Animal Farm Review: Part II

Animal Farm by George Orwell is a classic novel, in which the animals of manor Farm overtake the farm from the farmer, Mr. Jones, and seek to form their own farm and society without humans. This novel discusses many different themes, though the ones I am going to discuss in this article are totalitarianism and class struggle.

The first theme I’ll be discussing is totalitarianism, which is a system of government that is centralized, doctorial, and requires complete subservience to the state. I would argue that this is the theme that is most prevalent in this novel, due to the repentance of this idea throughout the entire novel. For example, the novel goes form man being the totalitarian ruler over the animals of the farm at the beginning of the novel, to the pigs becoming just the same, or even worse, totalitarian rulers over the farm at the end, without the animals really noticing it for a while. The implications about our society are seen through this discussion of how this totalitarian kind of rule, is one that isn’t obvious to those who are in it, as the animals themselves don’t see this control the farmers, then pigs, have over them, is one that can happen to us today and isn’t an outlandish idea.

The second theme I’ll be discussing is class struggle, which is defined as the conflict between different classes, especially conflict of interests between the working class and the ruling class in a capitalist society, which is reagreed as inevitably violet. An example of this struggle is how after taking over the farm, the pigs immediately announce themselves as the leaders, since they can read, and are the ‘ruling class’. As the novel goes on, it can be seen how the pigs continue to hold themselves up to a higher standard than for example, the horses. Specifically, how the pigs never do any manual labor, as they are the ‘ruling class’, and the horses do a great lot of manual labor, as they are the ‘working class’. This theme is another one that can be seen in our society today. As those who work jobs that rely on the use of their manual labor, are considered lower than those who have careers in which they rely on their education.

These themes are different, though both tie together when relating to how a government can seek control over its citizens using coercion and manipulation. By manipulating the classes in this novel, the pigs were able to gain complete and centralized control over the farm.