Animal Farm

George Orwell’s political satire “Animal Farm” makes some interesting contrasts between the patriotic character of Old Major, an older majestic looking pig, and Napoleon, a pig who seems to bide his time waiting for the right moment to seize control for his own evil purpose. Old Major makes a patriotic speech to the assembled group, expounding the virtues of animalism (socialism) In effect he is calling for a utopian socialism in which the community must sacrifice for the collective well being of its members. He begins with the rhetorical question: “what is the nature of this life of ours? Let us face it: our lives are miserable, laborious, and short. We are born, we are given just so much food as will keep the breath in our bodies, and those of us who are capable of it are forced to work to the last atom of our strength; and the very instant that our usefulness has come to an end we are slaughtered with hideous cruelty. No animal in England knows the meaning of happiness or leisure after he is a year old. No animal in England is free. The life of an animal is misery and slavery: that is the plain truth”. (Ch I)

The comparison (analogy) with the original concept of Karl Marx’s socialism is clear: “1) complete equality of all citizens, 2) abolition of private ownership of the means of production (factories, mines, railways, etc.), 3) the replacement of a market economy with one in which everyone got whatever they needed in return for such labor as they were able to give.” http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~wldciv/world_civ_reader/world_civ_reader_2/marx.html

The seven commandments of the new “animalism” order states that they are all to be comrades (friends), and behaving in any way similar to humans (capitalists) such as sleeping in a bed or drinking alcohol shall be illegal. Notice the similarity in the seventh commandment “All animals are equal”, (Ch II) to the “complete equality of all citizens” from the Marx Manifesto. Thus Old major becomes the symbol for freedom and equality, which is the embodiment of social democracy. Notice also a very interesting detail from chapter three, when the flag of animal farm was founded: “The flag was green Snowball explained, to represent the green fields of England, while the hoof and the horn signified the future Republic of the Animals which would arise when the human race had been finally overthrown ”. So as one may observe, this flag was almost identical to the flag of the Soviet Union, which consisted of a plain red flag, with a hammer and sickle crossed;

a red star in the upper hoist. The hammer symbolized the nation's industrial workers, while the sickle symbolized the nation's agricultural workers. The red star represented the rule of the Communist Party. http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Flag_of_the_Soviet_Union

Napoleon is an aggressive, shrewd pig that, along with Snowball, becomes the early leader of Animal Farm. After he successfully eliminated Snowball

“ His imagination had now run far beyond chaff-cutters and turnip-slicers