‘ANIMAL FARM’

AS A CONCEPT AND REFLECTION OF ANTI COMMUNIST IDEOLOGY

Farahnaz Youssofi

George Orwell was born in 1903 at Motihari in India. He lived up to the age of 47, and his original name was Eric Arthur Blair. The controversial content of his novels based on political events, perhaps forced him to write under a pseudonym.

The term Orwellian has come to be an epithet that signifies bleak forecast of the future. In fact, Orwell served as a member of the Indian imperial police in Burma from 1922 to 1927, when the police was a very dominant feature in the upholding of so-called democratic, but imperialistic norms. After he resigned from the Burma police, he made up his mind to talk against the domination of any person in society by another. The ideology at that time was socialism which upheld the values of equality, liberty, and fraternity. So, Orwell decided to be a socialist. But, the events in history went out to prove that socialism had anarchy inherent in its system, and thus socialist in Orwell was deeply wounded and so led him to condemn totalitarianism. Both his books --- ‘Animal farm’ and ‘Nineteen Eighty Four’ were brilliant, witty, and allegorical works that depicted the misuse of power by the powerful men.

He began to write Animal Farm at the end of 1943.The book Animal farm was based on the Russian revolution between 1917 and 1944. Orwell had lived during the time of the revolution and based a lot of the story on his life. Therefore, there are some similarities between Orwell and Animal Farm. These include the political background of the street, the characteristic of the animals, and the loyal and hardworking Boxer. 

Orwell intended to criticize the communist regime he saw sweeping through Russia and spreading to Europe and even to the United States. Though, he agreed with many Marxist principles, Orwell was unable to accept the communist interpretation of socialism, because he saw many similarities between the communist government and the previous Tsarist regimes in old Russia. Much of what happens symbolically parallels specific developments into the history of Russian communism and several of the animal characters are based on real participants in the Russian revolution.

Orwell paints a grim picture of politics in 2oth century, a time he believed marked the end of the very concept of human freedom.

Communism, which appears in the novel as ‘animalism’ was based on the ideas of Karl Marx, who believed that workers or proletariat did not enjoy the rewards of their labor, and predicted that they would one day turn against their employers and would create equality. These ideas became part of the communist manifesto and they provided the basis for Major’s speech, a speech that inspired the animals to overthrow their cruel owner and bring about justice.

Thus, the Tsars rule was seen as corrupt and oppressive and the revolution of 1917 brought about the communists under Lenin to power. The communists won the civil war aided by Trotsky’s leadership of the red army --- a clear parallel is made with Orwell reference to Jones’ invasion and the battle of the cowshed. The animals win the battle as a result of Snowball’s brilliant planning.

Lenin’s death resulted in the struggle for power between Trotsky and Stalin, reflected in the book in the disagreement between Snowball and Napoleon. Stalin eventually seizes power and Trotsky was exiled in 1924, just like Snowball was chased off the farm.

So, daily life in the Soviet Union was harsh but this became worse when Stalin began to punish anyone who could possibly challenge his authority. Here, we clearly see the link with Napoleon, who suppressed those who disagreed with him. His executions are directly associated with Stalin’s purges.

The seven commandments (1) are gradually destroyed as the novel progresses. This represents the gradual perversion of Marx’s original socialist ideas by Stalin.

To begin with, I will explain the growth of industrial revolution and capitalism which led to rise of Marxism, in which turn Marxism as a vigorous threat to capitalism.   

 Industrial revolution was widespread replacement of manual labor by machines that began in Britain in 18^th century. It was the result of many fundamental changes that transformed agricultural economies into industrial ones. It led to the growth of cities as people moved from rural areas into urban communities in search of work. The movement of people a way from agriculture into industrial cities brought great stress to many people in the labor force. Women in household, who had earned income from spinning, found the new factories taking away their source of income. The workers worked long hours but lived in appalling misery and poverty. Any attempt to improve their conditions was resisted by the owners. The working class was not allowed to meet and discuss its problems. They met in secret associations in privacy at death of night and took oaths. When they were betrayed, they were put through conspiracy cases and punished. To express their anger these workmen, some times destroyed their machinery and set fire to their factories and killed their masters. Finally the workers allowed having trade unions. The more intelligent and better skilled workers formed the unions. The membership of the union was made up of largely unskilled and unorganized workers, for collective bargaining. The only effective weapon they had was right to strike and stop working at factories. Their owner could face loss and allow his workers to starve.

