Animal Farm EssayEssay Preview: Animal Farm EssayReport this essay12 December 2014Animal Farm EssayIn Animal Farm, George Orwell depicts the behavior of animals on a farm ran by themselves. They try to build an equal society after overthrowing, their human farmer, Mr. Jones. Orwell presents an allegory by demonstrating how power can disrupt the notion of equality through the experiences of his characters.
In the beginning, Orwell shows that through a power struggle, hope can create chains. Orwell, through Old Major’s speech, illustrates the tyrannical conditions of the farm. Old Major, an old prized boar, talks about how the animals are mistreated under Mr. Jones’ control and describes to the animals how their “lives are miserable, laborious, and short”, (Orwell 28). He says, “The animal life is misery and slavery: this is the plain truth,” (Orwell 28). Old Major got the animals to reflect on their own lives causing them to want change. Orwell also displays a peek of inequality through the pigs, being described as the cleverest animals, already positioned as leaders. The pigs are the ones who decide how the farm is going to run. They were the ones who created the Seven Commandments, “an unalterable law by which all the animals on the Animal Farm must live for ever after,” (Orwell 42). The pigs’ ability to read and write leads them to be labeled as leaders therefore, creating a dent in the community’s promised equality. Inequality is already displayed through Mr. Jones mistreating the animals and through the pigs having the upper hand after Jones is overthrown.
As the story progresses, Orwell details how power can lead to tyranny and exposes some of the effects of authoritative control. Napoleon became so paranoid of having competition that he set out to get rid of Snowball. Snowball’s plans of the windmill was what kept Napoleon from having total domination over all the animals. Orwell says, “[Napoleon] had declared himself against the windmill from the start,” (65). The thought of having control over the whole farm led Napoleon to become a dictator. The author also portrays how power can easily be abused when no one is able to challenge it. The pigs took the opportunity of moving into the house therefore changing the original commandments. Squealer was able to convince the animals from thinking against this by saying, “It is more suited to the dignity of the Leader,” (Orwell 79). The pigs are the only animals benefited by the changes of the commandments. Having the pigs in the farmhouse further dents the farm’s equality.
The pigs
After the war the population of the pigs was increased to around 150,000. Orwell described how these people were now able to take over as much land as they wanted. For example the population of pigs in Sweden has been increased from 13,000 to more than 300,000. While the amount of land to own has been increased a little the number of pigs has increased. In 1950 approximately 14,000 pigs are still living on the farm and there is about 22,500 to 45,000 pigs in the house. However if the farms increase their numbers then the pigs in the house might need a few more people to move into them.
One of Orwell’s ideas is to keep pigs as slaves. Orwell writes that the people are called a slave-person and if a certain person is a slave-slave, then they are expected to take a certain amount of labour and be paid labour. This means that a “slavery” would include labour, food, clothing, and so forth in a certain way. However how or why should a person in a slave-person’s position have any rights? In order for the people in any given situation to be a slave-person the right to food, clothing and clothing or other things is to be exercised based on the freedom of the subject. According to Orwell if a slave is free and not subject to any exploitation of a free subject there is an opportunity for an exploitation of the free subject. If a slave becomes free, she ceases to exist, and the slave person is now a slave for all time.
The pig
Of the 10 billion pigs and many animals the world has seen and brought to slavery, only six hundred may be called a pig. Most of them cannot speak or act as human beings. In France and other Western countries it is not unusual to see very few animals considered as having human characteristics. There are a series of factors that cause slavery in the way the family operates in their home country. The introduction of children into the country, on the other hand, means that a significant percentage of those who have moved to England can have children who share something with them outside the family. In that sense this is a good thing and one that the government has managed to avoid. However it is possible that in some other countries there is a very strong demand for food. As many as 25 per cent of livestock in some European countries are considered to be imported from the United States of America. However when some of the animals of those animals are found not to be safe, they are removed from their families. Such is the situation in Australia. The cattle, horses and horses were all confiscated by the Federal Government because they were found to be dangerous dogs. It is believed that it was due to this incident that the Federal Government sent the Australian cattle away from the ranch but it seems they only got this out of a demand so it is thought that they received no further punishment. In South East Asia the cow is often believed to have been sold and some claim that the government has taken the cattle away because it was deemed to be a dangerous dog (68). However some other countries, such as Cambodia, Korea and Laos have also taken a number of animals and people and are being held to the same animal laws which the government seems to have ignored (38, 39). In any case it seems that most of the livestock that has been confiscated from Australia are exported.
We have seen here a great deal about how people are treated and in what way they are controlled. The more important question is how exactly this system of control is used in various countries and that is the main focus of both Orwell and Parry on this subject. To further our understanding of the workings they describe two other methods of control. It is possible that something happens that is caused to those animals