Animal_Farm__a_Commentary_on_Communist_Regimes

The story of Animal Farm is a story about rogue farm animals, who decide to get rid of the human farmer that tries to repress and control them, so the animals can work together to create an idyll. This idea comes to light after Old Major, a prize winning boar, tells all of the animals at Manor Farm about a dream he had. In his dream the animals govern and take care of themselves without a human watching over their every move and trying to control them. The other animals hail this dream with great excitement and begin to work together to create this paradise. Old Major dies within days of sharing his dream, and three other pigs take over; Snowball, Napoleon, and Squealer. The three pigs take Old Majors main ideas and create a philosophy based on seven ideas, called "Animalism". The animals band together and are able to run the farmer off the land. The animals rename the farm, calling it "Animal Farm" and continue to devote themselves to Old Major's ideals. The farm begins to prosper, with each different animal taking on a task; Snowball teaches the other animals to read, and Napoleon trains the puppies in the ways of Animalism. As time passes, Napoleon and Snowball begin to disagree over the prospects of the farm. Snowball becomes very passionate about his idea for an Energy-producing windmill, and gives a very ardent speech to the rest of the animals when they come to vote on the idea. Napoleon firmly disapproves of the windmill plan and sics the puppies on Snowball. The puppies chase Snowball from the barnyard and Napoleon takes over the entire farm, banning voting, and promising to make executive decisions for the good of all the farm animals. He later convinces the other farm animals that Snowball was a menace, and they are better off without him. With Snowball gone, Napoleon decides the energy-producing windmill is a good idea, plagued by weather and cheating farmers, the windmill is a total loss. During a fight with the cheating farmer, Napoleon's most loyal subject, a horse named Boxer, is injured. Napoleon sells him to a glue maker and uses the money on alcohol. Time passes, and the pigs become more like humans. They begin walking around on two legs, drinking alcohol, and wearing clothing. The seven commandments of Animalism are cut down to one rule "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." Napoleon later joins forces against the working classes, humans and animals alike, with a farmer called Mr. Pilkington. By the end of the story, the pigs have become so humanized, it is nearly impossible to tell the pigs from the humans. This story is commentary on the rise of communism in Soviet Russia. The animals in the story, overthrow their human dictator and the pigs establish themselves as the rulers in this new "utopia". There is a struggle for power between Snowball and Napoleon. Napoleon has him run out of the revolutionary utopia with the puppies he has trained (originally trained for good, but used for evil), showing that Napoleon was the ultimate ruler of the land, and establishing power over the other animals. Napoleon also takes on a tyrannical ideal, similar to that of Stalin, with fake confessions fueled by fear, and executions of those whom Napoleon distrusted. The Pigs abandon the seven commandments of Animalism, much like Stalin abandoned the principals of the Russian Revolution. Both in the rise of the Communist Regime and in Animal Farm, the revolutionaries abandon their original principals and turn to violence. They become what they hated the most and wanted to change or escape from. Only the lower classes are able to realize this, the ruling classes are too overcome with power and wealth to care or even take notice as to what they have become.