Peter Sullivan
English 2
Mark Hertz
1/12/13
Animal farm essay
So what's so bad about communism? Its central ideas of equality, brotherhood, and collaboration for the common good parallel our american ideals. but once you get down to the fine print, communism has some worrying drawbacks. Is Russia a type specimen? Are all men really created equal? And can a whole society remain selfless? A good exploration of these question is the well-known work by George Orwell, Animal Farm. This essay will address these questions in light of Orwell’s famous text.
First, a brief summary of Animal Farm. Manor Farm is not a happy place. the animals all live in poor conditions, starving and chronically mistreated by their tyrannical ruler, Farmer Jones lives it up at their expense. then, one day, the Hawg Old Major calls a meeting of all the non-primate inhabitants of the farm. He proclaims that he has found a way to end the animal’s suffering through revolution. They will throw off their oppressor, and run the farm themselves by the tenets, a series of commandments of Old major (called Animalism,) for the advantage of all creatures. This accomplished, two pigs, Napoleon and Snowball rise to power among the animals, as Old Major has expired shortly before the revolution takes place. In the beginning, political decisions are accomplished at meetings with Napoleon and Snowball presiding in harmony, but controversy is never far away. When Snowball presents a fanciful scheme for a windmill generator, it divides the farm’s twin rulers. Both being brilliant speakers, the animals are in favor of whichever is speaking at a given moment. Napoleon recognizes this stalemate, and chooses this moment to strike. he uses some dogs he has reared in isolation to brutally attack Snowball in front of all the other animals in order to cow and terrify them. Napoleon then installs himself as dictator of animal farm. He implements his will without opposition, distorting the founding principles of animalism so that he and his fellow pigs can live the high life at the expense of the hardworking animals of the farm. The Napoleon Administration gets steadily more abusive, in true dictatorial style, until they are on par with or worse than Farmer Jones meanwhile, the animals slowly grow complacent, and forget the time of the revolution, all except Benjamin, the cynical mule, whose pessimistic outlook turned out to be eerily cassandratic. At the end, a horrifying twist occurs, having to do with parallel evolution, a game of cards, and .
A communist society is socialist, which means that everyone is the same in the eyes of the government. There’s no system of currency, and the government subsidizes everything, from housing to transport. In return, you work your hardest (or the same amount as everyone else, because of Socialism) and your fearless leaders will take care of you. this places a lot of trust in the hands of those fearless leaders in whom the people of the state have to invest a great deal of trust in.
In a communist society, the government guarantees everything you need to survive as long as you pull your weight. Job satisfaction is also a given, as you are working not only to support yourself, your family, and your employer, but for the benefit of your comrades, who in turn work for you. Your rulers, who decide what to provide you, also make the same wage as you do, or at least live at the same standard you do, as there's no system of currency. The question here is, how much is enough and who decides it? Ideally, that would be decided by the people on the receiving end of the subsidiary's, but what if you live in a country of 6 million? The answer, of course, is representative democracy, or a republic. This is a great opportunity for the metaphorical Corruption Germ to insinuate its way into one’s shiny new government, as alluded to by Orwell in Animal Farm, when Napoleon starts abusing his power in the name of Old Major, and distorting the principles of Animalism to his own advantage. behind their mask he is able to do pretty much what he wants, with no opposition from the inhabitants of the farm. He is shielded in the mantle of Communism.
Are all men really created equal? In a Communist Commune, they are. the main problem with this is the unequal divisions of labor that arise from this. In Animal Farm, for instance, there is a character named boxer. He is a horse. He is also the one who does the majority of the hard work on the farm, and has adopted Napoleon as his idol. despite this, he recieves no acclaim, nor any In contrast, the farm cat does nothing except attempt to lure small birds to her with animalism, but when confronted “purred so nicely that she was forgiven” (Orwell 43)
In conclusion,
