Animal Farm

6 Pages 1573 Words

Animal Farm vs. Marxism

Characters, items, and events found in George
Orwells book, Animal Farm, can be compared to similar
characters, items, and events found in Marxism and the 1917
Russian Revolution. This comparison will be shown by using
the symbolism that is in the book with similarities found in
the Russian Revolution.
Old Major was a prized-boar that belonged to Farmer
Jones. The fact that Old Major is himself a boar was to
signify that radical change and revolution are, themselves,
boring in the eyes of the proletariat (represented by the
other barnyard animals), who are more prone to worrying
about work and survival in their everyday life. Old Major
gave many speeches to the farm animals about hope and the
future. He is the main animal who got the rebellion started
even though he died before it actually began. Old Major’s
role compares to Lenin and Marx whose ideas were to lead to
the communist revolution. Animal Farm is a criticism of Karl
Marx, as well as a novel perpetuating his convictions of
democratic Socialism. (Zwerdling, 20). Lenin became leader
and teacher of the working class in Russia, and their
determination to struggle against capitalism. Like Old
Major, Lenin and Marx wrote essays and gave speeches to the
working class poor. The working class in Russia, as
compared with the barnyard animals in Animal Farm, were a
laboring class of people that received low wages for their
work. Like the animals in the farm yard, the people is
Russia thought there would be no oppression in a new society
because the working class people (or animals) would own all
the riches and hold all the power. (Golubeva and Gellerstein
168).
Another character represented in the book is Farmer
Jones. He represents the symbol of the Czar Nicholas in
Russia who treated his people like Farmer Jones treated his
animals. The animal rebellion o...