British Literature, Essay Example

Response Paper to Animal Farm by George Orwell.

In his book “An Animal Farm,” to explain the social imbalance in the human race orchestrated by political systems, George Orwell used animal characters. The book talks about dictatorship and power-seeking mechanisms. Many political leaders seem to be standing on the same ground as their subjects when they are rebelling or seeking reformation. Once that quest is successful and chosen into power, they often change the model of leadership in a manner that would imitate their predecessors. As they say, power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. To explain this concept, Orwell uses “Manor Farm” under the leadership of Mr. Jones; a human being whose animals could quickly identify how different he was from them; he walked on two legs and did not have wings, took alcohol.  The two attributes were quickly associated with evil, violence, and brutality. The seed of revolution against human injustices that old major planted during his last days on the farm germinated in the glorious days of Snowball, Napoleon, and Squealer. The three pigs were cleverer than all other animals, lead other animals to send Mr. Jones and his human companions out of Manor Farm then renamed it Animal Farm. The animals claimed freedom, but it did not last long, except for the pigs.

Snowball and Napoleon did not paddle the same canoe. Snowball was motivating and showed transformational leadership qualities. Napoleon was resilient and determined, but he knew he could not yield a political empathy the same as Snowball. Still, Napoleon was not as wise as Snowball. He started scheming on how to take Snowball out of the equation. Napoleon took nine puppies and brought them up in his care. When Napoleon was sure that Snowball was wielding more support than he required, he used his dogs to chase Snowball from the farm on the day they wanted to construct a windmill. Napoleon from then used propaganda to lead other animals. Before any animal could realize it, Napoleon imposed on them Mr. Jones’s dictatorship. He used his dogs to intimidate any animal that sought to stand against him.

Studies suggest that An Animal Farm Alludes the leadership of the socio-political system in the Soviet Union owing to the time of publication. Napoleon is like Joseph Stalin and Snowball Leon Trotsky. Just like Napoleon used his nine dogs to chase away Snowball out of the farm, Stalin used the military to take Trotsky when he thought he was becoming a problem.

Orwell used his story to address the social injustices different systems of leadership impose on their subjects. Most leaders use propaganda to lure their followers into supporting them. Once they claimed power, they turn on the same subjects and violate the same rights they claim to defend. Napoleon imposes hard labour on other animals, sells the farm produce, and to the end, learns to walk on two legs and hold a whip with his front leg. Most of the leadership has been so. Take, for example, most African countries; Leaders led other Africans in fighting for freedom against the colony. After winning freedom, most African leaders adopted dictatorship, which is not so much different from the colonial leadership. The thirteen states that make up the United States of America on their Independence Day in the 18^th century argued that all men are the same before God; “men” is used to mean both genders in this case. But lord after independence, black people remained under slavery. Women were not allowed to vote. It was such a kind of inhuman that Orwell wanted to address.

Orwell argues that the inability of other animals to read and process complex ideas makes them easy for manipulation. Squealer used to talk to other animals whenever there is a need to twist their beliefs. Lows are also changed to suit the leadership Napoleon wanted. For instance, animals believe it was right for Napoleon to execute some animals because the law had been edited to legalize killing with a course. Napoleon uses execution to intimidate other animals with the help of his dogs. It is what happens in most countries with dictatorship. Leaders use their armies to execute all who oppose their selfish course.

Orwell used animals to represent human beings. The assumptions made are that animals have human abilities. They can read, they can write, reason, and run—their ability to communicate it easy for them to plan a revolution. The speech Old Major gives before his death gave animals a new awakening. It is what encouraged transformation. Another assumption Orwell made is that animals can design and plan. It comes out clearly through the construction of a windmill.

An Animal Farm has survived the test of time because of its accurate implication to histories of the time. The novel points out critical weaknesses to dictatorship. Solid and precise annotation of animals to human characters makes the book interesting. The story will perhaps live more years. Although the book outlines the problems that come with dictatorship, it doesn’t offer an opinion on how the human race should overcome it. For instance, the book does not say where and how the life of Snowball ended.

The book speaks against human inequality. The author must have thought that human beings should live together and be the same. The counterargument to this annotation is that the population is stratified because of their levels of competence. Even with the same education, the same access to medical facilities, and economic opportunities, people will not be equal. For this reason, it is imperative to think that all people should be the same.

The most important aspect of having different opinions on the themes in An Animal farm is that we get challenged to think of a more harmonious way of living. Given that all forms of leadership show a significant form of weakness, the emphasis on human happiness and freedom might not depend upon the type of leadership. People have the choice to learn and improve. We should always take advantage of the opportunity and make our individual lives better.