Free Essays - Animal Farm As A Social Criticism :: Animal Farm

Animal Farm As A Social censure           Writers often use social criticism in their books to show corruptness or weak points of a group in society.  One way of doing this is fiction which is a story in which figures and actions are symbols of general truths.  George Orwell is an example of an author who uses allegory to show a social criticism effectively.  As in his fiction Animal Farm, Orwell makes a parody of Soviet Communism as demonstrated by Animal Farms brutal totalitarian rule, manipulated and exploited working(a) class, and the bullshits evolution into the capitalists they initially opposed.  Totalitarianism is a political regime based on subordination of the individual to the state and strict control of all aspects of life.  It was used by Stalin and the Bolsheviks in Russia during the 1920s and 30s and is parodied in Animal Farm by Napoleon, the almighty leader, and his fellow pigs and their ridiculous prop aganda and rigorous rule. In the book, Napoleon is deified and made superior to all other animals on the farm, for example he is called emperor or leader while everyone else was referred to as a comrade, and all the pigs were given higher authority then the quietus of the animals.  An inequality between the pigs and rest of the farm was that the pigs lived in the farm house while the other majority had to sleep in pastures.  A certain pig Squealer who could turn black into white was in charge of propaganda, and he would often change the commandments of the farm so that they would fit the actions of Napoleon or the upper berth class of the farm which was supposedly classless.  For example, at one time a commandment read No animal shall drink alcohol(P. 75), but in brief after Napoleon drank an abundance and almost died the commandment was changed to No animal shall drink to excess. which made it seem as though Napoleon was within the rules.  other instance where N apoleon showed severe rule was when everyone on the farm who had either pledged for or showed support at one time for Snowball, the exiled former leader, was penalize on the spot.  This act was a humorous resemblance of The Great Purge in Russia where all opposition was killed off.  The governing system of the Animal Farm was very corrupt, but it did not stop with the propaganda and executions. At first on the Animal Farm, it was promised to the majority of the animals who were neither Napoleon or a pig, or the so-called working class, that from each according to his ability to each according to his needs, no more, no less.