Animal Farm And Today’s Society -
Comparison and Similarities
Literature has been the mirror of our society for ages. If one wants to know about the social balance of any society be it past or present, literature of that time can be a guide. We can know about all the highs and lows of a period with the type of literature that was in the making and what was making the waves during that period.
In his book Animal Farm, George Orwell rightly serves that purpose. It was published just a month before the end of World War 2. It’s a Satirical Allegorical Novella (a term used for a short novel) where Orwell gives a satirical take against the rising power of Communism mainly in the Soviet Union. The events leading to the Russian Revolution and the events followed after being transformed into a highly fictionalized anthropomorphic world of revolutionary pigs and other animals.
In the novella, the two pigs (Napoleon and Snowball ) revolt against their human farmer, an alcoholic farmer named Mr Jones and brings a revolution into their farm. All animals actively participate in this revolution and earn the victory for themselves. They change the name of their farm after driving Mr Jones away into the “Animal Farm”. They all become the owner of it and even make a flag commemorating their victory and their new beginnings.
They introduce the ideology of Animalism, adopt the Seven Commandments of Animalism, the most important of which is,
“All animals are equal”.
The spectacle starts phenomenally with animals getting the rights and freedom they always dreamed of but, unfortunately, it doesn’t last long and some power-hungry souls turn the revolution into a ruthless dictatorship. The dreams, aspirations, principles turn into fantasy.
Even the national song which was the symbol of their struggle and used to provide zeal to other animals finds itself dying a shameful death, it is changed to something else. Their so-called “ Animalism” is reduced to an excuse for racism among the animals with even its core belief changing into…
“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others”.
The dictatorship gets more and more ruthless under the tag of “working hard to improve”! This is a subtle attack on the concept of “Dictatorship of the proletariat”
which is an important part of communist ideology. The story reaches its end by showing how the animals who were against humans have now become their faint reflection without a shadow of their own.
In the end, the pigs start to behave more like humans. They start getting materialistic and their interactions with their once enemy the humans reach the point of playing games with them. The animals see them with humans and find it difficult to differentiate between the two. The greed of power tosses away the idealist principles down the drain.
All the promises that were made regarding the development become bitter unfulfilled dreams. Contemporary comparison can be drawn easily here as we see with people these days, they don’t have an ideological standing.
All they sing are hymns of power only. They shift their thinking as soon as they see the direction of air going away from them. It’s the limelight and power that they truly crave.
The novella’s soul shows how blind aspiration is a death of remaining light still finds its parallels. Even today personally i feel that most politicians show us an aspirational clad dream, which is hollow and useless from inside. Humans have a tendency of forgetting things easily and people hungry for power know it better than any of us.
The Politicians just like our antagonist Napoleon the pig shows false promises and in the end advocate for a simpler life. The promises haven’t aged. The web of lies of those who give us hopes of a better future is still there and it’s going quite strong.
One comparison that can’t be drawn is the political atmosphere, when the novella was all in rage, it was the era of communism, left was the right for people. The monarchy had just been abolished in most parts of the world so this new term was like a doorway to heaven for people across the world. The shift has been towards the right in society now, communism is the talk of the past, it’s dying a slow and painful death but for people who have a want of power, one can still find huge similarities between them and the leaders of this novella.
The figures claimed to fight corruption have become the pinnacle of it. In animal farms, the greed factor and the lust for power remain even after the condition of animals starts to deteriorate, the antagonist Napoleon doesn’t care. He attacks and removes his opponent who was once his partner from his way. This is what keeps happening in the contemporary world as well, seeing the alliance of many leaders, politicians and after their goal is fulfilled, the coalition becomes their biggest enemy.
The way Napoleon does after getting away with his opponent’s once partner, snowball. This thing is the most common piece of resemblance I’ve thoroughly observed from this fictional piece that has become a part of our society, our socio-political structure.
You can even find people who used to die for each other after even a minor scuffle, starts making a web of lies against each other. Another thing that finds its similarity in the real world is what I called a false sense of positivity.
The animals in the novella when Napoleon becomes their sole supreme leader still believes in his lie. When Mr Frederick, another farmer, attacks them, they fight against him with Napoleon. We as humans tend to look for positivity even in worst-case scenarios, our psychological bias can be a boon for others.
In the end, the only thing that according to me matters is our ability to decide. If we want then no Napoleon or Mr Jones can be found in our society, we only have to be more active and aware.
