Marxist Criticism through George Orwell's Animal Farm

Marxist Criticism through George Orwell's Animal Farm 

Here's the YouTube link for reference which will help you understand the literature more: https://youtu.be/tD201OQwsFI?si=qy3om1x-dds0q389

In his novella Animal Farm, George Orwell addresses social oppression, slavery, propaganda, and exploitation, characterizing Napoleon as the enforcer of the regime. This piece of literature can thus be considered political, focusing on the relevancies of the Russian Revolution and the aftermath of Marxism as a literary doctrine via the lens of Russian literary criticism.

A cursory look may lead one to think that this is a fable with animals as the characters since it brings to mind some fables. However, further analysis evokes the latent meaning of the work. There is a distinct character that stays true to the foundations of the Marxist cause across the pieces. Orwell, in the book, made a pig called old major who is the pig king in the story. The plotline of Russian communist Leon Trotsky’s character was assigned to a white pig named snowball while a black colored potbellied pig resembling Josef stalin himself led all propaganda. Squealer stood in for propaganda whereas boxer stood for working class people or the US workers. Major ideas of Karl Marx’s book, communist manifesto were echoed by Old Major and his cows and pigs. The plot revolves around how the pigs get into a fight with Mr. Jones, vividly demonstrating the struggle of the proletariat against the bourgeoise. We see that, the very tyrants that started the struggle for equality is turned upside down by the victors in the end.

Another character in the narrative is Squealer, who represents the types of propaganda that help in the controlling of the masses and the lower classes, in turn enforcing the subservience of the animals. Eventually the animals who had wanted to stand on two legs like a pig, end up with human ways and practices, which is indicative of selling out the principles of the revolution. It is from this that one understands every facet of oppression to be very well captured in the famous phrase Apathy’s: “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”.

This is the central message, expressed in the fictional allegory of the revolutions as portrayed in Animal Farm by George Orwell. All revolutions lead to tyranny and oppression in the absence of responsibility and real desire for equality. Those who are privileged and in power have always been the enemy of justice – this is what the work shows in its Marxist critique.