After the first appearance of industrialization in Britain, many other nations persuaded similar changes. It spread not only to the United States, but also to Germany, France, and Russia. However, soon critics attacked this exploitation, particularly the use of child labor.

As a matter of fact, the industrial revolution and capitalism go side by side. Actually, the term capitalism was first introduced in the 19^th century by Karl Marx, the founder of communism. It was an economic system in which private individual and business firm carry on the production and exchanges of goods and services through a complex network of prices and markets.

Under capitalism, working class was exploited by capitalists. The workers though had a share in the production work, did not received the benefit of their work they produced. They workers were not treated equally with the ruling class. Government’s role was to be minimized in the economy and government was not to intervene in it.

Marx criticized it as a system, which creates two conflicting classes in a society --- working class, who did not own production were exploited by the capitalists class, who owned production. It was then that Marxism erupted as a vigorous and hostile competitor to overthrow capitalism. Marxism was a major force in world politics in much of the 20 the century. Contrary to capitalism, it believed in communism, a political and social system that in theory abolished classes and thus tried to bring about a classless society, where means of production were owned by all. Communism as a concrete social and political system made its first appearance in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Two revolutions occurred in Russia in 1917. The first revolution in February, overthrow the Russian monarchy. The second revolution, in October created the world’s first communist state and transformation of Russian empire into what became known as the USSR. The goal of those who carried out the second revolution was the creation of social equality and economic democracy in Russia. The principle figure in the genesis of Russian communism was the radical socialist Lenin. Like Marx, he believed in the necessity of political revolution to achieve communism.

In fact, the death of Lenin in 1924 triggered and impassioned struggle over political power and policy within the central committee and Politburo, the top leadership body of the communist party. Stalin, Lenin’s deputy for organizational matters, was victorious in the power struggle, excluding rivals, like Trotsky and Grigory Zinovyev.

Whereas, Lenin had ruled mostly from his post as head of government, Stalin as the party’s general secretary relied for political and administrative support mostly on the swelling bureaucracy of the party itself, becoming chairman of the Soviet government only during the Second World War (1939-1945). He cleverly utilized the party apparatus to place his supporters in key party positions, excluded his enemies and interfered in a multitude of decisions. Stalin had adopted the phrase “socialism in one country” as the basis for his regime, but instead it turned into a dictatorship, as Napoleon becomes a dictator in the novel of ‘Animal Farm.’ 

So,  the decline of Marxism was due to contradictions, impractical ideas and betrayal by the leaders. The idea of socialism was very appealing, but none of the leaders like Joseph Stalin, had a clue as how to achieve the great ideals. The socialist groups were divided into two groups: A) - evolutionary. B) - revolutionary groups as in Russia, Germany, and Austria. There was total lack of understanding of the spread of socialism between these groups. During the World War the socialist lost their prestige, because they could not live up to their ideas of socialism. Marxism failed because it reduced the present, the past and the future into a logical structure, where the inevitability of fate played mischief. To endeavor to make human life so dependent on hard and fast rules was foolish. Marx believed that change in the methods of production also required change in economic structure, ideas, laws, and politics. The greatest exponent was Lenin. He accepted this theory as a dogma and warned that, it was not to be applied without thought. He appreciated the essence of its truth, but was aware also of its inherent weaknesses.

Marx was looked upon as a prophet by many ailing countries of the world. He looked upon history as a grand process of evolution by inevitable class struggles between the bourgeoisie and working class. The Marxist philosophy gave way to communism. Most communists were idealistic, but in the process of spreading ideals of the communism they became used to the monopolistic power and authoritarian methods. Most communists became men, who came into the arena for personal good and advancement. They spread the canard, that if they relaxed their grip on political power, the forces of counter revolution would drown them.  Lenin spent the last year of his life trying to control the influence of Joseph Stalin. No doubt that USSR became an important and significant world power, but the Stalin regime gave communism a bad name. It came to be associated with the deeply undemocratic connotations of state ownership and control of the economy bordering on dictatorship. In recent times, social scientists argue that, dictatorship was an inherent quality of the ideas of Lenin and Marx. The failure of working class revolutions and impact of foreign capitalistic pressures led to the fall of USSR in 1991. So, George Orwell can be said to have prophesized the fall of communism through his book ‘Animal Farm.’

