Animal Farm Vs. Marxism
By: Wendy • Research Paper • 1,712 Words • January 26, 2010 • 1,190 Views
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Animal Farm vs. Marxism
Characters, items, and events found in George
Orwells book, Animal Farm, can be compared to similar
characters, items, and events found in Marxism and the 1917
Russian Revolution. This comparison will be shown by using
the symbolism that is in the book with similarities found in
the Russian Revolution.
Old Major was a prized-boar that belonged to Farmer
Jones. The fact that Old Major is himself a boar was to
signify that radical change and revolution are, themselves,
boring in the eyes of the proletariat (represented by the
other barnyard animals), who are more prone to worrying
about work and survival in their everyday life. Old Major
gave many speeches to the farm animals about hope and the
future. He is the main animal who got the rebellion started
even though he died before it actually began. Old Major’s
role compares to Lenin and Marx whose ideas were to lead to
the communist revolution. Animal Farm is a criticism of Karl
Marx, as well as a novel perpetuating his convictions of
democratic Socialism. (Zwerdling, 20). Lenin became leader
and teacher of the working class in Russia, and their
determination to struggle against capitalism. Like Old
Major, Lenin and Marx wrote essays and gave speeches to the
working class poor. The working class in Russia, as
compared with the barnyard animals in Animal Farm, were a
laboring class of people that received low wages for their
work. Like the animals in the farm yard, the people is
Russia thought there would be no oppression in a new society
because the working class people (or animals) would own all
the riches and hold all the power. (Golubeva and Gellerstein
168).
Another character represented in the book is Farmer
Jones. He represents the symbol of the Czar Nicholas in
Russia who treated his people like Farmer Jones treated his
animals. The animal rebellion on the farm was started
because Farmer Jones was a drunk who never took care
of the animals and who came home one night, left the gate
open and the animals rebelled. Czar Nicholas was a very
weak man who treated his people similar to how Farmer Jones
treated his animals. The Czar made his working class people
very mad with the way he wielded his authority and preached
all the time, and the people suffered and finally demanded
reform by rebelling. The Czar said “The law will
henceforward be respected and obeyed not only by the nation
but also the authority that rules it - and that the law
would stand above the changing views of the individual
instruments of the supreme power.” (Pares 420).
The animal Napoleon can be compared as a character
representing Stalin in Russia. Both were very mean looking,
didn’t talk very much but always got what they wanted
through force. In one part of the book Napoleon charged the
dogs on Snowball, another animal. Stalin became the Soviet
Leader after the death of Lenin. He was underestimated