Marxism in Orwell's Animal Farm
Madeline Leme
English IV
April 26th, 2013
Animal Farm Paper
“Without Questioning”
In the book Animal Farm, writer George Orwell reflects the life of a small group of animals living together on a farm. As the story progresses, readers will notice that the plot closely reflects the beliefs by Karl Marx, a great social and economical philosopher of Russia. Orwell illustrates the four concepts of Marxism, the theory of history, the labor theory of value, the nature of the state, and the dictatorship of the proletariat. Marx created the concept of communism. In Animal Farm, Orwell actually gives us through Old Major’s speech a simplified version of the principles of communism. For example, the Manifesto, famously ends, “The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win. Workers of the world, Unite!" While Old Majors speech ends with his final call to, “Rebellion!”
Communism is about the economy and equality of classes. The idea of communism works, but putting it into action, because of the tendency of humans to be selfish, it doesn’t work. For example, in animal farm, the animals all wanted to be treated justly for their works done. They felt that Mr. Jones was abusing them, so they started their rebellion. Initially, all the animals were on the same level, there was no separation of classes. But, as in communism, soon there became an obvious separation between the pigs and the rest of the animals. “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” Napoleon, Snowball, and Squealer all rose in ranks and began leading the farm.
Another idea of communism was that everyone would reap the same rewards. Again, there was an apparent lack of equality. The pigs were receiving more, even though there work was less. All the other animals that worked harder ended up being the poorest in the farm. “This work was strictly voluntary, but any animal who absented himself from it would have his rations reduced by half.”
English IV
April 26th, 2013
Animal Farm Paper
“Without Questioning”
In the book Animal Farm, writer George Orwell reflects the life of a small group of animals living together on a farm. As the story progresses, readers will notice that the plot closely reflects the beliefs by Karl Marx, a great social and economical philosopher of Russia. Orwell illustrates the four concepts of Marxism, the theory of history, the labor theory of value, the nature of the state, and the dictatorship of the proletariat. Marx created the concept of communism. In Animal Farm, Orwell actually gives us through Old Major’s speech a simplified version of the principles of communism. For example, the Manifesto, famously ends, “The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win. Workers of the world, Unite!" While Old Majors speech ends with his final call to, “Rebellion!”
Communism is about the economy and equality of classes. The idea of communism works, but putting it into action, because of the tendency of humans to be selfish, it doesn’t work. For example, in animal farm, the animals all wanted to be treated justly for their works done. They felt that Mr. Jones was abusing them, so they started their rebellion. Initially, all the animals were on the same level, there was no separation of classes. But, as in communism, soon there became an obvious separation between the pigs and the rest of the animals. “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” Napoleon, Snowball, and Squealer all rose in ranks and began leading the farm.
Another idea of communism was that everyone would reap the same rewards. Again, there was an apparent lack of equality. The pigs were receiving more, even though there work was less. All the other animals that worked harder ended up being the poorest in the farm. “This work was strictly voluntary, but any animal who absented himself from it would have his rations reduced by half.”