Mallory

Malorie Goldblatt Animal Farm by George Orwell **Setting:** imaginary farm called Manor Farm (later changed to Animal Farm) in England around the time of the Russian Revolution Napoleon- leader of the farm after the animals’ rebellion Snowball- challenges Napoleon for control Old Major- Pig who has idea to rebel; dies after sharing his idea Boxer- strong horse who helps finish windmill Squealer- Napoleon’s helper/speaker/propagandist Clover- Boxer’s female friend Moses- the raven who was somewhat loyal to Mr. Jones, tells story of Sugar candy Mountain Mollie- Vain horse who loves attention Benjamin- old, pessimistic donkey Muriel- reads Commandments to Clover Mr. Jones- owner of Manor Farm, always drunk and mean Mr. Frederick- mean owner of neighboring farm Mr. Pilkington- nicer owner of another neighboring farm, Foxwood Mr. Whymper- human who represents Animal Farm Jessie & Bluebell- have puppies that become Napoleon’s watch dogs Old Major gathers all of the animals together in the farm to explain the dream he had the other night. His dream was about a utopian world for the animals, in which there were no humans. They begin to sing a song called “Beasts of England” that make them excited about this so-called paradise. Old Major dies three days later, and Napoleon, Snowball, and Squealer decide to continue with Old Major’s dream. The animals act out against Mr. Jones after he was too drunk and forgot to feed them. The Rebellion drives Mr. Jones out and the animals are free. They create the idea of Animalism, where all the animals are considered equal. They also create a list of Commandments that the animals must abide by. The commandments forbid the animals to do things such as drink alcohol and sleep in a bed with sheets, because that is what humans do. Some of the animals are unaffected by the rules at first. Mollie does not really listen to them, and Benjamin doesn’t even feel affected by them. The pigs also rename Manor Farm, Animal Farm. At first, Animal Farm prospers greatly. Every animal obeys the rules and they are being educated. Mr. Jones even attempts to retake his farm, but the animals work together to keep it from him. However, Napoleon and Snowball begin to disagree and struggle for their own power over Animal Farm. During a meeting where Snowball suggests building a windmill, Napoleon has his watch dogs come in and run Snowball out of the farm. Napoleon becomes the main leader and decides that the pigs will make all the rules. Napoleon changes his mind about building the windmill and the animals get right to work on it, especially Boxer, who devotes his time to completing it. One day, the animals find that the windmill has toppled over and Napoleon immediately blames Snowball for it. He then makes a rule that anyone who favors Snowball or opposes Napoleon will be put to death. He also begins doing humane things that were restricted in the original Commandments, such as sleeping in a bed, drinking, and trading with neighboring farms. Mr. Frederick attacks Animal Farms and destroys the windmill again. A war-like fight ensues between the two farms and Boxer is badly injured. Everyone believes that he dies, but Napoleon really sold him. Other animals are beginning to become weak. Mollie refuses to work anymore and later disappears. After a number of years, the pigs on Animal Farm become more and more like humans. They even walk on two feet and wear clothes. The Commandments become one commandment, saying, “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” Napoleon changes Animal Farm back to Manor farm during a meeting with Mr. Pilkington, Mr. Whymper and some other men. The other animals are spying on the meeting and cannot even tell who the humans are and who the pigs are. -The corruption of a socialist and communist government - The abuse of power and language - using lies to cover up the truth Communism (animalism) Rebellion Song (the Beasts of England) Rituals (the Commandments, flag raising ceremony) Propaganda (Boxer’s slogans) The farm/barn Windmill Allegory- representation of Soviet Revolution
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Orwell's Animal Farm and 1984 Anthony Kearney, The Explicator(Washington), Summer 1996, Vol. 54, Iss. 4, pg. 238, ISSN. 00144940

Full Text:

Copyright Heldref Publications Summer 1996

The famous slogan in Animal Farm, All animals are equal but some are more equal than others,"1 is more ambiguous than it has usually been taken to be. The slogan has invariably been read as meaning that some animals (the pigs) are more equal (are better) than others. If being equal is a good thing, then the more equal you are the better. This is what we might call the obvious meaning of the slogan, a meaning authorized by popular usage over half a century and so deeply embedded in everyone's mind that advertisers, among others, can use it to trigger our desire to be better than everyone else. In the novel 1984, for obvious reasons, the phrase was used often. "Are you more equal than others?" asked The Welding Journal, "This is your chance to become one who is more equal than others, more expert in the welding field....2 Being "more equal" means excelling in certain ways and being superior to others, just as the pigs in Animal Farm claim to be more equal than, and superior to, the other animals.

