Animal farm is the fictional story of a group of barnyard animals who overthrow their neglectful owner, Mr. Jones, and establish their place to control the farm. Under the leadership of Napoleon and Snowball, a pair of pigs, the animals seek a future for themselves with animals being equal.
This story is a very well known piece of political satire written by George Orwell which is aimed at the rise of the Soviet Union. In his essay, Why I Write, Orwell stated that “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.” That being said, I think we can analyze it more. Despite what he has said, I think Orwell could have easily slipped in other themes into the narrative along with the satire. I want to see if there are subtle ways to mix thematization with satire.
The one risk I have while going into this reading is with the mimetic register. While I should be able to keep focus, the political tones the story sets nearly pulled me onto the mimetic register. The first chapter contains a speech given by Old Major, the oldest pig at Manor Farm and the one who inspires the animals to stand up against Jones. I found myself nearly drawn into the pig’s words, which made me have to reread the chapter focusing on the theme.
Despite this, I couldn’t quite get a grasp of a controlling idea… That was until I began to notice a pattern with the characters. I didn’t see it until the end of chapter three, but there was something wrong with the farm animals’ mannerisms when it comes to revolution. The animals want freedom from Jones, who in a way is a guide for them. This guide oppresses them for his gains, and it leads to the animals revolting. In that context, I believe this is where we find the controlling value: Finding Freedom and Equality is finding happiness. These farm animals want a chance at happiness, and once they overthrow Jones, someone that could be considered an oppressive leader, everything seems to be looking up. As the book described it, “Everything they could see was theirs! In the ecstasy of the thought they gamboled round and round, they hurled themselves into the air in great leaps of excitement (Orwell, 20).”
However, this is where the counter comes in. There is no freedom for those who don’t know how to use it. This would mean the counter idea would be that people need a guide to control their actions. This is shown more prominently throughout the revolution. When Old Major dies from old age, none of the barn animals step up, and it takes them a while to overthrow Jones. This happens when Napoleon and Snowball step up and leads them. When the animals run the farm, waking up the next day, they frolick… but then look at each other wondering what to do. Once again, Napoleon and Snowball bring them together to form the seven commandments. When the cows wonder what will happen to their milk? Napoleon has them focus in, saying, “The harvest is more important(23)!”
The animals NEED someone to lead them. They want the freedom, but truthfully don’t know what to do with it. Unfortunately, this path will probably lead to ruin, as the end of the chapter shows Squealer, another pig, putting his kind above the rest of animal kind.
Mimetically, this would either open my eyes to the corruption that’s already setting in, or would make me nod and agree with what the pig was saying. However, if you want to start thinking Thematically with this book, its best examined through the reactions rather than the actions. You’ll begin to see the strings on the puppet show that the pigs have begun.
Orwell, George. Animal Farm. Middletown: Brawtley, 2012. Print.
Dag, O. “George Orwell.” Why I Write. 1946 N.p., n.d. Web.
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I find that there might be issues with the counter idea you presented because yes the majority of the animals did not know what to do with their freedom but Snowball and Napoleon did. With this in mind specifically Napoleon’s ideas of equality do not match with your controlling value. He hogs food from the other animals, chases Snowball away so he can take over and won’t let anyone contradict his rulings. A alternative controlling idea: When a corrupt authority leaves there is new order. When Mr. Jones their corrupt ruler leaves they have freedom to create a new order of life. Counter idea: New order is taken by another corrupt figure. With no one suppressing the corrupt Napoleon he has the opportunity to take over. Another idea for controlling value: Intelligent individuals have the ability to lead unintelligent individuals. Napoleon and Snowball are the most intelligent individuals on the farm therefore the other animals adopt them as leaders believing they know best. Counter idea: Intelligent individuals have the ability to abuse power over unintelligent individuals. Napoleon who has got rid of Snowball begins to abuse his power and manipulate his followers. The values I presented I feel reflect the story’s themes of freedom, power, and corruption.
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I think your value graph was a really great start and definitely got us thinking in class! I think that we still have some work to do on them, though. Maybe the controlling value’s purpose is this: standing up for one’s sense of agency leads to contentedness and a well-functioning people, and its context is that a lack of agency brews rebellion. And then for the opposing value’s purpose, it is something like authoritative people (this works for the farmer and Napoleon) leads to unfairness and discontent within people, encouraging rebellion. And then we could say its context is that a lack of structure leads to a dysfunctional society. It’s more than possible that I have some of these mixed up, but I can’t wait to hear what you guys think!
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I think we need to get more general with the controlling idea, although what you had is a good start. The controlling idea’s purpose would probably be something like, Overthrowing the ruling class of oppressors through revolution and ruling yourself leads to happiness, independence, and equality. The context would be that Being ruled by an oppressive higher class leads to feelings of inferiority, inequality, and being exploited.
If we were to look at the counter idea, the purpose would be something like, Allowing yourself to be ruled and controlled by a higher class provides a life of stability where everyone has a purpose that helps uphold society. Under Mr. Jones’s rule, each animal had a specific job that helped their master prosper (even if that job was being raised to be slaughtered). The context to this is that Taking power into your own hands and abolishing the higher ruling class will lead to a purposeless life on no productivity, and therefore no happiness or fulfillment.
That being said, later in the book we begin to see how even this new, shiny idea of being “free” and self-ruling can also become corrupted; such as with how the pigs start to become more controlling and exploitative of the other animals on the farm. This makes me think there’s another controlling idea by the time we reach the end of the book, most likely pointing to how seldom self-rule is truly achieved, and how it tends to form more of a cycle of corruption and exploitation.
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