Works. Available at: http://www.englishworks.com.au/animal-farm

Orwell, G. (2014). Animal Farm. [online] Ebooks.adelaide.edu.au. Available at: https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/o/orwell/george/o79a