Themes of Socialism and Capitalism in Orwell's Animal Farm

An Outline For An Argumentative Essay About Capitalism And Socialism

Introduction

• Introduction to "Animal Farm" by George Orwell
• Thesis statement

The Setting and Initial Call for Change

• Introduction to the farm and Old Major's speech
• Highlighting mistreatment and poor living conditions
• The incentive for change among the animals

The Socialist Revolution

• The plan to overthrow Mr. Jones
• Creation of a more efficient system
• Implementation of socialist principles
• Commandments for equality and shared labor

 The Corruption of Socialist Ideals

• Manipulation of commandments by the pigs
• Emergence of a power hierarchy
• Greed and privilege among the pigs

The Emergence of Capitalism

• The pigs replicate Mr. Jones's actions
• The growing gap between the privileged and the servants
• Exploitation of the less powerful animals
• Capitalist tendencies leading to corruption

The Transformation into a Communist Society

• Napoleon's rise as a dictator
• The adoption of a communist economy
• The development of a class system
• Manipulative rituals for group identity

The Commentary on Social Classes

• Shifting interpretations of unity
• Establishment of social classes based on intellect and strength
• Orwell's critique of moral issues in the Soviet Union

Conclusion

• Recap of themes explored in "Animal Farm"
• Orwell's critique of both socialism and capitalism

Argumentative Essay Example About Capitalism And Socialism

Animal Farm is a novel by George Orwell, published in England on the 17th of August 1945. At the time, the events of this book were mirrored to be mere recreations of the affairs that lead to the Russian Revolution in 1917, which consequently brought on the end of the Stalin era of the Soviet Union. Taking into considerations that George Orwell was a firm contradictory of Joseph Stalin actions, this book was believed to be a satirical tale, against Stalin. A few themes were highlighted through this book; mainly one resembling socialist and capitalist societies and economies.

The opening scene is set in a farm, where all the animals gathered at night to listen to Old Major’s speech. This speech mainly highlighted, but didn’t shy away from the way the animals were mistreated and how the living conditions, provided by the owner of the farm, were of poor quality; this made all the animals feel included and gave them incentive to try to change.

The plan was comprised of a series of activities resembling a rebellion, to “overthrow” Mr. Jones (the owner of the farm). This would eventually ensure that all the animals would work in unison towards a common goal, creating a more efficient system as labor would be evenly distributed and all actions would be rewarded, this honoring one of the commandments. This demonstrated strong features of socialism; as all means of exchange would be controlled by the community as a whole.

To ensure everyone has the same rights a list of commandments was set. The farm’s economy was run just like that of the Soviet Union, where food was evenly distributed over the entirety of the population, and just like a true Marxist society would prescribe. Even though these rules were set, the pigs, who represented Joseph Stalin and Leon Trotsky, found a way to manipulate them for their own benefits, which could demonstrate the lack of order in the socialist society they tried to embody.

The corruption was visible early on by the pigs who represented the Communist party, when the animals questioned as to where the milk was disappearing to but got an inconsequential answer: 'Never mind the milk, comrades!' cried Napoleon, placing himself in front of the buckets. 'That will be attended to. The harvest is more important.'

This communist style economy soon appeared to be dysfunctional, there was a sever segregation of power when the pigs decided to manipulate the other animals, as they believed themselves to be far more intelligent, and thus gained power over the animals and exempted themselves from any physical labor on the farm, as they are said to bring the “brains”, consequently putting them in a superior position to the other animals. This was a misuse of the definition of needs. The other animals not aware of this technique of manipulation were obliged to follow the pigs’ orders. This was done to personify the greed that the political system embodied at the time.

Eventually, the pigs further developed and abused their powers, eating all the apples and consuming all the milk, justifying this by claiming that this fueled the type of work they were providing to the community, and the animals were lead to believe that they were not allowed such privileges as Mr. Jones would come back, making all the animals live in constant fear. Along with manipulation, the pigs were feeding everyone else lies to keep them under their control, with the use of rhetoric and propaganda. This is when the commandment stating “All animals are equal” was changed to “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others”. This was obviously indicative of Orwell’s dispute with capitalism.

Throughout the book, capitalism was displayed to be a series of actions of greed and hunger for power, firstly starting with how the animals wanted to drive Mr. Jones out of the barn as he was not treating the animal’s right, but also using selling their produce for his benefit. And secondly being that the pigs, even though it didn’t appear as so in the beginning, started to replicate Mr. Jones’s actions and the farm eventually became worst off that before. This ensured that pigs were full and living in luxury while the others became servants and received no benefits from their hard physical labor. After Boxer’s death, the pigs sell the body and use the money they made to buy alcohol and get drunk, excluding the other animals, which again violated one of the commandments.

George Orwell evidently highly criticizes both socialism and capitalism, and remarkably focuses on the faults of both systems. He proved that even though greed was evoked by man, no matter who is in a position of power, or whoever felt superior to others, would ultimately become corrupt and abuse their powers against the less fortunate and the weak.

Later on in the story one of the pigs called ‘Napoleon’ takes over as the dictator, and so a more communist society formulates. All animals initially are deemed to be equals but as pigs gain knowledge they become superiors and adopt a communist economy, where pigs act as the human and the rest of the animals work under their commands, consequently they would use the outcomes of their works for their personal benefits, acting as dictators, and this party class system continued to benefit off of the work the less powerful animals did. This was amplified by certain rituals created by the pigs, such as marching, parades and songs, which were meant to erase individuality, foster loyalty and provide a more generic group identity.

Seemingly, the ideas put forward about the farms economy, by Old Major before his death, were not being put into play, and there was no longer equality between the animals. This is could be a reflection of the events that took place in the Soviet Union, where both states set out to find methods in which their people would have more food, as well as more free time to relax away from the oppression of the capitalist society. This was quickly deemed to be unsuccessful, as people were poorer, hungrier and more oppressed than ever.

Overall, these themes feature a commentary on human tendencies to form social classes. This is perfectly illustrated in the ever-changing interpretation of unity, initially working together against a common enemy, the human, but once that aspect is eliminated, the animals turn against each other and a natural division between intellectual and physical strengths occurs, consequently establishing social classes. Orwell never stated that he was not an advocate for a socialist economy but felt as if the Soviet Union didn’t accomplish these ideals morally. And thus the putrefaction of the seven commandments displays a perfect analogy of the hypocrisy that is indicated by the pigs justification of abusing their powers, which is again an adverse critique on the violence that the Stalinist regime and the communism in the Soviet Union.