All revolutions, whether successful or not, start with an idea, a philosophy. The success of a revolution often depends on how true its founding philosophy is.
The animals of Manor Farm initiate a revolution. It is their revered philosopher, Old Major, who inspires this revolt. One of Majors maxims that rallied the animals to action was Man is the only real enemy we have. Remove man from the scene, and the root cause of hunger and overwork is abolished for ever.
It is fairly easy to work out how true and accurate Majors prophecy is because he makes a cause and effect prediction. The animals achieve the first point of Majors formula for success by driving out the men, so they should therefore look forward to a life together where hunger and overwork are only memories. Of course no such utopia is created; by the end of the tale the majority of the animals are probably more miserable and oppressed than ever before. Majors philosophy therefore fails its practical test. In many ways, the more interesting question is why this happens.
Majors vision is flawed because he fails to identify the real cause. He sees the problems as being outside the animals. If only they can change the environment, he urges the animals, things will improve. He is a pragmatist.
What his philosophy ignores is the thing that really counts morality. Man is not the real enemy; the real enemy of the animals (and of course the humans too) is their own sinfulness.
The animals that most clearly show the destructive sinfulness, with all its selfishness, exploitation and betrayal, are the pigs.
The pigs, led by Napoleon, show throughout the book that they want to run Animal Farm for their own benefit. Once the animals had rid the farm of the humans, the pigs saw the opportunity to seize power. From the start of the animals rule over the farm, the pigs established themselves as the rulers. They would order the animals to start working in the fields and told them who was getting food and how much they would get. Eventually the pigs have fulfilled their selfish ambition by enjoying all the best of food and comfort.
The pigs also used their intelligence to exploit the less educated and to control all dissenters. They were the only animals apart from the goats that could read. With this advantage the pigs were able to alter the truth and history of the revolution as they saw fit. Because the other animals cant read or remember most of the commandments by heart, they found it easy to change the rules to their benefit. An example would be when the animals suspect that the pigs are drinking alcohol. When they check the commandments the 4th commandment had been changed from No animals shall drink alcohol to No animal shall drink alcohol to excess . The pigs had once again fooled the animals.
Not content to merely outwit their less intelligent comrades, the pigs also use power ruthlessly to control any beast that even thinks of questioning them. They use Jones dogs to strike fear into the hearts of those who have done wrong. Because the animals are scared of the dogs, they begin to confess things that they have done. Napoleon purges all those who confess, but in doing this he breaks the 6th commandment, which states No animal shall kill any other animal.
Napoleon can end up looking a lot worse than man, because he not just mistreats the animals; he also is disloyal to them.
The animals are also culprits to the problem; they let the pigs rule over them and the result was that they were sucked into there own troubles. Their own stupidness and loyalty to Napoleon led them to believe that Napoleon was right, even when he was obviously not.
The answer to the statement Man is the only real enemy we have. Remove man from the scene, and the root cause of hunger and overwork is abolished for ever, would be that if man was removed from the picture hunger and over work will still become problems. The animals and the pigs were also factors in the troubles that they had; to prove this when man was removed; their problems were still there.
Already have an account? Log In Now
5899