This essay examines George Orwell's Animal Farm as a political fable in the tradition of Aesop, arguing that Orwell uses animal characters to critique the rise of totalitarianism — particularly Stalinism and Soviet Communism. Drawing on Orwell's personal experiences as a socialist and veteran of the Spanish Civil War, the paper traces how the animals' well-intentioned revolution deteriorates into dictatorship, how the principles of Animalism are progressively corrupted, and how fear and necessity drive populations to surrender their freedoms. The essay also connects the novel's themes to broader patterns of revolutionary failure and to contemporary concerns about civil liberties in the face of perceived threats.
George Orwell's Animal Farm employs the kind of characters and structure that would have been familiar in ancient Greece through the stories of Aesop's fables. Aesop used animals as a way of commenting on human behavior and expressing ideas about society and morality, and Orwell does the same in his fable about the development of a totalitarian society on a farm — and about the way such a society is allowed to develop because those who might have stopped it fail to take action.
It is clear that this was a major concern for Orwell, as it is expressed in many of his works, most notably in 1984 as well as in Animal Farm. Both can be seen as reactions to the way dictatorship arose in Russia and the way the world failed to recognize the threat and stop it. The book is rightly regarded as a satire on Stalinism and Soviet Communism. Orwell himself had been a socialist and had fought in the Spanish Civil War, but he came to see both sides as harboring totalitarian inclinations. In this book, Orwell shows how good intentions in politics can be subverted, and he does so by adopting a time-tested satiric method to expose the corruption of principle by expediency. Animal Farm is ultimately an account of the destruction of utopian aspirations under the influence of human nature.
Human nature in this case has been transferred to the animal kingdom, which allows Orwell to highlight these elements in a way that would not be possible if the characters were human. Because the characters are animals, the reader actually pays closer attention to the human characteristics displayed, since such characteristics do not normally belong to animals. In Animal Farm, the one human representative is Mr. Jones, the farmer, who is seen as an overlord and a dictator by the animals. When he comes home drunk and falls asleep, it creates an opportunity for the animals to reclaim their own destiny. They discuss the situation, led by Old Major, but a few days later Old Major dies, and the remaining animals find themselves in charge and undertake to build their own society. The story can be read as a satire on how good intentions become destructive when put into practice: the animals set out to create a democracy but produce a dictatorship instead.
What the animals do reflects what human beings have done in the past and are likely to do in the future — which is precisely Orwell's point. The animals develop an ideology intended to guide them, but over time it becomes a rigid set of rules that must be followed to avoid harmful retaliation. This ideology is called Animalism, and in the beginning it works well, as the animals strive to improve their world and work together to make the farm more productive. As they do so, they take pride in their ability to govern themselves. The society they create is one they hope will be more just, more fair, and more humane than the one they endured under Jones.
That hope accompanies the creation of every new society. It was the hope of the socialists and the Bolsheviks in Russia before the revolution was seized by Stalin and transformed into something very different from what had been envisioned. It was equally the hope of those fighting the Nazis in Spain — and the hope Orwell himself carried into that conflict. His disillusionment with the revolutionary process stems from his recognition that human nature enables a few to thwart the desires of the many and to turn any revolution to their own ends.
This process of subversion begins at Manor Farm as goods that should be shared by all start to disappear. Many of the events that take place are reminiscent of the way the Soviet state developed. Boxer the horse is admired and celebrated for his devotion to the cause, much as certain workers were given awards and publicly honored in Soviet Russia even as the regime was killing thousands who failed to follow the party line or who did not conform to the program set forth by the leadership. The extensive principles of Animalism are eventually reduced to the slogan "Four Legs Good, Two Legs Bad" because it is easier to remember — though this simplification also fundamentally changes the character of the revolution itself.
"Animalism's tenets simplified and abandoned"
"Trade with humans and collapse of ideology"
Orwell, George. Animal Farm. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1954.
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