Animal Farm 6 Essay, Research Paper
Animal Farm: Utopia
The definition of Utopia is “no place.” A Utopia is an ideal
society in which the social, political, and economic evils
afflicting human kind have been wiped out. This is an idea
displayed in communist governments. In the novel, Animal Farm, by
George Orwell Old Major’s ideas of a Utopia are changed because of
Napoleon’s bad leadership.
Old Major explains his dreams and ideas to all the animals before
he dies. At his speech all the animals go to hear what Old Major
has to say. This happens on the night that Mr. Jones comes home
drunk. Old Major explains his ideas to all the animals:
Man is the only creature that consumes without producing. He does
not give milk, he does not lay eggs, he is too weak to pull the
plow, he cannot run fast enough to catch rabbits. Yet he is lord
of all the animals. (p.19)
This speech gets all the animals riled up and sends the toughts of
getting rid of man. Old Major then teaches them the song the
Beasts of England which teaches them the “great” life without man
and with no more bad leaders:
Beasts of England, beasts of Ireland,
Beasts of every land and clime,
Hearken to my joyful tidings,
Soon or late the day is coming,
Tyrant Man shall be o’erthrown,
And the fruitful fields of England,
Shall be trod by beasts alone.
Rings shall vanish from our noses,
And the harness from our back,
Bit and spur shall rust forever,
Cruel whips no more shall crack.
Riches more than mind can picture,
Wheat and barley, oats and hay,
Clover, beans, and mangel-wurzels
Shall be ours upon the day…(p.22-23)
After the song the animals were even more excited. They sing the
song so loud it wakes Mr. Jones up. Mr. Jones starts firing his
gun into the darkness. This quickly scatters the animals.
Three days later Old Major dies so Snowball and Napoleon take over
but Napoleon wants all the power. Snowball does a lot of research
and planing but Napoleon wants to take over completely by
himself. So Napoleon frames Snowball so he can become the leader.
Orwell tells about the meeting to discuss the windmill:
By the time he had finished speaking, there was no dought as to
which way the vote would go. But just at this moment Napoleon
stood up and…uttered a high pitched whimper of a kind no one had
ever heard…nine enormous dogs wearing brass studded collars
came…they dashed strait for snowball. (P.57)
This scene shows Napoleon is a tyrant and wants all the power to
himself and that he has been sneaky. Napoleon has trained nine
mean attack dogs for his protection and other purposes. This
foreshadows some of his later actions. Later Napoleon starts to
become a hypocrite and tries to erase old memories and ideas that
were not his own when he went against his own rules by going into
Mr. Jones house:
Nevertheless, some of the animals were disturbed when they heard
that the pigs not only took their meals in the kitchen and used
the drawing-room as a recreation room, but also slept in
beds…Boxer passed it off as usual with “Napoleon is always
right!”, But Clover, who thought she remembered a definite ruling
against beds, went to the end of the barn and tried to puzzle out
the Seven Commandments which were inscribed there. Finding
herself unable to read more than individual letters, she fetched
Muriel.
“Muriel,” she said, “read me the fourth commandment. Does it not
say something about never sleeping in a bed?”
With some difficulty Muriel spelt it out.
“It says, `No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets,’” she
announced finally.(p.69)
Clover did not remember the fourth commandment saying anything
about sheets. The pigs were also seen eating in a kitchen and
playing in the drawing-room, even though Napoleon was against all
of this in the beginning he became a big part of these
activities. From this scene some animals are starting to notice
their “Equal and Perfect” world is becoming not so equal any
more.
As the years pass by there are more incidents that prove, Napoleon
wants to have more power. Also the “Utopia” idea is going away.
Napoleon uses Snowball to blame for all his problems. When the
windmill is first destroyed he explains:
Comrades,”Do you know who is responsible for this? Do you know
who has come in the night and overthrown our windmill? Snowball!!
(p.72)
Napoleon says this when in reality the storm knocked the thin
walls down. Also after this scene Napoleon takes more rations
when food is low. Napoleon starts to drink alcohol and wear
clothes near the end. This gets the other animals mad but very
confused:
It was a pig walking on his hind legs. Yes, it was Squealer. A
little awkwardly, as though not quite used to supporting his
considerable bulk in that position, but with perfect balance,”out
came Napoleon himself, majestically upright,”He carried a whip in
his trotter,”all the sheep burst out into a tremendous bleating of-
“Four legs good, two legs better!” “Four legs good, two legs
better!” “Four legs good, two legs better!”
It went on for five minutes without stopping”Benjamin felt a nose
nuzzling at his shoulder. He looked round. It was clover” “My
sight is failing,” she said” For once Benjamin consented to break
his rule, and he read out to her what was written on the wall.
There was nothing there now except a single Commandment. It ran:
All animals are equal. But some animals are more equal than
others.
After all of this confusing the animals are very confused. They
just go along with the scenario but some do not approve. The
animals start to see there “perfect” world disappear.
Orwell shows Old Major ideas of a Utopia vanish by having Napoleon
emerge as a tyrant leader and shows that he is power hungry from
the start. Throughout the story Napoleon starts to change his own
regulations so he and the other pigs can have more comfort. The
animals are extremely confused because Muriel is the only one who
can read, so know one can remember the original Commandments.
Napoleon like any tyrant blames his problems on everyone else and
in the end ruins the animal’s ideas of a perfect world
completely. This story teaches people there is no perfect world
and somebody always wants more.