George Orwell s Animal Farm - 1360 Words

Roland Barthes, a critic, once said â€Å"Literature is the question minus the answer.† In George Orwell’s â€Å"Animal Farm†, the author raises the question whether the type of government, communism, is feasible in a community without leading to a type of dictatorship or totalitarianism. Orwell presents the idea that communism is a good idea in theory, but it always leads to corruption by the people who take power. The author presents the novel as an entertaining fable featuring an animal revolution; however, beneath this storyline Orwell utilizes literary devices, characters, and events to prove how communism is not idealistic in a real scenario. Orwell is able to obtain the audience’s pessimistic view towards particular groups and political†¦show more content†¦These ideas that Old Major presents all demonstrate a communist government, but later in the novel the pigs reign supreme and change the â€Å"THE SEVEN COMMANDMENTS 1. Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy. 2. Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend. 3. No animal shall wear clothes. 4. No animal shall sleep in a bed. 5. No animal shall drink alcohol. 6. No animal shall kill any other animal. 7. All animals are equal. (97)† Old Major, in the beginning of the novel, tells a speech of how the animals don’t deserve to be oppressed by humans. Instead, the animals should be able to govern themselves humanely, which portrays the idea that Orwell agrees with the idea of communism in theory to start with. Orwell demonstrates Boxer as the most admirable character, because he truly believes in the idea of communism and equality, but is too oblivious to see the corruption presented by the pigs. This shows that Orwell has sympathy for hard working laborers. The idea of communism is corrupted by the pigs and begins to show light to the other animals when Clover, Muriel and Boxer, discover that one of the commandments states, â€Å"No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets† (26-27). The end of â€Å"Animal Farm† shows the corruption that had been occurring all along, specifically with the ten commandments, when the animals discovered