George Orwell: The Callous Nature Of Totalitarianism

13 Pages 3150 Words

good, two legs better…by the time the sheep had quieted down the chance to utter any protest had passed” (Orwell a 89). The animals are angry that the Pigs’ want to start trading with the supposed enemy but the Pigs’ take advantage of the stupidity of the sheep and use their over whelming singing and bleating to drown out any opposition. The Pigs’ use songs to negatively influence the thoughts of the other animals. Moreover, the Pigs’ establish basic slogans that are the basis of the original rebellion against Farmer Jones. These seven commandments serve as a reminder of what the animals fought for; they also serve to enforce morals and values amongst the community. Sadly, the Pigs’ begin to change the commandments as they acquire further dominance. Northrop Frye comments,

At each stage of this receding revolution, one of the seven principles of the original rebellion becomes corrupted, so that ‘no animal shall kill any other animal’ has added to it the words ‘without cause’…Eventually there is only one principle left, modified to ‘all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others,’ as Animal Farm, its name has changed back to Manor Farm, and is welcomed into the community of human farms again after its neighbors have realized that it makes its ‘lower’ animals work harder on less food than any other farm, so that the model workers’ republic becomes a model of exploited labor. (Bloom 9)

Frye imparts the degradation of the once promising revolution. The principles that once distinguish the animals on Animal Farm from those on neighboring farms have been tainted. The Pigs’ change the commandments according to their needs and when the animals realize this, it is too late and the Pigs’ join the domineering humans, further enslaving the animals. Furthermore, when keeping order on Animal Farm became increasingly difficult, the leader of the Pigs’, Napoleon trained young dogs to become a...