ELITE OF THE LEADER 1

Nattha Theevarajirasab

12-01

Elite of the leader in ANIMAL FARM

Modernization and priority are two main factors that subside the equality in the

society. Animal Farm, a novella which its narrator, George Orwell, called as a fairy story

(p.vi), was first published in Great Britain on August 17th ,1945. Eric Arthur Blair, or George

Orwell, is an Indian novelist who created a strong story addressing major politics such as

communism at his time. Orwell correlated the idea of Marxism, raised by Karl Marx, within

the novella. Marxisms fundamental principle is that the society is designed in order to

empower the leader. The central fable is about the farm which is ruled by the human in the

first place and then is taken over the power and governed by the animals. The main characters

are Snowball, a white pig using the rule of equality, Old Major, an old pig conducting the

revolution, Napoleon, a pig driving Snowball out of the farm and setting the priority for the

pigs, and Squealer, Napoleons supporter. Old Major argues that all resources must be shared

equally among all animals; however, when Napoleon comes to power, he creates a system of

privilege for the pigs.

Priorities that pigs have over other animals are work and labour. At the beginning of

the story, a Manor Farm (later known as Animal Farm) is under the administration of Mr.

Jones. Living under Mr.Jones power, the animals work to the maximum extent of their

abilities. As the speech of Old Major illustrates, hatched eggs from hens and milk from cows

are sold for Mr.Jones money. Moreover, pigs, hens, and cows are raised for their products

and then killed for their meats. As mentioned in the book, And every animal down to the

humblest worked at turning the hay and gathering it. Even the ducks and hens toiled to and

fro all day in the sun (p.28), after the event of the first rebellion, Snowball leads the animals
ELITE OF THE LEADER 2

herd and preserve the equality among all animals, meaning to say they still have to work

equally in the maximum of their capacities. Soon after Snowball is driven out, Napoleon

takes control over the farm and empowers himself by claiming his intelligence to be the mind

and the rests incapability to be the hands and legs. The pigs assign all the works to other

animals and put themselves at ease. As mentioned in a book, All that year the animals

worked like slaves. (p.59) and they worked a sixty-hour week (p.59), these show the

dictatorship of Napoleon that he assigns more and more work to build the windmill while he

does not have to do. The accomplishment of the windmill would have had Napoleons fame

rising and receiving the respect to others of the animals. The windmill of which would be

benefited for himself most. This action creates the system of inequality to the society.

Hausman states that In a society that does not accord the same baseline respect to all its

members, that does not support the self-respect of all, that explicitly or implicitly admits of

different "grades" of human beings, a certain sort of moral identity may not be possible

(n.d.). The leader believes that he deserves all the privilege only because he thinks of himself

as the supreme mind over the others,which is the start of deterioration of equality in the

society. Not only do the leaders use their authority to create advantages in their favor but they

also legitimize those special treatment by laws.

The alteration and rule violation of the commandments is another significant priority

for the pig. After the rebellion, the seven commandments, the law that animals have to

respect, are designated. After Snowball left, Napoleon, together with Squealer, elongates

some of the commandments in order to support their further convenience:

A leader who is selfish and craves for more power and privilege would do anything to

fulfill his wants. Usually he who craves power would take advantage of the

naivety of the labor force contorting the commandments rather indistinctly until it becomes
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what he desired. By then there would be no more equality and he would of course become

the next oppressor. (Khardia, 2015 p.1-2)

The commandments are primarily set for the animals not to behave like human. Time passes,

Napoleon finds out the truth that some acts of human being can bring him such a comfortable

life that he has never reached. Because of this, he changes some of the commandments in

order to satisfy his contentment. The claim that The influential effectiveness of leaders

varies considerably as a result of the cultural forces in which the leaders function, stated

Pasa, Hayat Kabasakal, and Muzaffer Bodur (2001) intensify the argument of the priority.

According to the novel, Muriel says, No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets (p.67). The

fourth commandment originally states that No animal shall sleep in a bed (p.24). The

phrase with sheets is added to the commandment for the pigs special advantage. Because the

pigs are superior to other animals, they amend the commandment to satisfy themselves,

which is against the idea of equality. This draws on the unequal system that the pigs are the

only group which can sleep in the farmhouse. According to the novel, They had thought the

Fifth Commandment was No animal shall drink alcohol, but there were two words that they

had forgotten. Actually the Commandment read: No animal shall drink alcohol to excess

(p.109). The pigs lengthen two words, to excess, which changes the meaning of the

commandments from animal cannot drink alcohol to animal can drink alcohol in the proper

amount. These changes strengthen the benefit of the pigs to be able to drink alcohol.

Moreover, some of the commandments meaning are distorted. The first commandment states

that Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy. As mentioned in the books, A

Mr.Whymper, a solicitor living in Wellington had agreed to act as intermediary between

Animal Farm and the outside world, and would visit the farm every Monday morning to

receive his instructions. Although humans do not go upon the four legs like the animals,
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Napoleon trades with him. This creates the inequality that the pigs have an ability to access to

the money while others animal cannot. The ideas of Marxism, which is applied to these pigs

in the society, widen the gap between the superior and the inferior. The pigs do not stop using

their authority power and further use it to satisfy their needs.

The ascendancy in food of the pigs is major factor creating priority. As animals are

under the rule of Mr.Jones, they are fed by what Mr.Jone has given them. Although Mr.Jone

forgets to feed them or feed in low quality food, the animals are equal in rights because they

receive the same treatment. However, after the the name has changed to the animal farm, the

pigs have the authority to manage the farm, which allows them to access food resources. The

statement that support this argument is, The priority of access to resources (e.g. food) can

express dominance as an attribute of dyadic encounters under the concept of social

dominance (Drews, 1993). On the contrary to the pigs claim to instill equality in the farm,

they do not act as they previously said. The pigs use their positions of leaders to satisfy

themselves with the priority to eat better food than the others. As Squealer said, We pigs are

brainworkers. The whole management and organization of this farm depend on us. (p.36)

They called themselves as the brainworkers, so that it would be reasonable for them to drink

milk and eat apples because the pigs have to preserve their health and work for the

long-lasting of the farm. They pretense this excuse in order to make the system satisfy their

demand of food. When the leader allows their power to intrude equality of the society by

initiating privileges for themselves, inequality is established and Marxism takes over. This

priviledge of having more access to food is one of the factors in the book Orwell uses to

demonstrate inequality in society.

All in all, it is clear that Orwell elaborates the idea of Marxism by uncovering the

priority of the potentate, a leader who regulates the farm. Change and violation in the
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commandments, the priority in work, and the precedence in food are the major concepts that

are developed to show how society is arranged to accredit the leader, which is the core value

of Marxism. While it remains debatable which governing style is the most suitable for a

nation, the core purpose of the leader is to civilize the society and to govern people in the

rightful order.
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References

Khardia, N. (2015). The idea of equality in animal farm of george orwell | International

Journal of English Language, Literature and Humanities.

Paa, S. F., Kabasakal, H., & Bodur, M. (2001). Society, Organisations, and Leadership in

Turkey. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 50(4), 559-589.

Takanishi, N., Oishi, K., Kumagai, H., Uemura, M. and Hirooka, H. (2015) Factors

influencing the priority of access to food and their effects on the carcass traits for

Japanese Black (Wagyu) cattle, Animal, 9(12), pp. 20172023.

Hausman, D. (n.d.). Equality versus Priority: A Badly Misleading Distinction. Retrieved

December06,2016,fromhttp://philosophy.wisc.edu/hausman/papers/Hausman-Equalit

y-vs -Priority-revised.htm