George Orwell symbolized Karl Marx, the founder of communism as Old Major who founded animalism. Old Major was thought to be the wisest animal at Manor Farm. George Orwell cleverly expressed Karl Marx’s ideas in the context of Animal Farm through Old Major’s speech to all of the animals at Manor Farm. This speech laid the context and purpose behind Animalism and sparked the idea of the revolution within the animals. Karl Marx was the first to demand change, similarly Old Major was the first to excite the topic of change through his speech. The similarities between Old Major and Karl Marx can further be seen when Old Major excites the other animals exclaiming, “that is my message to you, comrades: Rebellion!” (Orwell Chapter 1) Similarly Karl Marx sparked the idea of a revolution exclaiming, “let the ruling classes tremble at a communist revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win. Workingmen of all countries, unite!” Unfortunately Old Major died before seeing the actual revolution take place but his philosophies and ideas that he left behind were carried through by the other animals. Similarly to Old Major, Karl Marx died before seeing the Russian Revolution take place but because he was widely respected, he made an impact on Russia and consequently the rest of the world through his followers, namely Leon Trotsky, represented as Snowball in Animal Farm.
George Orwell skillfully symbolized the fall of Czar Nicholas II and the start of the Russian Revolution through the character of Mr. Jones. Czar Nicholas II is often depicted as a cruel and unfit leader, much like the animals depicted Mr. Jones as miserly. They were both cruel in different ways and their poor leadership was the reason the people and animals revolted.
Czar Nicholas II turned his back to any form of power given to elected representatives. After coming to the throne, a group of peasants and workers from various towns came to his Winter Palace to propose court reforms such as the adoption of a constitutional monarchy in what is known today as the Tver Address. After receiving this address, Czar Nicholas II responded saying, “I want everyone to know that I will devote all my strength to maintain, for the good of the whole nation, the principle of absolute autocracy, as firmly and as strongly as did my late lamented father.” It can be concluded from this statement that Czar Nicholas II strongly opposed any form of shared power, and wished to rule with absolute control. According to Old Major’s speech Mr. Jones acted in a similar way. Old major begins his speech by criticizing Mr. Jones. He begins to question the lives that all the animals lived, pointing out how they rarely experience happiness and lived a miserable life. He then continues to explain that man, was the only creature that “consume[d] without producing.” (Orwell Chapter 1) Implying that Mr. Jones ran his farm for his own profit and did not care much for the animals in his farm.
After conflicting with Japan over ambitions to claim territory over Korea and Manchuria, Russia and Japan fell into an inevitable Russo-Japanese war. It was this war that proved Czar Nicholas II to be a cruel and unfitted leader. After constant defeats in battles throughout the war due to poor military leadership, political unrest was seen throughout Russia, where the war was already unpopular. Wanting to express the feelings of the working people, a peaceful march was organized led by priest George Gapon. George Gapon expressed his intentions of the march to be,
“…a noble endeavor, under the guidance of truly Russian educated laymen and clergy, to foster among the workers a sober, Christian view of life and to instill the principle of mutual aid, thereby helping to improve the lives and working conditions of laborers without violent disruption of law and order in their relations with employers and the government.”
In short, George Gabon mainly wished to defend the worker’s rights and lift their moral and religious status. But this peaceful march was met with soldiers opening fire, killing men, women, and children. This day is infamously known today as Bloody Sunday; a turning point in Russian history. George Gapon successfully fled and went into hiding and issued a letter to Czar Nicholas II which stated,
“Nicholas Romanov, formerly Tsar and at present soul-murderer of the Russian empire. The innocent blood of workers, their wives and children lies forever between you and the Russian people … May all the blood which must be spilled fall upon you.”
This statement expressed the feelings of most of the people in Russia at the time, their belief that the Tsar and the people were one had disappeared. Mr. Jones’s treatment of the animals was thought to be inevitable for the sake of the farm’s profit, just like the Russo-Japanese war was thought to be inevitable for the sake of Russia’s profit. As a farmer, Mr. Jones solely sought for himself, and his family; he thought of his animals as workers who served him. Old Major encouraged a revolution after pointing out the cruel treatment they’ve been receiving. In his message in the barn Old Major says,
“that is my message to you, comrades: Rebellion! I do not know when that Rebellion will come, it might be in a week or in a hundred years, but I know, as surely as I see this straw beneath my feet, that sooner or later justice will be done. Fix your eyes on that, comrades, throughout the short remainder of your lives! And above all, pass on this message of mine to those who come after you, so that future generations shall carry on the struggle until it is victorious.” (Orwell Chapter 1)
Old Major believed it was unfair for man to take all of their hard working benefits. Similar to the feelings that the people of Russia had, who’s resentment against their government eventually led to a talk of revolution.
