Animal Farm
Essay on Old Majors Speech
The novel Animal Farm by George Orwell begins with Old Majors famous speech, which incites the other animals to form a rebellion; similar to the events leading up to the Stalin era and the rise of Bolshevism. The actual story is the most famous satirical allegory of Soviet totalitarianism.
To begin the story, George Orwell narrates how Old Major, the prize Middle White Boar, had had a strange dream on the previous night and wished to communicate it to the other animals. Majors speech was a mixture of Marxism and Lennism, both famous Russion Revolutioneries who, like Old Major, fueled the Communist revolution.
Old Majors speech set a new beginning for the animals, which stimulates the revolution throughout the rest of the book.
Old Major was twelve years old and had lately grown rather stout, but he was still a majestic-looking pig, with a wise and benevolent appearance in spite of the fact that his tushes had never been cut. It is clear that he is a powerful figure, but at the same time wise and full of ideas. He starts his speech saying Comrades, you have heard already about the strange dream that I had last night. By saying comrades it draws him and the animals closer together as if to emphasize his main point; all animals are equal. The fact that the other animals have heard about Old Majors dream creates a bond between the animals, to show how they console one another.
In his speech Old Major is full of ideas as he states-I feel it my duty to pass on to you such wisdom as I have acquired. The main goal of the speech was to show the animals how Man is the only real enemy they have. Man is the only creature that consumes without producing. He does not give milk, he does not lay eggs, he is too weak to pull the plough, he cannot run fast enough to catch rabbits. Yet he is lord of all the animals. This ties in with the pigs as they, like man, later rule over the animals. This may be due to overall brainpower as the pigs outsmart the animals, and Man outsmarts the pigs (to some extent). It is clear from this and the way the pigs change, how communism and equality never work-one of Orwells main messages in the story.
All of Old Majors ideas can be summed up in one main quote; Remember always your duty of enmity towards Man and all his ways. Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy. Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend. And remember also that in fighting against Man, we must not come to resemble him. Even when you have conquered him, do not adopt his vices. No animal must ever live in a house, or sleep in a bed, or wear clothes, or drink alcohol, or smoke tobacco, or touch money, or engage in trade. All the habits of Man are evil. And, above all, no animal must ever tyrannise over his own kind. Weak or strong, clever or simple, we are all brothers. No animal must ever kill any other animal. All animals are equal.
However, when one reads the opening chapter and Majors speech-it is hard to see how, throughout the course of the book, this enticing speech is gradually broken down until is has all but diminished. This is partially due to most of the animals being rather stupid: Boxer could not get beyond the letter D in the alphabet and none of the other animals on the farm could get beyond the letter A. This results in the animals not being able to remember the past too well, except the pigs (who keep it to themselves) and Benjamin (the donkey who was the oldest animal on the farm, and also the worst tempered) who never exercised his faculty. As most of the animals are not able to remember precedent times, they are often mislead by the pigs-which later results in the Seven Commandments being tweaked by Squealer (who had very round cheeks, twinkling eyes, nimble movements, and a shrill voice. He was a brilliant talker which consequently results in him deceiving the animals by Napoleons request. The others said that Squealer could turn black into white.).
The adjustment to the Seven Commandments usually turns towards the pigs favour, to satisfy their needs. The work of teaching and organizing the others naturally fell upon the pigs, who were generally recognized as being the cleverest of animals. It is clear already from this, how Old Majors speech is gradually deteriorating, as the pigs seem to be slightly more superior to the other animals. Squealer consoles the animals, saying, Do not imagine, comrades, that leadership is a pleasure. On the contrary, it is a deep and heavy responsibility. No one believes more firmly than comrade Napoleon that all animals are equal. He would be only too happy to let you make decisions for yourselves. But sometimes you might make the wrong decisions, comrades, and then where should we be? The classic hypocrisy seen here is too hard to miss.
As the book progresses, the Pigs dominance becomes more and more obvious. The first major incidence is when the animals notice that the apples and milk have gone missing, only to find that it was mixed every day into the pigs mash. Squealer was sent to make the necessary explanations to the others.
