Historically I could compare the Old Major to Karl Marx, the communist idealist. He was the one to start the idea of rebellion or so called revolution. He was the wisest of all the animals on the farm. Personally, I could compare farm animals to peasants who work hard everyday, but receive little from Mr. Jones (The Czar).
Throughout the text various characteristics can be discovered. Pigs are the thinkers, leaders and the smartest of the animals. They organized the revolution and have control over the farm. The two horses, Boxer and Clover are loyalists, easily manipulated by the pigs. The rest are the army, following the leaders’ orders.
Burning of objects that Mr. Jones possessed is symbolic. The animals burned down every single thing that belonged to Mr. Jones. When farm animals enter his house, they discovery luxury that Mr, Jones had for his entire life, while they lived in filthy and small barn. The house is a parallel to the Kremlin or the palace that monarchy in U.S.S.R inhabited.
At the end of the book, we can see that the dreams of utopia and perfect world are slowly shifting away. I feel like there is totalitarianism, the pigs slowly abusing their power. As the two pigs, Snowball and Napoleon fight and struggle for leadership, they both represent Russian Leaders of the Communist Party. I could associate Snowball as a more socially and intelligent one, Leon Trotsky and Napoleon more like Stalin (Conservative)
Continuously, Beasts of England is sung. It becomes an every day activity, a patriotic symbol and the national anthem of the newly created society.
In chapter three, the animals work hard to harvest their crops. Their laborious work pays off and the harvest is bigger than the one made by Mr. Jones. The pigs try to teach animals basic skills of reading and writing. Most of them are unable or unwilling to acquire important skills. This detail tells me that there is imbalance in power and gives a kind of foreshadowing that pigs will use their superior knowledge for their own advantage.
The Seven commandments were written from pigs’ point of view. They show idealistic, moral and Utopian values. The news so called slogan “Four legs good, two legs bad” is a simplified version to keep other animals from asking questions. The easily comprehensible slogan is a way of manipulation that the pigs can use to easily fill the dull minds. The animals trust blindly their leaders and believe every word they say. Animals want a better life, and since they are incapable of critical thinking they leave the decisions for the wise ones. One of the best examples is when the pigs explain why they eat autumn apples and drink milk. They briefly explain that it is to keep their mind well nourished, since a leader or a thinker needs good food to work efficiently. No one asks questions or protest, they simple move on. Pigs use effectively their linguistic and psychological methods that they’ve learned through the books to ensure their power. As a reader, I get a sense of emerging regime instead of Utopian land promised at the beginning.
By looking back at my history book, I can make a connection with Lenin, Stalin, Hitler or perhaps Mussolini. Anyone opposing the state is its official enemy.
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Comparing Old Major to Karl Marx is interesting because he was a communist idealist. There is one major difference in their class. Karl Marx never ran anything in his life. He was a philosopher, somewhat of an economist and also wrote for newspapers. He never worked as a politician nor ever ran a business.
His ideas were entirely based on theory and he never tested them. So, he was an idealist as you say. The fact that the Pigs' theories also had never been tested would also have been an interesting comparison.
In chapter 2, the struggle against the animals and the farmer are representative of the feudal system that still existed in parts of Europe and in Russian. Most of the peasants are illiterate as are most of the animals. The peasants live in poverty and work until they die. The poor working people are known as the proletarians in the language of Marx.
The burning of objects, be they worthwhile or not, is often common to revolutions. The pigs as you point out are the intelligent ones. This class is called the intelligentsia. The intelligentsia's class is made of the intellectual elite. They are often the ones who lead the proletariat class to action.
The farmer represents the bourgeois class. He owns the land and decides on everyone's faith. The bourgeois class are the richer class.
The other class that gets a nod in the text is the clergy. The bird, a raven, is all black. Priests and nuns used to be dressed all in black. The bird reports to Jones. The clergy used to be paid mostly by the bourgeois class so they often reported back to them. The raven claims the existence of a candied mountain where animals go when they die. The candy mountain can easily be seen as a metaphor such as heaven. The intelligentsia class has to fight against the clergy such as it did in Russia.
Robin, you did good work in this section. However, there is one weak flaw in your blog. You refer to Marx so you should have delved more into Marxism to be able to better draw similarities between the novel and Marx's ideology. That would have made your arguments much stronger.
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