SPEECH

SPEECH
The old Major dies and after that, the 3 pigs Napoleon, Snowball and Squealer begin to have
secret activity with the animals talking about a possible Rebellion, with which many agree, but
others do not. Later, the rebellion occurs because Mister Jones and his workers had not fed the
animals in a day, so they rebel and take off Mister Jones from the farm. Likewise, the three pigs
teach the animals The Theory of Animalism with the 7 Commandements and write them on the
wall of a wall. The pigs reveal to the other animals that they have taught themselves how to
read, and Snowball replaces the inscription “Manor Farm” on the front gate with the words
“Animal Farm.”
2. Old Major represents Karl Marx, who first promoted the political philosophy behind
communism, and Vladimir Lenin, who effected this philosophy’s revolutionary expression. And the
death of Old Major represents the death of Lenin in 1924, which left Stalin (that represents the pig
Napoleon) and Trotsky (that represents the pig Snowball) to compete for the leadership position.
So, the Old Major’s speech to the other animals have many similarities to Marx’s Communist
Manifesto and to Lenin’s later writings in the same topics. The main idea of the Manifesto was
that capitalism had many defects like the workers never saw the product of their labor because
the capitalists or owners of the means of production (such as factories, land, etc.) appropriated all
the profits. In general: the farmers harvested the grains and the landowners kept them; the
workers made chairs and the factory owners sold them and kept the money.
4. Snowball, Napoleon, and Squealer organize Major’s ideas into the theory of Animalism, which
represents a “complete system of thought” like Soviet Communism, so the pigs play the role of the
intelligentsia, who organized and controlled the Russian Revolution. If Snowball and Napoleon
represent the organizers of Communism, then the other pigs represent those of the Russian
intelligentsia who became involved in the revolutionary cause, and Squealer creates propaganda
similar to the Communist Party newspaper Pravda (that is the name of a newspaper founded in
the Soviet Union, which was the official publication of the Communist Party between 1918 and
1991).
Although, The Seven Commandments represent Communism because Soviet communism

proposes a highly organized society of free and socially conscious workers in which public self-
government will be established, a society in which work for the good of society will become the
main requirement of all.
5. Like any new theory, Animalism is met with doubt and opposition. The most notable objection
comes from Mollie, the mare that represents Russia’s elite. As we could see, Mollie is spoiled by a
special treatment that she received from Jones’s rule (that represent the Zar’s rule in Russia, it is a
relatively absolutist form of government (later absolute monarchy, In it, all power and wealth are
controlled (and distributed) by the Zar.).
Historically, many of the Russian elite didn't want to give up their privileges, just as Mollie didn't
want to give up ribbons, sugar, or being petted. Like Mollie, they became expatriates in capitalist
societies where they could retain their advantages.
9. The Rebellion could represent the February Revolution (was the first of two revolutions in
Russia in 1917, that marked the first stage of the Russian Revolution and ended the Russian
monarchy and led to the formation of a provisional government, so The February Revolution
resulted in the abdication of Zar Nicholas II, which is represented with the expulsion of Mister
Jones.). Additional, that rebellion could represent the Russian Revolution as a whole (That has
reference to all the events that led to the overthrow of the imperial Saris regime and prepared the
establishment of another, Leninist Republican, between February and October 1917, which led to
the creation of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic). With Jones gone, the animals
begin to realize Major’s vision of a utopian, animal-run society that operates under its own
ideology.
Commentaries:
2. But Marx considered that the system led to the massive exploitation of the workers. He said
that if the workers could overthrow the capitalists and take over the means of production, all the
workers in the world would live in peace with each other. And at the end of the Manifesto, Marx
declares: "The proletarians [workers] have nothing to lose but their chains. On the contrary, they
have a whole world to gain. Proletarians of all countries, unite!" In essence, Old Major ends his
speech in the same way with his final call to "Rebellion!"
4. Though the animals intend to live by the Seven Commandments “for ever after,” we will learn
quickly that the tenets of Animalism do not translate perfectly into reality, especially not with the
seeds of elitism already planted among the pigs.
5. The bourgeoisie is the social class formed by wealthy people who have privileges such as
property and capital. The Popular Socialist Party. It was made up of intellectuals, middle class
people and the petty bourgeoisie. His followers were not supporters of the Marxist interpretation
of socialism either.
9. The story, however, does not need a one-to-one correspondence with history, and Orwell can
make his points more crisply by adapting the history to his carefully crafted allegory.
1. The Manor Farm represents Russia under the part-feudal, part-capitalist system of the tsars,
with Mr. Jones standing in for the moping and negligent Tsar Nicholas II. Well then: Russia was
somewhat different from Europe. Basically, by the seventeenth century, feudalism had been
eliminated on the old continent. (Feudalism was the economic system that had been replaced by
capitalism, in which the most important aristocratic landowners owned not only the land but also
the serfs who worked it.) But in Russia, serfdom was abolished only in 1861. So there was a huge
class of peasants in the country, and quite angry. And as if this were not enough, the monarchs
(the tsars) had not the slightest idea of what was happening in their land, no matter how many
monarchs they were.
3. The animals of the Manor Farm represent the workers and peasants of Russia, in whose name
the Russian Revolution’s leaders first struggled.
7. Moses embodies the Russian Orthodox Church, weakening the peasants’ sense of revolutionary
outrage by promising a utopia in the afterlife; the beer-soaked bread that Mr. Jones feeds him
represents the bribes with which the Romanov dynasty (in which Nicholas II was the last tsar)
manipulated the church elders.
8. Mr. Jones’s monetary troubles mirror the Russian throne’s ineffectiveness and dwindling power
on the eve of the Revolution. The air is ripe for revolution, and the animals seize the opportunity
to run Jones off his own land. The animals are kinder to Jones than the revolutionaries were to
Czar Nicholas II, who was executed on Lenin’s orders along with his family.

SPEECH

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

SPEECH

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

SPEECH

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

SPEECH

Although, The Seven Commandments represent Communism because Soviet communism

You might also like

Pfad - The Proxy pFad of © 2024 Garber Painting. All rights reserved.