The cold war between America and Russia was due to ideological differences between them. The socialist revolutionary groups, like Russia, focused their attention on peasant majority. They hoped that terrorist activities, like assassination of figures of authority would spark a revolutionary uprising and create a new economy based on traditional peasant communes. Those with these ideals formed the socialist revolutionary party in 1901. They hoped that the working class would resent the exploitation and oppression of the two World Wars. By 1921 Lenin’s government had won the civil war and driven out the foreigners. The USSR came into being under Joseph Stalin and witnessed great economic development.

After the World Wars the colonies in Europe and Asia were divided between the USA and the USSR. Both were proponents of two different ideologies. The USA trumpeted the freedom of the individual; and his choice to pursue a career in life, while the USSR boasted of communal fraternity where each gave according to his capacity but each received according to his needs.

The ideologies had their own merits and demerits. Since the two ideologies did not see eye to eye on many issues the two countries were said to be at cold war. The implication was that whatever the USA upheld, the USSR derided and whatever the USSR upheld, the USA looked down upon. Several countries like Germany, Vietnam, Korea, Yemen, stood divided between the two major players of the cold war.

It was only when the people of the world realized that ideological wars were making their countries poor, they decided to combat these forces and that the barriers were broken down. Large espionages were set up by these two big powers to act as watch dogs of each other’s activities. The communist regimes met their nemesis because their influence on society was pervasive and repressive. It controlled and censored mass media, restricted religious worship and silenced political dissent. In the 1980s and in 1990s there were political and economical upheavals and communist regimes were weakened. Today, the single party communists are found only in China, Cuba, Laos, North Korea, and Vietnam. The fall of Soviet Union in 1991 saw the end of cold war. Its president, who was a Jewish Russian, Michael Gorbasheve had to resign and Soviet state disbanded and formed a confederation of eleven Republics. Free market laissez-faire now became the global economic order.

Though communism met its natural death, democracy in its truest spirit does not exist anywhere on the earth. There is control by the ‘haves’ of the ‘have nots.’ The guiding principle is that cost and risks are social but profit is very private. This almost gives credence to Orwell’s words: ‘all are born equal, but some are more equal than others.’ This idea becomes the theme of ‘Animal Farm’ which was written in August 1945. Europe and the world stood at cross-roads of the major players on the world stage. We see Winston Churchill been voted out of the office, Mussolini and Hitler dying. U.S. had dropped an atomic bomb over Japan and Stalin had showed himself as an irrational anarchist. Millions, including many communists, suffered and died after Stalin and his supporters consolidated their dictatorship. We see Orwell upholding the spiritual duty of a litterateur, to warn his society about the evils of totalitarianism.

So, let us to look at ‘Animal Farm’ as an experience of disillusioned communist with special reference to Orwell, Huxley, and Koestler.

Working with the imperialistic police in Burma, turned George Orwell towards socialism, because its ideals and aspirations were of high order for the individual. In ‘Animal Farm’ we see an author deeply wounded by the failure of socialist ideology, almost warning future generations not to be taken for a ride by any ideologies. Orwell decried the authoritarian tendencies of socialism but he did not become a conservative pessimist. He opted to laugh and mock at the principles of socialism.

‘Animal Farm’ can be said to be the best example of lampooning. This is the art of publicly ridiculing and satirizing an ideology. Every idea or ideology is made to stand on its head and mocked. We can see the title itself as a caricature. All the countries under the communist curtain, while pretending to work for the welfare of the working class were actually building up a sense of xenophobia.

The animals in ‘Animal Farm’ are representative of those under communist ideology. The author warns and laments about this xenophobia. The anthem ‘Beast of England’ is a parody of the socialist anthem ‘internationale’, which was a symbol of hope for the workers. The next are the seven commandments, which all animals had to follow. Here again we see the author making a parody of the ideals of communist manifesto, put forth by Karl Marx. When Napoleon and Snowball take charge of the farm, we see the author using the name Napoleon to tell us that people’s revolution can turn into murder and mayhem, as it happened during the French revolution. Even the name Snowball, if taken literally, suggests that one thing can lead to another until there is a total freeze. This results in snowballing.

