Totalitarianism In Animal Farm By George Orwell

Decent Essays
Many ideas seem ideal in theory, but in practice they can cause corruption, infringed rights, starvation, and even massive death. Through his literary works Eric Blair, known as George Orwell, showed how totalitarian governments become corrupt. Because Orwell expressed his ideas in the 1940s, he was unable to write an essay stating his views because Great Britain was at war with the Soviet Union, which was practicing a totalitarian form of communism. For his safety, Orwell showed his readers the negative effects of totalitarian governments by writing a fable and a dystopian novel. Both 1984 and Animal Farm seem like enticing stories on the surface, yet in reality they share a deeper meaning; totalitarian governments can become immoral in practice …show more content…
Although Soviet Russia was built on the basis of communism, it quickly became a totalitarian socialist regime. Orwell criticized this in his fable, Animal Farm. Orwell also advocated for socialism and moral leadership through his many essays. Throughout his life, essays, and novels, George Orwell morally objected to totalitarian states, thus he was against the form of communism established in the Soviet Union.
In Orwell’s writings and actions, he expressed that he was a socialist who disapproved of totalitarian regimes. Orwell fought with the British army against fascists, who wanted to create a totalitarian government, in the Spanish Civil War in 1935-1937 (“The Political Ideas of George Orwell”). He did this to prevent the establishment of totalitarianism in Spain because he was morally against it. In his essay, Why I Write, Orwell reflected, “the Spanish war and other events in 1936-37 turned the scale and thereafter I knew where I stood. Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been
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He used animals to portray Soviet leaders during the 1900s. Readers are aware of his views towards communism because Orwell focused on the corruption of the leaders of Manor Farm. After the animals revolt against Mr. Jones, a pig named Napoleon uses his trained dogs to exile Snowball, the rightful leader. By doing this, Napoleon, the Stalin figure of the book, gains control of Animal Farm. To ensure his power, Napoleon omits the gatherings where the animals voted. The animals are unable to make any political decisions, so Napoleon is ruling absolutely. Napoleon succeeds in controlling Animal Farm despite the commandment the farm established, “all animals are created equal” (Animal Farm 4), because he took advantage of the fact that the animals would blindly obey him. The pigs are soon viewed as superior to the other animals and instead of working in the fields, they relax and take control of all decisions made at Animal Farm. The thoughts of equality that sparked the revolution are forgotten and Animal Farm is ruled by an elite few. Napoleon and the other pigs gained their power by being corrupt. Napoleon assumed he was the best leader so he took charge of Animal Farm. He believed his opinion was the only valid one and wanted to have complete control so he eliminated the animals’ right to vote. He did all of this selfishly knowing that the animals enjoyed being

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