Corruption In George Orwell's Animal Farm

Corruption is one of the corollaries of power which is a central idea in Animal Farm. Animal Farm is a fictional novel written by George Orwell in 1945. Orwell symbolizes many events and ideas in Communist Soviet Union in the setting of a farm. He also represents key people of Communist Soviet Union as animals on the farm. Orwell uses historic events and the abuse of power to develop and refine the theme of corruption in Animal Farm. Orwell uses many historic events in Animal Farm which correspond to events which occurred in the Soviet Union. These events include Vladimir Lenin’s ascension to power, Joseph Stalin’s conflicts with Leon Trotsky, Stalin’s rise to power, as well as many others. One of the important events that occurred in the

A key aspect of communism is to “increase in the number of national factories, workshops, railroads, ships; bringing new lands into cultivation and improvement of land already under cultivation” (Engles 1). Stalin’s Five-Year Plan also “dealt with agriculture, as agricultural products were needed” (Kort 105). This causes many problems at that time, the peasant’s revolting and millions of people in enforced labor. In Animal Farm, the animals, under Napoleon’s command, build the windmill “which could be made to operate a dynamo and supply the farm with electrical power” (Orwell 48). Building the windmill causes the animals to suffer and work very hard but the preeminent class of pigs did nothing to support the manual labor. This was analogous to the execution of the real Five-Year Plans under Stalin where the higher classes did not do as much work. Orwell interconnects Stalin’s Five-Year plans and the concepts of Communism to show how the windmill in Animal Farm is for a good cause but the lower status

After Stalin had emerged as a winner in 1929, he had garnered and procured a lot of power. Even though in 1929 “Stalin was not yet an absolute dictator, he had amassed enormous power and can justifiably be called a dictator as of that date” (Kort 104). While Stalin had a lot of power, he did not use the power for the greater good. He forced many peasants into labor, he killed many people including his own men, and the society that emerged after the Second Bolshevik Revolution did not follow Karl Marx’s ideals. Similarly, after Napoleon expelled the ingenious Snowball, he took complete control. One major event in Animal Farm was when “Napoleon, with the dogs following him, now mounted on to the raised portion of the floor” (Orwell 54). This marks the start for how Napoleon starts to take control over the farm. He makes everything the best for him and forces many of the animals to “[work] like slaves,” and their rations were cut short (Orwell 59). Later, Napoleon takes total control and does whatever he wants to with his superfluous amount of power. He becomes into a corrupt dictator because of the absolute power he had accumulated and how he suppressed any opposition and held his position amongst the farm animals. In the end both Stalin and Napoleon differ greatly from Communism and Animalism, the original ideologies set forth by the early thinkers in each of the societies.