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Why George Orwell Matters

Sheila L. Bond English 111 Professor Martin 07 August 2012

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Sheila L. Bond English 111 Professor Martin 07 August 2012

George Orwells Animal Farm Thesis Statement While it is widely known that George Orwells novel Animal Farm is a political satire meant to criticize the former Russian government, its relevance to todays power elite capitalistic society makes America an easy replacement in his scenario. Although our government doesn't openly oppress the masses; it does have select groups that are targeted and I believe that this work from the 1940s depicts the culture of our present government.

I.

Introduction a. Who is George Orwell and why does he matter? b. What is the Animal Farm? c. Thesis

II.

Body a. Socialist way of thinking in the 1940s. b. Pride, power, control and corruption; the building blocks of every great republic. c. Political oppression in 2012.

III.

Conclusion a. Restate thesis b. Final decision stated

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Sheila L. Bond English 111 Professor Martin 07 August 2012

Why George Orwell Matters

Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 21 January 1950), better known by his pen name of George Orwell, was an English novelist and journalist. He was born in India and served with the Imperial Police in Burma before joining the Republican Army in the Spanish Civil War. Orwell was the author of six novels as well as numerous essays and nonfiction works.

His work is marked by intelligence and wit, awareness of social injustice, opposition to totalitarianism, and belief in democratic socialism. Orwell wrote literary criticism, poetry, fiction and journalism. He is best known for the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) and the allegorical novella Animal Farm (1945), which together have sold more copies than any two books by any other 20th-century author. Orwell's work continues to influence popular and political culture, and the term Orwellian is descriptive of totalitarian or authoritarian social practices and has entered the vernacular with several of his neologisms, such as doublethink, thoughtcrime, and thoughtpolice. While, Orwell is regarded by some as being as English as roast beef and warm beer, he published his first articles in French. (Why Orwell Matters 10)

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Orwell belonged to the category of writers who write and can afford to write. Unlike others of his time, who lived in cramped quarters with the wife and kids crowded into minuscule living spaces making it impossible to attempt writing anything of substance, he was able to indulge in his love of the printed word.

His life as a writer was in two important senses a constant struggle: first for the principles he espoused and second for the right to witness to them. He would appear never to have diluted his opinions in the hope of seeing his byline disseminated to the paying customers; this alone is a clue to why he still matters. (Why Orwell Matters 5) George Orwells Animal Farm was destined to be a classic from the start. He uses animals to criticize government in such a way that has delighted young and old for decades. The story follows the animals of Manor Farm as they vie for independence.

The animals defeat and kick out their human oppressors and establish a socialist state called Animal Farm. The pigs, being the most intelligent animals in the group, take control of the planning and government of the farm. The pigs did not actually work, but directed and supervised the others. With their superior knowledge it was natural that they should assume the leadership. (Orwell, Animal Farm) That power corrupts is an inevitable conclusion of Animal Farm and of any would be republic. When the pigs step up as leaders, they claim that their goal is to preside over a farm of equal animals, all working together. Yet power quickly proves to be too much and even small privileges quickly balloon into full-scale corruption. The pigs begin to behave more and more

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like people with something to lose. They even begin to resemble those whom they claim to replace, by walking upright and wearing clothes. Seven Commandments could in effect be reduced to a single maxim, namely: Four legs good, two legs bad. This, he said, contained the essential principle of Animalism (Orwell, Animal Farm 29) The spirit of Animalism was a just cause and all the animals would have benefited if only they could have stayed the course. No animal in England knows the meaning of happiness or leisure after he is a year old. No animal in England is free. The life of an animal is misery and slavery: that is the plain truth. (Orwell, Animal Farm 5) The animals feel that Man is the only real enemy they have and that if you remove Man from the equation; their cause of hunger and overwork disappears. But oh how things change. Once in power, the pigs behave as the humans did. They wanted the nicer things in life. They wanted a windmill. And the pigs, well they wanted to party. Napoleon had denounced such ideas as contrary to the spirit of Animalism. The truest happiness, he said, lay in working hard and living frugally. (Orwell, Animal Farm 114) The animals soon realized that their situation hadnt changed much, they just had different rulers. The demands on their time were the same or greater. The work was still hard and for a brief time, thinking they would all benefit from the extra effort, they really didnt mind and even enjoyed it.

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The animals were not badly off throughout that summer, in spite of the hardness of their work. If they had no more food than they had had in Joness day, at least they did not have less. (Orwell, Animal Farm 57) The years pass by and the pigs become more and more like the human they replaced by walking upright, carrying whips, and even wearing clothes. Eventually, the seven principles of Animalism, known as the Seven Commandments and inscribed on the side of the barn, become reduced to a single principle reading all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others. (Orwell, Animal Farm) Thesis Statement While it is widely known that George Orwells novel Animal Farm is a political satire meant to criticize the former Russian government, its relevance to todays power elite capitalistic society makes America an easy replacement in his scenario. Although our government doesn't openly oppress the masses; it does have select groups that are targeted and I believe that this work from the 1940s depicts the culture of our present government. The Socialist way of thinking in the 1940s tended toward communism. Unlike many British socialists in the 1930s and 1940s, Orwell was not enamored of the Soviet Union and its policies, nor did he consider the Soviet Union a positive representation of the possibilities of a socialist society.

