Comparing Orwell's Animal Farm And The Russian Revolution

Rulers Will do Whatever it Takes to Receive Power in both Animal

Farm by George Orwell and in the Russian Revolution

Power is highly sought after and people are willing to go through with actions they would never do if it weren't for power. Often people will do whatever it takes to gain and maintain power. They take many actions against others to prevent anyone from taking their power. George Orwell, an author well known for criticizing totalitarianism, writes about the struggle to maintain power in his novel, Animal Farm. Orwell’s background had major influences on his decision to write the novel, which parallels people and events during the Russian Revolution. The Russian Revolution, in 1917, was the collapse of socialism and the
At a young age Orwell started writing, however, his first two novels were largely unsuccessful. He attempted to write more novels, but eventually took a break and and a pivotal moment in his life was when he joined the Civil War in Spain. Orwell traveled to Spain that summer and, "In July 1936 the Spanish Civil War broke out. By the end of that autumn, Orwell was readying himself to go to Spain to gather material for articles and perhaps to take part in the war"(“Orwell, George” 254). The Spanish civil war gave Orwell the insight to write about revolutions he himself had experienced. The Russian Revolution took place during Orwell’s childhood, so he wrote Animal Farm as an allegory for it. In Animal Farm, barn animals rebel against a cruel farmer, Mr. Jones. The animals planned for everyone to have equal power, much like communism, however the system collapsed once the pigs started to take advantage of the other animals. Animalism was originally created by Napoleon which dictated all animals were equal and they all were bound by the seven basic commandments. Napoleon, the leader of the pigs took many actions to end Animalism. Eventually, after months of
The Secret Police and Napoleon’s dogs followed everything their leaders said to do which kept the opposing people or animals under control to prevent any leadership disagreements. Napoleon’s dogs were raised by him early in the novel, but quickly became large fierce animals feared by the other animals. This fear originally came after the dog’s furiously chased Snowball off Animal Farm, disappearing forever.The animals were described as wearing chain studded collars and having sharp teeth, along with being ginormous. As the group of dogs were chasing Snowball, it states, “Silent and terrified, the animals crept back into the barn”(Orwell 53). This scene describes the feeling of the other animals and how they were scared of the dogs and wanted no part in them. With the use of these dogs, Napoleon was able to establish dominance over the other animals. Just as the dogs created fear among the animals, the secret police acted almost in an identical way, scaring Stalin’s opposing positions. The secret police were a police force run by the Government that virtually went after anyone who resisted Stalin’s ideas or viewpoints. Also, similar to the dogs, the police had more weapons and outnumbered protesters that they were able to dominate opposing threats. In addition, “The police had the power