Comrades! he cried. You do not imagine, I hope, that we pigs are doing this in a spirit of selfishness and privilege? Many of us actually dislike milk and apples. I dislike them myself. Our sole object in taking these things is to preserve our health. Milk and apples (this has been proved by Science, comrades) contain substances absolutely necessary to the well-being of a pig. We pigs are brainworkers. The whole management and organisation of this farm depend on us. Day and night we are watching over your welfare. It is for your sake that we drink that milk and eat those apples. Do you know what would happen if we pigs failed in our duty? Jones would come back! Yes, Jones would come back! Surely, comrades, cried Squealer almost pleadingly, skipping from side to side and whisking his tail, surely there is no one among you who wants to see Jones come back. By telling the animals that their worst fears may become a reality, Squealer is able to deceive the animals, to get his (and the other pigs) own way. This process continues through much of the book, and is more continuous after the expulsion of Snowball, who-according to Comrade Napoleon, was in league with Mr. Jones.
Napoleon is further appreciated by the other animals for exposing and removing the traitor, Snowball, from their midst. Slowly, Napoleon gets a stronger and stronger hold over the other animals, dominating their every action. This echoes what happens in Russia with the rise of Stalin.
The situation at "Animal Farm", the new name for "Manor Farm", really starts to change now. Napoleon moves into Mr. Jones' house, sleeps in his bed, and even wears his clothes. In order to make his actions appear legal, the law had to be interpreted differently, which Napoleon arranged. At night Squealer would tweak the seven commandments, making only minor changes-though even these affected the laws a lot. A good example of this is, is when one night at about twelve oclock there was a loud crash in the yard, and the animals rushed out of their stalls. It was a moonlit night. At the foot of the end wall of the big barn, where the Seven Commandments were written, there lay a ladder broken in two pieces. Squealer, temporarily stunned, was sprawling beside it, and near at hand there lay a lantern, a paint-brush, and an overturned pot of white paint. The dogs immediately made a ring round Squealer, and escorted him back to the farmhouse as soon as he was able to walk. None of the animals could form any idea as to what this meant, except old Benjamin, who nodded his muzzle with a knowing air, and seemed to understand, but would say nothing.
But a few days later Muriel, reading over the Seven Commandments to herself, noticed that there was yet another of them which the animals had remembered wrongly. They had thought the Fifth Commandment was No animal shall drink alcohol, but there were two words that they had forgotten. Actually the Commandment read: No animal shall drink alcohol to excess. This happens several times in the book, and usually occurs because the pigs want something for themselves; to gain money they will need to be involved in trade-breaking one of Old Majors most imperative rules- no animal must everengage in trade. All the habits of Man are evil.
Another case of defiance to the original laws is when Napoleon befriends Mr. Pilkington, the human owner of a nearby farm. Napoleon had such control over the other animals that they accepted such a blatant disregard of their law about fraternizing with humans.
Towards the end of the book the real changes occur. Years passed. The seasons came and went, the short animal lives fled by. A time came when there was no one who remembered the old days before the Rebellion, except Clover, Benjamin, Moses the raven, and a number of the pigs. Most of the old days of the rebellion were forgotten, and the pigs seemed naturally to be the leaders. The sheep still baaed their usual phrase-four legs good, two legs bad-but soon this all changed. Clovers neighing had startled the animals, and soon they were by her side staring flabbergasted at the sight before their eyes.
It was a pig walking on his hind legs.
Yes, it was Squealer. A little awkwardly, as though not quite used to supporting his considerable bulk in that position, but with perfect balance, he was strolling across the yard. And a moment later, out from the door of the farmhouse came a long file of pigs, all walking on their hind legsand finally there was a tremendous baying of dogs and a shrill crowing from the black cockerel, and out came Napoleon himself, majestically upright, casting haughty glances from side to side, and with his dogs gambolling round him.
He carried a whip in his trotterthere was a deadly silencewhen just at that moment, as though at a signal, all the sheep burst out into a tremendous bleating of
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