He also could not turn a blind eye to the cruelties and hypocrisies of Soviet Communist Party. Orwell became a sharp critic of both capitalism and communism, and is remembered chiefly as an advocate of freedom and a committed opponent of communist oppression.

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He helped keep alive the socialist press in England through many unpropitious years. (Why Orwell Matters 35) Russian society in the early twentieth century was controlled by a small minority of the countrys wealthiest citizens, while the vast majority of the countrys inhabitants were impoverished and oppressed peasants. Communism arose in Russia when the nations workers and peasants, assisted by a class of concerned intellectuals known as the intelligentsia, rebelled against and overwhelmed the wealthy powerful class of capitalists and aristocrats. They hoped to establish a socialist utopia based on the principles of the German economic and political philosopher Karl Marx. Marx advanced an economically deterministic interpretation of human history, arguing that society would naturally evolvefrom a monarchy and aristocracy, to capitalism, and then on to communism, a system under which all property would be held in common. The dignity of the poor workers oppressed by capitalism would be restored, and all people would live as equals. (The Communist Manifesto) Their wishes for peace and harmony were quickly dashed when the new regime was introduced to the very intoxicating Power. "Power corrupts, but absolute power corrupts absolutely." Lord Acton (1834-1902).

Pride serves to unite the animals and they take pride in coming together to overthrow their oppressive leader, Mr. Jones. Yet the pigs quickly learn how to use the animals pride as a tool of manipulation. They are also so proud of their animal-run farm that they are blind to the fact that it is failing and corrupt.

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There are a number of conflicts in Animal Farm, the animals versus Mr. Jones, the common animals versus the pigs and Animal Farm versus the neighboring human run farms. All this is just expressions of the underlying tension between the exploited and exploiting classes, and between the lofty ideals and harsh realities of socialism. We see the development of class tyranny and the human tendency to maintain and reestablish class structures even though equality was the goal. Animal Farm demonstrates how the inability or unwillingness to question authority condemns the working class to suffer the full extent of the ruling classs oppression. Oppression in America has a long history and is not unlike that of Animal Farm. In the form of political oppression, the persecution of an individual or group for political reasons, America is guilty of restricting or preventing the ability to take part in the political life of a society.

The 1890s were a period of intense, horrifying racial violence and deliberate, sustained political oppression of African Americans Disenfranchisement. Every southern state, between 1890 and 1905, passed laws designed specifically to prevent African Americans from voting. There were three main ways of doing this: poll taxes, property tests and literacy tests.

Some states used poll and property taxes together, some used one or the other, some used literacy tests alone or a combination of all three. The net result was that by 1895, black voting in the South had decreased 65%, white voting by 26%. By 1900, voting by African Americans had almost completely stopped.

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Has that changed, I say no. You dont have to be a political prisoner to be disenfranchised, you just have to steal something and get convicted or plead guilty then your right to a vote disappears forever. I hope you dont mind, but I took the liberty of taking away your freedoms. Uncle Sam (Kintz) How many other countries do you think do that to their prisoners? Dont think so hard, its an easy answer. None! Thats right, no other countries in the world takes away a persons right to vote just because of incarceration. Just because of a mistake that they have paid for by spending time behind bars. In my thesis statement I compared Russias oppression to that of Americas and while I didnt touch on the racially and politically motivated murders done in the 1940s and 1950s; I still stand by my statement of its depiction of our present government.

I felt one of the most impressive accomplishments of George Orwell and Animal Farm is the portrayal not just of the figures in power but also of the oppressed people themselves. It is like finally putting a face to the privileged super-rich of the world and shining a spot light on their extreme excesses. And then seeing the dirty disgruntle faces of the oppressed mases looking back at them in a mirror. Ive been told I go to the extremes on matters such as these, but know this, I am not the only one. This is a book that could have been written yesterday and will always be relevant, as long as we still have the uber wealthy around.

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Ill leave you with a bit of food for thought, just in case you still dont think the divide between us and them is so cavernous. Remember the Occupy Wall Street movement which spread across the nation and of course the local protest from the 99 Percenters?

We are the 99 percent. We are getting kicked out of our homes. We are forced to choose between groceries and rent. We are denied quality medical care. We are suffering from environmental pollution. We are working long hours for little pay and no rights, if we're working at all. We are getting nothing while the other 1 percent is getting everything. We are the 99 percent. (We Are the 99 Percent)

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Works Cited

Bowker, Gordon. George Orwell. London: Abacus, 2003. Print. George Orwell - Biography and Works. Search Texts, Read Online. Discuss. n.d. Internet Website. <http://www.online-literature.com/orwell/>. George Orwell, "Politics and the English Language," 1946. n.d. <https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/orwell46.htm>. Hitchens, Christopher. Why Orwell Matters. New York: Basic Books, 2002. Print. Kintz, Jarod. This is the best book I've ever written, and it still sucks. Amazon/Kindle, 2012. Digital. Marx, Karl. The Communist Manifesto. 1848. Print. Orwell, George. 1984. Orlando: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1948. Print. . Animal Farm. Orlando: Harcort, Inc., 1945. Print. . Why I Write. London: Penguin Books, Ltd., 2005. Print. Press TV. 1 August 2012. <http://www.presstv.ir/usdetail/253588.html>. We Are the 99 Percent. January 2011. Web. 01 August 2012. <http://wearethe99percent.tumblr.com/>.