Ideas and Literary Elements

This is what the book is all about—especially concerning the exposing of a corrupt totalitarian system of government and its affect on those within its fearful borders. “Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism…Animal Farm was the first book in which I tried, with full consciousness of what I was doing, to fuse political purpose and artistic purpose into one whole” (xxiii). Within politics, Animal Farm deals with political protest, complacency (the politically unsavvy lives of the animals) Rebellion oppression (Napoleon’s police force, withholding of food for minimal labor, etc) corruption of power, etc.

The raven Moses, “a clever talker,” is the sole voice (and seemingly crazed one) that preaches for converts to his “Sugarcandy Mountain” doctrine of bliss in the next life for ignorant political submission in this life (13-14). Karl Marx (the real life parallel to Old Major and creator of communism) said, Religion is the "opiate of the masses.“ The animals are distracted from their horrible living situation and life of labor with visions of "Sugarcandy Mountain," a supposed heaven. Religion is also associated with corrupt power. The government tolerates religion precisely because of its ability to placate (calm) and to distract the lower-class animals. Yet religion is also the only thing that makes the animals’ lives seem worth living as their situation becomes increasingly miserable.

The power of literacy and ignorance is emphasized over and over in the book. It was the political elite (the pigs) who learned to read and write, while the rest of the animals (excepting a few— Benjamin, Clover, Muriel) were illiterate and ignorant. it was sufficient for them to only know the reaching maxim of Animalism: “Four legs good, two legs bad” (24-25). The illiteracy of many of the animals allowed the pigs greater control over the commandments, history and ideology of Animal Farm.

The pigs re-write history over and over so that it matches their intentions. When the pigs want Snowball to be the common enemy, they change his role in “The Battle of the Cowshed”; when the pigs want to convince the animals that life is good, they produce false facts about ration amounts... Squealer was making constant “round(s) of the farm, set(ting) the animals’ minds at rest” by assuring them that what they understood of previous events and traditions were false as he appealed to their illiterate ignorance insisting that none of what they were saying was written down anywhere and that it never was like that (46-47).

Napoleon’s rise to power corrupts him, which in turn corrupts the society and the ideals of Animalism which prompted the revolution. This is most evident in the change from “all animals are equal” to “all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others”.