Response To Animal Farm

George Orwell once narrated, “Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. Animal Farm is a novel written by Orwell, set in the early 1900s in England. The main characters of the book are the pigs: Napoleon, Squealer, and Snowball, the farmer, Mr. Jones, and the working animals, such as Boxer and Clover, the horses, Muriel, the goat, and Benjamin, the donkey. This novel is a metaphor, and it relates to the events of the Russian Revolution of 1917 that led up to the Stalinist era. All of the animals on Animal Farm form a rebellion against Mr. Jones, who represents Czar Nicholas II, after a pig named Old Major, who

“Beasts of England” is a song that Old Major taught to all of them, and it is extremely important because it is an inspiration to rebel against Man and bonds the animals together. The pigs decide to abolish it because, according to them, the song is no longer necessary. The tyranny that the pigs rule is destroying the culture of Animalism because this song is a major part of the animals’ lives. The reader feels that this dictatorship is destroying the animals’ history and culture even more after “[Benjamin] read[s] out to [Clover] what was written on the wall. There was nothing there now except a single Commandment. It ran: ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS” (Orwell 118). The original Seven Commandments are essentially what make up the foundation of Animalism and are based on the principles created by Old Major. By slimming them down to just one single Commandment, and also changing the meaning of them, the pigs ruin the entire purpose of the Rebellion. Instead of expressing the true ideas of Animalism inspired by Old Major of all animals being equal and keeping away from human beings, the pigs portray the opposite of that. The reader is certain that Napoleon’s autocracy has destroyed Animal Farm’s language when Napoleon tells his fellow humans, “Hitherto the animals on the farm had had a rather foolish custom of addressing one another as "Comrade." This was to be suppressed”

If Snowball had not been overthrown by Napoleon or the animals did not believe all of Squealer’s lies, Napoleon’s idea of ruling as a dictator would be a flop. Either the animals would have revolted against the tyrannical conditions that they were forced to work under, or Snowball would have created a peaceful farm with ideal conditions that benefit everyone. However, Napoleon and Squealer strategically take advantage of the animals’ lack of intelligence and Snowball’s lack of security to execute their plan to control the entire farm. As George Orwell mentions in one of his novels, power is the end, and people create the revolution in order to establish the