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Social Class In Animal Farm By George Orwell

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Class Distinction: The differentiation of one social class from another; a point of differentiation between social classes, as a characteristic attitude, behavior, etc. In George Orwell’s Animal Farm , Orwell gives us greedy and manipulative pigs that represent government officials throughout time. As always the hard working animals put a fair amount of trust in the pigs to lead them; and this is because of their gullibility and lack of intelligence. The pigs use this to instate a hierarchy that leaves them at the top. Class distinction is the most effective mode of persuasion because when the pigs believe their authority is being questioned, the pigs reinstate the hierarchy by convincing the working animals that their job is immensely harder. …show more content…

Despite Snowball’s best attempts to teach the other animals to read, there is an obvious difference; therefore, allows the pigs to take advantage of the lack of education of all the animals. You begin to see this is when the windfall apples are taken for the use of pigs. Squealer persuades that the apples “, contain substances absolutely necessary to the well-being of a pig.” (17) The pigs use the scapegoat of tiring brainwork, and using the “milk and apples” out of the spirit of selflessness when truly this is the opposite of what is actually going on. Likewise, when one of the seven commandments change to, “ All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others” (63) we can see that the pigs begin making the divide between the two classes even larger than before. The pigs are showing that they matter more and must remain at the forefront of the farm, and this change to the seven commandments show that the pigs feel insecure in their position and feel the need to rectify this with the other animals. Not to mention, when Mr. Pilkington says, “ ‘If you have your lower animals to contend with,’ he said, ‘we have our lower classes!’ ,” (65) this fortifies that the pigs have separated themselves so much from the working animals that even human leaders begin to notice the differences. The pigs wholly consolidate the power by limiting the other animals education and intelligence to see how power mad the pigs have become. The lack of education and lack of intelligence assist the pigs in their path to taking over the

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