The quarrels and fights between Napoleon and Snowball are identical to the clash between Stalin and Trotsky, who was also exiled like Snowball. In the novel, the sheep were the blind working class men, who followed the edicts of socialism. The hens were representatives of the nasty elements of socialism out only to destroy. The cows were the numerous workers of socialism, who would not lift a finger to help themselves. The pigeons were symbolic of the spy network that was set up to keep an eye on every soul. The most common phrase of those days was ‘Big brother is watching.’

Of the human characters,  Mr. Jones can be likened to Winston Churchill, who sleeps with the gun besides him, but is not active at the right time. Mr. Fredrick and Mr. Pilkington are the hoarders and black marketers, who become rich, while keeping the society poor. This, according to the author, is the biggest warning to the future generation. Unscrupulous trade and groveling humans, who would stoop to any level to make money are the greatest dangers to the future generation.

The author derides the concepts of equality. He confirms the Vedic idea that each individual is unique and any attempts to bring in equality would not only be foolish, but high ranking stupidity.

In the end of ‘Animal Farm’ we see the end of communism not with the blow of trumpets, but in a small whinny way. We see that, the author was disgusted with the methods of socialism. He always upheld highly the respect for truth and justice. That is what makes reading ‘Animal Farm’ a rewarding experience.

Arthur Koestler and Aldous Huxley, both were radical socialists. They found their fate misplaced and in their writings expressed, not only disappointment, but also dread at what man could do to another man in anarchic times. The most telling comment came from Koestler, who titled his book ‘Darkness at Noon.’ He felt that at its moment of glory socialism failed to rise to the occasion and had let down its most ardent proponents.

A reader finds a prophetic quality in ‘Animal Farm’; it almost foresees the future of communism. It can be read as a fable of animals behaving like men. It can be called an example of extended personification. Most critics look on it as political satire on communism and with especial reference to the activities of Soviet Union which emphasizes the corrupt bureaucratic approach to social problems. To understand the allegorical quality of this book, we need to look at the prophecy in it. George Orwell almost predicts the fall of communism and the Soviet Union 56 years before it actually happens. He was able to visualize the inherent contradictions in community and social welfare work. He realized that, while it was important to give the less fortunate an opportunity to better themselves, it was a bad idea to give them the key to governance. He almost seems to shout that, fire is a good servant, but a bad master. He proposes that small minds in positions of power tend to turn into authoritarian figure heads. This is because they lack the vision to look at life in its broadest sense. The myopic vision leads to lopsided rules and regulations, which are upheld more in default. We must also take into account that, while the author runs down socialism, he does not make in any part of the book, a case in favor of democracy. In fact he seems to be telling the future readers of the book the elemental deficiencies of socialism. It appears that, he wanted the youth to experiment with new forms of social engineering. He wanted the unique aspect of the individual to be respected and above all truth and justice to be upheld.

So, considering the above facts we can summarize about the present state of affairs in this manner.

Today, we live in a world devoid of precepts ideals and ideologies. There are many assertive of capitalism, which make an unequal society. Material wealth is the over riding facet of human life. Man tries for profit at the cost of good sense and knowledge. The men of 20^th century had the guts and gumption to try different methods of social welfare. They fought to uphold their convictions. In comparison the 21st century man stands as an ape with the vacuous mind. He lacks courage of convictions, and intensity. He prefers to be a part of a wining flock. He neither analyses, nor thinks. He works overtime to decimate anyone showing an ounce of the above virtues. There are collective efforts to quell all defiance and dissent and create a society of sycophants. Orwell’s book almost seems to predict this upcoming trend. Like the pigeons of the book in today‘s world, the computer, camera, and media act as prying eyes for the government. Today the common citizen is more controlled than during the Bolshevik’s regime. So, we can safely conclude that bloodthirsty democrats are more dangerous than ideology spouting communists.  

(1)   Seven Commandments:

• Whoever goes upon two legs is an enemy.
• Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend.
• No animals shall wear clothes.
• No animal shall sleep in a bed.
• No animal shall bring alcohol.
• No animal shall kill any other animal.
• All animals are equal.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

• J.L.Nehru, ‘Glimpses of World History’ – For Origin of Communism.
• George Orwell, ‘Animal Farm.’
• Encarta Encylopedia Delux  2004. Communism – Marxism – George Orwell.