Themes in Animal Farm

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Themes in Animal Farm
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Power Leadership and Corruption

• That power corrupts is an inevitable conclusion
  of Animal Farm. When the pigs take over they
  claim that their goal is to preside over a farm
  of equal animals, all working together to support
  one another. Yet power quickly proves to be too
  much for a pig. Small privileges quickly bloom
  into full-scale corruption, and the pigs begin
  more and more to resemble those whom they claim
  to replace.

Question

• Are the pigs self-serving from the start, or are
  they corrupted by their power? By the way, the
  world has never been able to agree on this.
• What qualities allow the pigs to gain power in
  the first place, and what qualities enable them
  to keep their power? Are these different?

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Power Control over the Intellectually Inferior

• In Animal Farm, the pigs take power after the
  Rebellion because they claim that they are the
  most intelligent animals on the farm. Yet it soon
  becomes clear that intelligence and good
  intentions need not go hand in hand. The pigs are
  reliant on the ignorance of the other animals,
  and their inability to see how the principles of
  Animalism are becoming corrupted. To the extent
  that the animals dont question the pigs, they
  become complicit (partly guilty) in the
  corruption of their ideals.

Question

• You might be thinking what we're thinking, namely
  that the sheep are completely useless. And you
  might be right. But at the end of the day, do we
  actually need these less intellectual workers to
  support everyone else?
• While the sheep are extraordinarily inept, do
  they also have a certain power? You know, the
  kind of power that only a numerous group of
  brainwashed and brainwashing individuals can have?

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Lies and Deceit

• Like much else in Animal Farm, deception is used
  to gain power. The pigs deceive the other animals
  about the past, convincing them that certain
  events did or did not occur. They deceive them as
  to the present, pretending that their situation
  is better than it really is. And they deceive the
  farm animals as far as plans for the future,
  ensuring them their dreams will come true. We see
  that superior intelligence is often used not to
  lead justly, but to deceive.

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Rules and Order

• Rules are often thought of as a way to maintain
  generally accepted notions of order. Traditions
  might be thought of as a way of remembering ones
  debt to the past, of re-affirming ones values.
  Yet in Animal Farm, both function mainly as
  political tools. The commandments and the
  traditions set up immediately after the Rebellion
  are meant to unite and energize the animals. Yet
  both rules and traditions prove to be easily
  changeable, and the animals can't believe that
  these customs are being used to deceive and take
  advantage of them.

Question

• The animals establish tons of traditions on the
  farm, and certain routines become cyclic and
  expected. Is the action of the plot itself that
  is, the cycle of oppression-rebellion-corruption,
  a routine tradition? Could it be?
• What are the different rules that get changed?
  Why do they get altered in this order? Which
  changes are the most significant?

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Foolishness and Folly

• Foolishness in Animal Farm takes it root in the
  lower class animals, who are essentially duped
  into a life of hardship because of their lack of
  intellect. They fail to recognize the horrible
  nature of their oppression, the greed of the
  pigs, or the worsening of their lives.
  Foolishness also takes its root in the desire for
  petty but meaningless things, in vanity and
  frivolity. Mollie, who loves ribbons and sugar,
  just can't to adjust to a life of hardship after
  the Rebellion because of her foolish desire for
  the finer things in life.

Question
There seem to be some characters that are pretty
much always fools (Mollie, the sheep) and some
that are generally wise (Benjamin). Do they ever
step out of these roles? Do we ever see a moment
of clarity from Mollie, or foolishness from
Benjamin?
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Dreams, Hopes, and Plans

• Animal Farm, narrowly perceived, is simply an
  allegory for the Russian Revolution. More
  broadly, however, it is a criticism of utopian
  ideas in general. It is easy to see that the
  dreams instilled in the animals by Old Major are
  corrupted as time goes on, but one wonders if it
  were ever possible to fulfill them in the first
  place. Old Majors utopian ideal is contrasted by
  the cynicism of Benjamin the donkey, who is
  certain that "life will go on as it has
  always gone on that is, badly." At least in the
  case of Animal Farm, Benjamins cynicism proves
  much more justified than Old Majors dreams.

Question
How do the things we know to be inevitable
Boxer's aging, time passing, relate (in the text)
to the things we suspect are inevitable the
windmill being destroyed, the pigs getting
corrupt, the rations being decreased?
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Cunning and Cleverness

• At the very beginning of Animal Farm, it is easy
  to laugh at Squealers professed ability to "turn
  black into white" (2.2). Yet as time goes on, it
  becomes clear that Squealers cleverness can be
  used in very harmful ways. The pigs take
  advantage of the other animals lack of
  intelligence, and gradually brainwash, deceive,
  distract, and dupe them into a life of hardship
  and toil as short and miserable as their life
  before the Rebellion.

Question

• We know all these things the animals don't. Our
  knowledge as a reader puts us in a position to
  analyze the text. This is generally how parables
  work. Its easy to see how the pigs are taking
  advantage of the other animals, but perhaps there
  are also things going on in the real world, in
  our own big Animal Farm, that we might not be
  recognizing?
• The animals are really concerned about
  controlling the image of their farm in the
  outside world. Is this the same kind of
  manipulation that the pigs perform within the
  farm? Are the working class animals then also
  responsible, in some ways, for the attempted
  deception of the outside world?

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Violence

• Violence in Animal Farm is a tool of political
  oppression. Not only do we see actual violence
  used to kill and to exile enemies of the
  leadership, but equally important is the threat
  of violence. If any animal rebels or questions
  the pigs leadership, he or she can expect to
  face violence as a punishment.

Question

• What are the different kinds of violence we see?
  What we mean is, what are the tools of violence,
  and who is fighting whom here? Do the answers to
  these questions evolve over the course of the
  story?
• How is it that Napoleon executes such extremes of
  violence, and still has the other animals
  convinced he's a good guy?

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Pride

• In Animal Farm, pride serves to unite the animals
  as a common group in this way it is something
  akin to camaraderie. The animals take pride in
  banding together to overthrow their oppressive
  leader, and their communal feeling benefits
  everyone. Yet Napoleon, himself an extremely vain
  pig, quickly learns how to use the animals pride
  as a tool of manipulation. They are also so proud
  of their animal-run farm that they are blind to
  the fact that it is failing and corrupt.

Question
What do the pigs feel proud of as compared to
what the other animals feel proud of? Maybe one
is a better sort of pride than the other. Maybe
there's no such thing as "better sort of pride."
Hmm.
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Religion

• Religion in Animal Farm is used, as Karl Marx
  famously said, as an "opiate of the masses." The
  animals are distracted from their horrible living
  situation and life of labor with visions of
  "Sugarcandy Mountain," a supposed heaven.
  Religion is also peripherally associated with
  corrupt power. The government tolerates religion
  precisely because of its ability to placate and
  to distract the lower-class animals. Yet religion
  is also the only thing that makes the animals
  lives seem worth living as their situation
  becomes increasingly miserable.

Question

• Why would Orwell choose a raven as the main
  proponent of religion?
• Why call the raven Moses? It sounds like a
  biblical reference, i.e., Orwell beating you over
  the head with the club of literary significance.
  Yet Moses the raven doesn't do anything
  resembling Moses the man (leading a great big
  horde of people out of oppression and into
  freedom). So what gives?

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Works CitedNICK!

• Many thanks to
• http//www.shmoop.com/animal-farm/ for making
  this powerpoint presentation possible?