Animal Farm Themes

Animal farm themes

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Power and Corruption

Power and its corrupting effect is one of the central themes in animal farm. Some people think that power always corrupt, that they are two concepts that always appear hand by hand and that it is impossible to reach power and don’t corrupt it.

In the beginning of the book, Old Major gives an speech about the oppression that animals experience and dreams that a day will come when animals fight humans and build an equitable society. Initially, it seems that by defeating humans animals reach equality, but quickly we get to see how pigs, believing they are an intellectually superior species, reach power and day by day corrupt it extremely until they become just like humans (not only physically, but also in relation to their dictatirial control of power).

Throughout the book, Napoleon as a leader and the rest of the pigs begin to claim privileges to themselves, and eventually use dogs to purge those who question his authority. A very illustrative example of this is seen when the narrator says that pigs have milk and apples, and that they sleep in beds inside the house. This is heavily related to other central topic of the novel: rewritten history. The corruption of the principles of revolution is illustrated by the changing Seven Commandments, which are perverted over the course of the book to the point where, at the end, they read only "ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS."

The book's final passage, when some of the animals witness the pigs arguing and playing cards with Pilkington and the other humans in the farmhouse, makes the corruption of power most clear

Re-written History

In George Orwell’s novel Animal Farm, the pigs, led by Napoleon, constantly rewrite history in order to justify and reinforce their own continuing power. One obvious example of this tendency involves Napoleon’s attitude toward the construction of the windmill. Since the proposal for the windmill is offered by Snowball, Napoleon’s rival and opponent, Napoleon rejects the idea. Later, after Snowball has been expelled from the farm, Napoleon changes his mind without explanation, and orders that the windmill should be constructed. Later still, he claims that he never really opposed construction of the windmill but only pretended to do so for strategic reasons. Even later, he claims that the windmill was his own idea. The episodes involving the windmill thus offer perfect examples of how the ruling pigs, led by Napoleon, write history. Squealer, the regime’s chief propagandist, is heavily involved in most of the rewritings.

Another example of how history is rewritten involves the career of Snowball himself. He was one of the original revolutionaries and was wounded when he valiantly resisted a human attack upon the farm. Nevertheless, because Napoleon considers Snowball a rival, Snowball is eventually expelled from the farm. His reputation is attacked; his role in the history of Animal Farm is rewritten; and he ultimately is falsely declared to be a traitor.

Finally, one more example of the rewriting of history involves the rewriting of the original principles of Animalism. Commandments are rewritten in ways that benefit the new ruling class, especially Napoleon and his close allies.

By emphasizing the rewriting of history (as he does again in his later novel 1984), Orwell shows the terrifying consequences of altering truth, not only about the present but about the past.

Fear as an instrument of power

In Animal Farm, some animals use fear to keep one another in check and in submission. In order to ensure that there is acceptance on the part of the animals, fear is used as a motivating factor.

Old Major uses fear when he tells the animals that their purpose is to be used and discarded by the human beings. Old Major makes no pretense about how he sees Jones and the other humans.

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