Animal Farm By George Orwell

Even a moderate leadership, even in an ideally equal civilization, if unrestrained can quickly fester into insuppressible tyranny. Such a transformation is effortless, with tactics such as fear and threats, and obliteration of freedom is inevitable. Such is the theme of George Orwell’s parable Animal Farm, as such is the theme of all failed paradises; the horrendous state of things in the beginning is greatly improved in the highest point, but towards the end the state rapidly descends to the primal dictatorial state it first emerged from.

Orwell introduces the idea of rebellion through Old Major’s dream and meeting to teach us the idea of justice and freedom. Old Major decides to call for a rebellion because he feels that animals have been
overworked for far too long. As Old Major says about the situation, “‘No animal in England knows the meaning of freedom or leisure after he is a year old’ ” (7) emphasizing the extremeness to which the animals are overused. They are also given very little food, if any, as Mr. Jones is often drunk, and even when not, does not really care about the animals. Jones will also kill any animal that is no longer any help on the farm, as he sees no reason to keep them. Old Major is upset by this cruelty, and when he dreams about what the Earth will be like when mankind has been removed, he calls a meeting to tell the animals about his dream, and about the idea of Rebellion. He also calls them to teach them the song Beasts of England, a song that talks of the wondrous life of the animals when man is removed from the world. The animals hope that this will happen, but are unaware of the proximity of the event.

The Rebellion is successfully carried out, and the animals are free and equal. One example of their new rights is the new Sunday Meeting system, where every Sunday the animals can create and vote on new ideas for the farm to incorporate. It is, however, only the pigs, who have become natural leaders, who create new ideas. One of these is the plans for a new windmill, a plan the animals have become very divided on. The animals have also created the Seven Commandments, which are the basics of Animalism. Animalism is an entire system of thought created from the teachings of Old Major. They are also not killed when they become useless or for food, and they are never underfed as they were in Jones’s time. This benefit is particularly emphasized by Napoleon, one of the pigs, who “led them back to the store-shed and served a double ration of corn to everybody, with two biscuits for each dog” (21). The animals at first rejoice in their new circumstances, but are unsuspecting of the unavoidable tyranny that is to come.

Greed will eventually come to conquer Animal Farm, and it will fall back into the same tyrannical dictatorship it came from.
Napoleon, the ruler of Animal Farm, obsessed with power and greed, expels Snowball, his rival leader, and takes complete control of the farm. The puppies Napoleon took at birth have grown into fierce allies of Napoleon and will kill anyone who dares to go against his rule. He reduces the animal’s rations to reinforce his tyrannical rule. No one can stop the huge explosion of power and inequality that is soon to follow. Napoleon, though he takes control, begins to feel frightened of animals seeking the real meaning of Animalism, and rewrites the commandments to the pigs’ advantage and abolishes Beasts of England because it tells of freedom and equality. Boxer is a strong worker, but he thinks of the freedom that Napoleon promised. He is kept for his strength, but when he is injured, Napoleon takes him away to the knackers’ because Napoleon knows he is capable of rebelling against his leadership. As the farm falls back into the iron clutches of tyranny, Napoleon and the other pigs begin walking on two legs and carrying whips, which signifies the swift and irreversible transition back to the former insuppressible dictatorship. When the human visitors come to visit, it is revealed that the animals on Animal Farm “did more work and received less food than any animals in the country”(137). Eventually, Napoleon announces that even the name Animal Farm has
been abolished, reverting it back to Manor Farm, the name under Mr. Jones, and then finally everything, even the faces of Napoleon, and all the pigs, transform into one with their human companions, as a final maneuver to fully extinguish the dying embers of the once blazing fire of freedom and equality of Animal Farm.