Comparing The Commandments Of Old Major In George Orwell's Animal Farm

The Commandments of Old Major In George Orwell’s novel, Animal Farm, animals begin their rebellion against their horrid leader, Mr. Jones, by having mindsets of motivation and determination from the most well-respected pig within their vicinity. The wise pig, Old Major, decides to share his ideas with the farm animals about a life without controlling farmers, which encourages all the creatures on the farm. Within Old Major’s speech, the elderly pig declares, “The life of an animal is misery and slavery: that is the painful truth.”(28). With a single leader to dictate all their actions, restricting them from having enough food, Old Major speaks out his mind as a way to connect with the crowd of animals and to convince the creatures to side

As a result of Old Major’s motivational speech, the animals execute their devised plan, passionately defeating Mr. Jones, and later renaming their new farm as Animal Farm. Afterward, the animals generate commandments based off of Old Major’s speech, representing the April Theses on the Bolshevik newspaper when “The Commandments were written on the tarred wall in great white letters…”(43). With the involvement of these seven, significant directives, the animals become devoted to these rules in honor of Old Major and as a way to maintain their hatred for humans. Thus, following their basic, written rules as loyal members of Animal Farm, no matter what occurs. In their perspective, as long as the words of the Seven Commandments remain exhibited on the walls, then the animals must follow them to the best of their ability, much like the Bolsheviks, who obeyed the concepts of the

In terms of Old Major’s speech, the wise pig announced, “Remove Man from the scene, and the root cause of hunger and overwork is abolished for ever.” (29). With a passionate desire to remove humans from the farm, Old Major exhibits similar characteristics as Lenin’s thinking, especially in relation to aspects of the April Theses. The elderly pig claims that without Mr. Jones, all the farm animals will receive the right amount of food they deserve and the right amount of rest they need. Additionally, with no human to rule them, the animals get all the farmland and peace to themselves. Through these specific grants of benefits Orwell presents, the readers can interpret Old Major’s proclamations as directives in the April Theses due to the slogans of “Food”, “Land”, and “Peace”. With these memorable slogans, Lenin infatuated the people of Russia into believing that with the execution of his plan, everyone in the country will receive food, land, and peace, much like what Old Major proposes. By incorporating the three notions in his writing, George Orwell not only signifies the April Theses itself but also employs allegory to precisely relate to Lenin’s slogans during the Russian Revolution. Moreover, in Old Major’s speech, he also announces, “This is my message to you, comrades: Rebellion!” (30). Some may