The Warnings of Animal Farm
Animal Farm: A Fable?
As mentioned previously, this book is often called a fable: a short story with animals as characters, conveying a moral.
By now, however, we know that Animal Farm ends inconclusively. As Woodhouse wrote in the introduction, "it is impossible to attach a moral in any familiar sense to Animal Farm, where wickedness ends in triumph and virtue is utterly crushed." Besides noticing similarities between the pigs and humans, the animals have no grand epiphanies about their passivity and consequent oppression. They do not learn or grow from their experiences; instead, they die off in misery one by one.
Ultimately, the book neither celebrates nor condemns wickedness: it demonstrates it. Although the animals do not learn, the story teaches its readers how powerful people take and maintain their power. It provides warnings for the future using the events of the past.
Gradual Oppression
The narrative of Animal Farm serves as a heavy warning against gradual oppression.
If, after the Rebellion, Napoleon tried to take charge right away, he probably would not have been successful. After all, the animals freshly remembered their abuse under Jones and would have pushed back against similar treatment. Napoleon would not have been able to immediately change all the commandments, reduce rations, or walk on two legs.
Therefore, his oppressive regime comes slowly and gradually. One by one, the commandments are secretly altered (and the changes explained away by Squealer).
Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy.
Napoleon breaks this first rule when he realizes how beneficial a relationship with humans will be to him personally. The sheep's maxim is changed to "four legs good, two legs better."Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend.
Obviously, no friendship occurs between the pigs and dogs and the rest of the animals. The little pigs are specifically instructed not to interact with other beasts.No animal shall wear clothes.
The pigs begin to wear ribbons on Sundays; eventually, they wear clothing as they start to walk.No animal shall sleep in a bed.
Napoleon moves into the house and begins sleeping in the bed. The commandment is altered to read, "No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets."No animal shall drink alcohol.
The pigs discover Jones' whiskey, enjoy being drunk, and thereafter brew their own alcohol from farm-grown barley. The commandment is altered to read, "No animal shall drink alcohol to excess."No animal shall kill any other animal.
Napoleon violently and publicly executes many animals for their alleged loyalty to Snowball. Squealer explains that there was ample cause for the "traitors" to be killed, and the commandment is quickly altered to read, "No animal shall kill any other animal without cause."All animals are equal.
After the pigs begin walking on two legs, this commandment is altered to read, "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others."
The pigs gradually break and change these rules over the course of months and years. Bit by bit, they take away from the other animals and give to themselves. Bit by bit, they lower the animals' expectations. Bit by bit, they convince the animals that Snowball was always evil, that Napoleon was always right, that life under Jones was much worse, etc. Most importantly, bit by bit, the pigs chip away at the animals' dignity until there is nothing left. When the animals are told they are not equal with the pigs after all, they believe it. Why else would they be treated so badly?
After that it did not seem strange when next day the pigs who were supervising the work of the farm all carried whips in their trotters. It did not seem strange to learn that the pigs had bought themselves a wireless set, were arranging to install a telephone, and had taken out subscriptions to John Bull, TitBits, and the Daily Mirror. It did not seem strange when Napoleon was seen strolling in the farmhouse garden with a pipe in his mouth−no, not even when the pigs took Mr. Jones's clothes out of the wardrobes and put them on, Napoleon himself appearing in a black coat, ratcatcher breeches, and leather leggings, while his favourite sow appeared in the watered silk dress which Mrs. Jones had been used to wear on Sundays.
In appearance, attitude, and actions, Napoleon has become Jones, the very man the animals rebelled against in the first place. But because of this gradual oppression, it "does not seem strange" to them.
Brainwashing
One of the tactics of oppression that Squealer uses repeatedly is to question the animals' memories of events, conversations, and commandments. It begins with the expulsion of Snowball: Squealer insists that Snowball's part in the Battle of the Cowshed was "much exaggerated," even though "they all remembered, or thought they remembered, how they had seen Snowball charging ahead of them at the Battle of the Cowshed" (ch. 7).
Do you not remember how, just at the moment when Jones and his men had got inside the yard, Snowball suddenly turned and fled, and many animals followed him? And do you not remember, too, that it was just at that moment, when panic was spreading and all seemed lost, that Comrade Napoleon sprang forward with a cry of 'Death to Humanity!' and sank his teeth in Jones's leg? Surely you remember that, comrades?
Later, Squealer convinces them that Snowball was actually fighting on Jones' side. The lies slowly build on another, covering up any true memories of the event.
As time passes and the past blurs, this tactic becomes easier.
It was about this time that the pigs suddenly moved into the farmhouse and took up their residence there. Again the animals seemed to remember that a resolution against this had been passed in the early days, and again Squealer was able to convince them that this was not the case.