After the death of Old Major, the pigs (being the cleverest animals), namely Snowball and Napoleon with the help of Squealer, took the lead in the resistance against Mr. Jones and turned Old Major’s speech into a philosophy called “Animalism.” After being neglected food, the animals led by the pigs drove Mr. Jones and his men off the farm, renaming Major Farm into Animal Farm and writing what they called the “Seven Commandments of Animalism” on the wall of the barn. The “Seven Commandments of Animalism” comes from Old Major’s speech and declared that all animals are equal. The commandments include,
“whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy, whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend, no animal shall wear clothes, no animal shall sleep in a bed, no animal shall drink alcohol, no animal shall kill any other animal, and all animals are equal” (Orwell Chapter 1).
This is a clever reference to the Russian Revolution that took place as the Russian people grew tired of Czar Nicholas II’s rule and revolted against him. The pigs naturally emerged as leaders even though a vote was not taken amongst all of the other animals, similarly the Bolsheviks —a faction of the Russian Social Democratic Party— with Vladimir Lenin as leader, seized control and became the dominant political power after the Russian Revolution. Vladimir Lenin (along with Karl Marx) can be symbolized as Old Major in Animal Farm. After Lenin’s death, the title of the leader was fought for between Snowball and Napoleon, who symbolized Trotsky and Stalin respectively. The name of the farm changing from Manor Farm to Animal Farm is significant because it symbolizes Russia’s name change to the Russian Soviet Republic. The pigs remained in control but as Snowball and Napoleon clearly disagreed with everything the fight for power becomes evident. Snowball engages the animals by teaching them to read while Napoleon takes nine newborn puppies and educates them on his own, focusing on educating the youth, claiming that it was worthless to teach those who were already “grown up.” The fight for power comes to a turning point when Napoleon turns down Snowball’s plan for a windmill. Snowball wants to create a windmill “which could be made to operate a dynamo and supply the farm with electrical power. This would light the stalls and warm [the animals during] winter, and would also run a circular saw, a chaff−cutter, a mangel−slicer, and an electric milking machine” (Orwell 15). The animals are overwhelmingly in favor for the creation of the windmill which would create machines that would do their work for them. But before the final vote to implement the windmill came, the nine puppies that Napoleon trained ran Snowball off of Animal Farm. This symbolized Stalin expelling Trotsky from the Communist party and subsequent exile.
All the while the milk and apples began to disappear and it is later discovered that the milk and apples were being mixed into the pigs’ mash. The animals thought that the food would be shared equally amongst the animals and thought that this was unfair. Squealer backed Napoleon’s decision to do this by igniting fear into the animals claiming that the milk and apples were “absolutely necessary to the well−being of a pig” (Orwell 11), and that without the pigs, Jones would come back. Later Napoleon announced his decision that the Sunday meetings — where all animals had an input on decisions — would be stopped because it was “unnecessary,” and that in the future, all questions relating to the working of the farm would be settled by a special committee of pigs, presided over by [Napoleon]” (Orwell 17). Animal Farm was slowly turning into a dictatorship led by Napoleon. Similarly, once Stalin took control of the Bolshevik party, he converting it from communism into a dictatorship.
After Snowball was driven off of Animal Farm, Napoleon announced that the windmill would be built after all. He gave no reason behind his decision except that this meant that the animals have to work even harder than before. He explained how the windmill was originally his plan all along and that Snowball stole the idea from Napoleon’s papers. Determined to make Russia a world power, Stalin decided to industrialize the nation, similar to Napoleon’s decision to build the windmill after all. Stalin announced his Five Year plan which emphasized his goals for heavy industrialization, but this plan forced the Russian people to work extremely hard and is thought to have contributed to the famine of 1931 and 1932. Orwell symbolized what he thought to be the failure of the five year plan through the exhaustion and starvation the animals had to work through. The conditions the animals lived through were obviously worse off than before but Napoleon concealed this fact by deceiving the outside world. Instead of improving the quality of life Napoleon and Stalin worked towards gaining respect from the outside world through rapid industrialization.
As the animals faced starvation, Napoleon ordered four hundred eggs a week from the hens. This led to a terrible outcry from the hens followed by a protest, in which the hens flew up to the rafters and laid their egg there. Napoleon consequently “ordered the hens’ rations to be stopped, and decreed that any animal giving so much as a grain of corn to a hen should be punished by death” (Orwell 23). The hens held out for five days in which nine died in the effort. Napoleon then gathered all of the animals to the barn and forced four pigs to confess their collusion with Snowball ever since his expulsion. This led to the dogs (who Napoleon trained to obey every command) to kill these four pigs. After this execution, other animals came forward to confess any other “wrong-doing” which led to many more executions on the spot “until there was a pile of corpses lying before Napoleon’s feet” (Orwell 25). Stalin similarly either executed or sent any potential enemies to forced labor camps through the NKVD. These loyal followers of Stalin are symbolized by Napoleon’s dogs who blindly followed his command.
Mr. Jones and his men attempted to get their farm back in the Battle of the Windmill.