How does Animalism represent communism as a system?

Orwell’s Animal Farm is a political satire where the author uses animal characters to deliver his information. From the novel, all the animals in the Manor Farm are tired of the oppressive nature of the human. The animals decide to revolt against the cruel human leadership. For them to achieve this, they decide to have a different management of the firm and set up a set of new commandments to govern the farm. One of the most significant ‘’laws’’ was concerned with the equality where all animals would be equal. From the animal farm, we can see a great relationship between animalism and the Russian communism. The choice of pigs gives the biggest depiction of the communist rulers of Russia such as Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin. The author depicts traits, personalities and actions similar to the actual powerful men in the Russian government.

From the story, it is clear that pigs represent the communist leaders of Russia. For instance, Old Major is advocating for equality among all the animals. His actions can be compared with Karl Marx, who also had revolution dreams. Old Major advocates for unity among the animals and is rebellious against the oppressing human leaders (Beissinger, n.p). In the struggle for the animalism, the pigs made the other animals believe that all men are enemies. There is also a great relationship between Old Major and Lenin who both had revolutionary dreams but never lived to see the revolution in effect.

Another aspect of communism is portrayed by Napoleon. From the novel, Napoleon is a ruthless commander of the animal farm is symbolic of communist Joseph Stalin. There are great similarities between the two where cruelty, selfishness and corruption are the common characters. It is important to note that while Napoleon rids himself of Snowball and takes control, Joseph Stalin removes Trotsky and declares himself a political heir. Both Napoleon and Stalin were not compassionate and ruled with an iron fist. Political assassinations were common especially to those who opposed their rule. Napoleon had his dogs at his disposal while Stalin had his KGB soldiers and propaganda that they used to control the ruled.

Leon Trotsky can be compared to Snowball to the animal farm. The two are smart revolutionaries who win crowds by their eloquent speeches. They also used their creativity and innovative ideas to make life better for the other people. However, the ruthless leadership hates such challenges and will try to eliminate it through all possible means (Chitnis, 2005). For instance, Snowball is chased out of the farm by Napoleon while Trotsky is murdered in the hands of Stalin. The selfish leaders will try to portray such leaders as enemies of the people. All kind of lies will be invented to discredit them and portray them as traitors to the common course of the people.

In essence, the pigs in the novel represent the communist party loyalists. It is clear that communism is initially concerned with the well-being of the people. However, as time progresses, the revolutionary ideas change to the worse. From the novel, pigs are initially concerned with the welfare of the other animals and rescue them from the cruel leadership of the human (Daniels, 2007). However, with time, the pigs take advantage of their leadership positions where corruption and cruelty hit the greatest heights. It is clear that the pig leadership is at times worse than that of human leadership. Even though the revolution starts out with positive goals and intentions, the leaders become careless with their power and end up no better than their predecessors.

The benefits and disadvantages of communist systems (Animal Farm)

From the novel, there are several occurrences that depict advantages and disadvantages of the communist system. For instance, the animals benefit from the communism system since they can fight the man. Old Major strives to unite all the animals and fight against human dominance in the farm. Their unity enabled them even to change the name of the farm from Manor Farm to Animal Farm. Farmer Jones is also chased from the farm, and the animals benefit by achieving independence and self-rule.

However, it is also important to note that the communism system has some disadvantage as depicted by events in the novel. For instance, the pigs are drunk with power and start humiliating fellow animals. It is clear that the level of oppression to the animals is even greater than during the human rule. Increased corruption and selfishness become the order of the day during the pig rule (Beissinger, n.p). The communist system denies the people a chance to be ruled by astute leaders. For instance, Snowball is chased out of the farm despite his intelligence and innovative ideas. Communism is associated with series of political assassinations as communist rulers always eliminate those against their leadership. The use of Squealer the pig was great symbolism propaganda where he convinced the other animals that Napoleon was smarter than Snowball. This is a bad tactic for communists as the people will fail to benefit from inventive ideas of such leaders.

References

Beissinger, M. (n.d.). Historical legacies of communism in Russia and Eastern Europe.

Chitnis, R. (2005). Literature in post-communist Russia and Eastern Europe: The Russian, Czech and Slovak fiction of the changes, 1988-98. London: RoutledgeCurzon.

Daniels, R. (2007). The rise and fall of Communism in Russia. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Orwell, G., & Steadman, R. (1995). Animal farm a fairy story. New York: Harcourt Brace

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