When the first killings occur, some animals remember the sixth commandment, but by the time they go back to read it, Squealer has changed it to "'No animal shall kill any other animal without cause.' Somehow or other, the last two words had slipped out of the animals' memory. But they saw now that the Commandment had not been violated" (ch. 8). Eventually, enough time passes and enough animals die that the long-living pigs can craft whatever image they want of the farm before the Rebellion.
In summary, Napoleon attacked and manipulated the collective memory of the farm so that the animals would remain in submission. Animal Farm blatantly warns against this cruel and effective tactic.
Controlled Media
It is much easier to be manipulated and brainwashed when you are only exposed to one side of the story and one part of the world.
The farm animals do not rebel against Napoleon mostly because he carefully curates what they hear and from who. They get all of their information about the outside world from Squealer. His rhetoric is so convincing that even when he contradicts their beliefs and experiences, they believe him.
For example, when Squealer tells the animals that only the pigs should eat milk and apples, he says,
You do not imagine, I hope, that we pigs are doing this in a spirit of selfishness and privilege? Many of us actually dislike milk and apples. I dislike them myself. Our sole object in taking these things is to preserve our health. Milk and apples (this has been proved by Science, comrades) contain substances absolutely necessary to the well−being of a pig.
He mentions "Science" in the knowledge that the other animals have not read science books and therefore are not able to challenge his false information. The issue is not that Squealer appeals to science but that he uses the name of science to cover up his lies.
When Napoleon wishes to smear the memory of Snowball, Squealer cites "documents"—which don't exist—to prove his guilt.
Do you know what the real reason was? Snowball was in league with Jones from the very start! He was Jones's secret agent all the time. It has all been proved by documents which he left behind him and which we have only just discovered. To my mind this explains a great deal, comrades.
... For we know now−it is all written down in the secret documents that we have found−that in reality he was trying to lure us to our doom.
Notice the words "real," "secret," "know," and "reality"—Squealer insists that his information is the only true information. Conveniently, none of the animals ever see these revealing documents, which were "only just discovered." Though confused, they take his word for it.
The Cult of Personality
Finally, Animal Farm's narrative warns against the cult of personality.
Cult of personality: A phenomenon in which a country's regime uses mass media techniques to cultivate a godlike image of the leader
As we know, Animal Farm is a deliberate allegory of the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the Stalinist era of the Soviet Union. Orwell was disgusted by Joseph Stalin's tyranny, which was largely possible because of the cult of personality built around him. Mass media messages, imposing demonstrations, and repetitive propaganda painted Stalin as a heroic savior whose decisions were perfect and unquestionable.
1938 Soviet poster featuring Stalin
In the Animal Farm allegory, Napoleon represents Stalin. He does not work with the other animals and continually makes choices that harm them, and yet Squealer upholds him as their savior. After the expulsion of Snowball, Napoleon begins to act like a dictator. He is surrounded by dog bodyguards and heralded by a cockerel. Squealer paints and hangs a heroic portrait of Napoleon and inscribes a worshipful poem about him next to the Seven Commandments.
He was always referred to in formal style as 'our Leader, Comrade Napoleon,' and this pigs liked to invent for him such titles as Father of All Animals, Terror of Mankind, Protector of the Sheep−fold, Ducklings' Friend, and the like. In his speeches, Squealer would talk with the tears rolling down his cheeks of Napoleon's wisdom the goodness of his heart, and the deep love he bore to all animals everywhere, even and especially the unhappy animals who still lived in ignorance and slavery on other farms. It had become usual to give Napoleon the credit for every successful achievement and every stroke of good fortune.
Later on in the story, Napoleon orders more demonstrations and parades to maintain the animals' patriotism.
There were more songs, more speeches, more processions. Napoleon had commanded that once a week there should be held something called a Spontaneous Demonstration, the object of which was to celebrate the struggles and triumphs of Animal Farm. At the appointed time the animals would leave their work and march round the precincts of the farm in military formation, with the pigs leading, then the horses, then the cows, then the sheep, and then the poultry. The dogs flanked the procession and at the head of all marched Napoleon's black cockerel. Boxer and Clover always carried between them a green banner marked with the hoof and the horn and the caption, 'Long live Comrade Napoleon!' Afterwards there were recitations of poems composed in Napoleon's honour, and a speech by Squealer giving particulars of the latest increases in the production of foodstuffs, and on occasion a shot was fired from the gun.
Orwell goes on to write that these demonstrations distracted the animals from their empty bellies. The warning? The cult of personality maintains a dictatorship by leading oppressed people to believe that they are cared for and protected.
Conclusion
Animal Farm does not present an obvious moral like "smart people are bad" or "capitalism is good." But it does illustrate the ways in which powerful and selfish people maintain their power. The tactics used by Squealer and Napoleon were and are real tactics used by dictators to keep a population under their thumb. It is up to you, the reader, to discern these patterns in our current day, whether in local or international settings.
Should the farm animals have fought back against Napoleon? Did their passivity play any part in their oppression?