Animal Farm PoliticsEssay Preview: Animal Farm PoliticsReport this essayAnimal Farm Politics“Power corrupts, but absolute power corrupts absolutely” -Lord Acton (1834-1902). It is believed and can be notably seen in the past that many great people become dangerous and corrupt under vast amounts of power. It is this which is usually the greatest cause of their downfall. As we know many people fail, lose their status, or reputation when they are in a higher position. People of status, who have large amounts of control seem to become “power-hungry” and find it necessary to have it in their everyday lives, they need this power to function. Unfortunately in these types of situations, the well being of the “lower classes” becomes irrelevant and the only beings of importance are the ruler and his “comrades” and associates who benefit from agreeing with and enforcing the beliefs of their higher figure.
George Orwell reveals the effects, evils, and corrupt actions behind communist regime throughout his novel Animal Farm. Orwell accomplishes this by exposing, indirectly, the relation of past historical figures and communism through his characters, power, and situation.
George Orwell created a character, Napoleon the pig who emerges as the leader of Animal Farm after the Rebellion, who best paralleled the attitudes and characteristics of Soviet Leader Joseph Stalin. Napoleon, very much like Stalin, seems at first to be a good leader; unfortunately he is eventually overcome and is immensely steeped in greed and desire for power. Stalin, after suspecting many people in his empire to be followers of Trotsky (George Orwells character Snowball, who is intelligent, passionate, persuasive, and less conniving than his rival, Napoleon), methodically murders many. Napoleon decides that Snowball must be eliminated, much like the situation where Stalin felt these emotions towards Trotsky. (Stalin Ref. Archive, 2)
Old Major, the prize-winning boar whose vision of a socialist utopia serves as the initial inspiration for the Rebellion, as a character, best parallels the philosopher, social scientist, historian, and revolutionary, Karl Marx. This “pure-bred” of pigs is the “kind, grandfatherly philosopher of change” – an obvious metaphor for Karl Marx. Both Marx and Old Major were convinced that they should proclaim their visions of having a society filled with equality. Marx developed a belief that he identified as “Marxism”. Marxism regards property as evil. Old Major very similarly created a name for his beliefs he identified as “Animalism”. Karl Marx was an idealist, imagining a heaven on earth in which all men and women were equal and could enjoy an adequate standard of living. (Alkiviadou, 3)
“The necessary stages to reach this paradise were as follows:1. The revolution of the common man.2. The direct leadership of the common men by which Marx meant that after the revolution, those among the ordinary men who were members of the Communist party to assume complete leadership to ensure that the capitalists could not return.
3. Eventually this dictatorship would wither away and would disappear and all men would be free and equal.”Marx never explained how this process of “withering away” was to come about. (Guysboroug, 2)All people who heard of this great equal land felt compelled to reach that standard of living and the end cause was a revolt against their leader at that time. (Kreis, 4)
To express and depict the style and attitude of Lev Dawidowich Trotsky, the author George Orwell created the character Snowball. Snowball was an articulate, innovative, brilliant strategist, and idealist. Snowball at the beginning, was similar to Napoleon, who best represents Stalin, but as the novel progressed it was apparent that one of the two would have to step down and allow for the other to take control. To have the opponent eliminated, as it was seen necessary, Napoleon exiles Snowball from the farm. Trotsky was also exiled, to Mexico. While away on exile the both of them take the time to speak out against their arch-rivals. (Orwell) (Woods, 4)
Napoleon, much like the Soviet leader J. Stalin did, becomes “power-hungry” and cares little for people other than his immediate “comrades”. The way that Napoleon was able to come to power was through the exile of his opponent and rival, Snowball. This method was much like the one that Stalin had used to receive his power, when he had Trotsky exiled and assassinated. The other pigs who surround and support Napoleon could also be described as a symbol for communist party loyalists, thus enforcing his power. Another thing that intensified his power was when he took a litter of puppies from their mother to “educate” them. The “education” fed to the puppies would be an intense form of propaganda. Unknown to the mother, these puppies would soon turn on her, because of the
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Napoleon’s leadership was based on this form of military action. It was a program to keep down the ranks of the aristocracy. In order to give Napoleon a pretext to behead and murder the revolutionaries and to send them to prison again, he sent at least one of his most loyal and capable deputies to a jail in Vienna on the orders of his brother. If you ask anyone I recommend that you listen to Napoleon talk.
He took about a month to travel to America, and that wasn’t because, you see, he needed a break. He did one month at the prison, and then stayed there a day and a half on a trip to the United States. When he eventually returned to the United States, a large number of people were arrested on charges of treason. This was the period that the Communist Party of the USA was most closely linked to. But if you think about it, the real revolution that turned the tide of American national history, the first major party in American political history did this in the first half of the 20 th century.
The Party of the Americas went the rest of its lives on the basis of having all the people from all over the world meet in a great country with a political leadership that is quite different from their predecessors’. I’ll leave other theories for those who want to take the next step in this direction. Let’s just move on again. Let’s take the original form of Soviet Communism, from Lenin’s Bolsheviks to Mao’s, before the Great Leap Forward. That’s what happened next. But it also happened from Moscow to Vladivostok, which happened in 1949, to Cuba to Gobi Desert.
The idea of the Great Leap Forward was an idea that made sense when you consider that every time people in both countries had to deal with famine, food shortages, or natural disasters, they were given all the tools necessary to respond, to get their priorities right and to deal with the problems of the day. And then, after that, they would get together and they would work themselves to meet those needs, and have political support in order to make things right. And from that process to the first world war and a lot of things that are still to this day, Communism has been the Communist Party of the USA. When you start from that conception, you do have Communist Party history, but it’s not about communism of the world. It’s about fighting for your rights and your rights in order to get to the front lines as your country advances by the strength of the communist dictatorship. And that’s what Communism was as far as the first world war was concerned.
I believe that the next great change that has emerged is this. That the first leaders of the Communist party, the first Communist party in Western history were Communists, and that this was the first time any American to carry out any power-hungry, murderous, criminal, communist action against the country was defeated. This is how communism was used in World War II. In its present form, Communism has become a Communist Party. It was once a Party of Man that