Although not disputing that this is the obvious way to read the slogan (nearly all readers have taken it to mean just that), I suggest that in the Orwellian context of Animal Farm, as opposed to that outside Orwell's text, the slogan can also bear quite another meaning, one which fits even better than the obvious one the issues raised by that work. If "equal" can mean something desirable and good, it can also in a primary sense mean no more than "identical" or "same." It is this meaning, I believe, that predominates in the slogan. The slogan should read, "some animals (not the pigs) are more equal (are more the same) than others (the superior pigs)." In this reading the pigs want less equality, not more; being "more equal" means that you belong to the common herd, not the elite. In the end this may lead to much the same conclusion as in the popular reading of the slogan-the pigs in both readings are marking themselves off from the other animals-but what is at issue here is the way equality is being defined, by the pigs and of course by Orwell himself. In the obvious reading of the slogan, equality is a desirable state of affairs, with the pigs claiming more of it for themselves; in the second reading it is distinctly undesirable, and the pigs want nothing to do with it. Lower animals are equal, the higher ones decidedly unequal. The slogan allows different readings due to the exploitable ambiguities of its key term, "equal." Orwell's own view of equality approximated that of R. H. Tawney in his classic work on the subject. For Tawney, promoting the ideal of human equality did not entail a belief in "the romantic illusion that men are equal in character and intelligence" but did entail a belief that social and economic inequalities were harmful to society.3 In the early 1940s, at the time he was writing Animal Farm, Orwell also wrote approvingly of "a growing wish for greater equality" among English people, hoping that some of the worst inequalities on the social, economic, and educational fronts would be removed after the war.4 This ideal of greater equality was obviously a basic tenet of his democratic socialism. However, his concern for the progress of equality made him extra sensitive to the unpleasant fact that the notion of equality was vulnerable to cynical manipulation by politicians. In "Politics and the English Language" (1946) Orwell lists "equality" as one of those "words used in variable meanings, in most cases more or less dishonestly.'5 In 1984 he reveals even sharper anxieties about the term: Here not only has the ideal of equality as understood by the best political thinkers been totally abandoned, but the actual word itself has been reduced by "Newspeak" to mean no more than "identical." As Orwell phrases it in his appendix, "The Principles of Newspeak," its former associations no longer exist:

For example, All mans are equal was a possible Newspeak sentence, but only in the same sense in which All men are redhaired is a possible Oldspeak sentence. It did not contain a grammatical error, but it expressed a palpable untruth-i.e. that all men are of equal size, weight, or strength. The concept of political equality no longer existed, and this secondary meaning had accordingly been purged out of the word equal.6 To reinforce the point, Orwell cites the passage from the American Declaration of Independence containing the phrase "all men are created equal" and adds, "It would have been quite impossible to render this into Newspeak while keeping to the sense of the original."7

This brutal purging of time-honored meanings of the term equality can already be seen occurring in Animal Farm, where the pigs themselves form an embryonic party. The pigs with their "some are more equal than others" idea begin the process-completed in the world of 1984-whereby "equal" starts to lose its libertarian meaning and comes to mean no more than "identical." The term "equal" may, at the beginning of Animal Farm, hold its revolutionary connotation intact, but by the end of the book it carries a drastically reduced and sinister meaning.

If, as I think, this reading accords more convincingly than the more obvious and popular one with Orwell's main preoccupations in Animal Farm and 1984, it is both ironic and appropriate that the slogan should have engendered such misreading and misapplication; it has all the appearance of a statement deliberately designed by its author to create problems of interpretation in a context where the manipulation of language is an essential part of the political process.