Animal Farm by George Orwell is a classic tale about power, corruption and control. During revolutions, people give the government power and it is bound to abuse that power. The book Animal Farm was banned, especially in Soviet Russia which had experimented with communism and the results of such experiments were a totalitarian state and limited human freedom. The Soviet Union had been built by individuals who adhered to the utopian socialist ideas of Marx and Engels. The animals in Animal Farm replaces Mr. Jones, who conducted his affairs on the farm under the assumption and belief that the oppression of animals was natural. Animals were created so that they could serve man. The animals, especially the pigs who become architects of the revolution at the farm subverts that logic and create a new system. Despite its outside appeal, the new system claimed that the leaders of the farm operations were fighting to protect the interests of the animals against the maligned humans.
It is the argument that the communist represented by Stalin had replaced one system of oppression with another that led to the banning of the book. The difference was the illusion of fair representation. Orwell seeks to caution against unfettered revolutions. In their infancy, revolutions are led by men with the spirit towards change, but they later took advantage of their new privileged leadership positions to control and destroy individual freedom (Martin 24). Napoleon and his pig friends are not interested in seeing the conditions of the animals change. The pigs argue that “all animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others” (Orwell n .p.). They are interested in primitive accumulation and the subjugation of the lower class. Like the leaders of the Soviet Union, the pigs in Animal Farm began to define themselves as mindworkers and other animals had to do hard labor. Stalin and Soviet Russia saw this depiction of a system they were trying to portray as liberating an insult. The quality of communism was an illusion that Stalin and his ilk were well aware of.
Animal Farm is very appealing to a broader audience because of its predictions about communism were realized. Soviet Russia fell in 1989 and Russia had to entertain ideas about the free market and democracy. In the United States, Animal Farm is an essential reading for students of politics. It shows the dangers posed by a government with unlimited powers. Because the United States was founded on the ideas of private property rights and individual freedom, Animal Farm helps people reflect on how dangerous totalitarian governments can be. The freedom of the press and the freedom to assemble is absent in Animal Farm. The illusion of freedom is developed from the understanding that other animals are incapable of thinking for themselves. As narrated in the novel, “no one believes more firmly than Comrade Napoleon that all animals are equal. He would be only too happy to let you make your decisions for yourselves. But sometimes you might make the wrong decisions, comrades, and then where should we be?” (Orwell n. p.).
This is also tied to propaganda and the ability of governances to change narratives so that they can fit the interests of a few. Squealer, the pig in charge of information in Animal Farm tries to create elaborate instruments of propaganda and rewrite the history of the revolution.
In conclusion, Animal Farm is a classic tale about power and corruption. It is relevant today as it was relevant half a century ago. Left to themselves, governments can become dangerous instruments of human bondage. Animal Farm was banned because it cautioned individuals against totalitarianism and the capacity of governments to distort history.
Works Cited
Martin, Randal. Propaganda and the Ethics of Persuasion. Broadview Press, 2002.
Orwell, George. Animal Farm. New York, NY: Mariner Books, 2009.
