Animal Farm - a Good Novel Teaches Audiences About Life Essay

Animal Farm Essay “A good novel teaches audiences about life”. What lessons does your composer teach you? Animal farm by George Orwell is an allegory based on the Russian Revolution. He teaches us that a utopian state cannot exist because of the want for absolute power, desire for a luxurious life and that people will always work for their personal gain. For a novel to be a good novel, it has to teach us lessons of life, as Animal Farm teaches us that a utopian society cannot exist due to leader becoming corrupt.

The novel teaches us that with the gain of power, leaders will fall into the temptation of a luxurious life and will then always work for their personal gain. One significant lesson that George Orwell teaches us is that a utopian state can never exist as there will always be the want for absolute power. This is first shown when the dogs chase away snowball by following Napoleon’s orders. Snowball and Napoleon previously ‘ruled’ the farm together but, Napoleon wanting absolute power accordingly has Snowball chased from the farm.

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Abolishing Sunday meetings is another way for Napoleon to gain absolute power, “He announced that from now on the Sunday meetings would come to an end”. By abolishing Sunday meetings Napoleon excludes the farm animals from having a say in the running of the farm. It also becomes evident that Napoleon controls the running of the farm when he announces, “all questions relating to the running of the farm would be settled by a special committee of pigs, presides over by himself”. Therefore it is evident that the want for absolute power disallows the formation of a utopian society.

Napoleon’s want for absolute power is also evident when he uses the executions of the animals to further strengthen his power over the farm. Napoleon uses the dogs and the executions to terrify and intimidate the animals so that they would obey his orders leading them to less likely to rebel. The executions made the animals more afraid of Napoleon, “the remaining animals…crept away in a body. They were shaken and miserable”, this allowed him to further strengthen his control on all the animals.

The executions also break the sixth commandment, “No animal shall kill any other animal”, and this shows us that Napoleon is willing to anything, even destroy the animal’s original beliefs to gain absolute power. Hence we can say that a utopian state cannot exist as the leaders will go to any lengths to get absolute power. Another lesson that Animal Farm teaches us is that the desire for a luxurious live also disallows the formation of a utopian state. After the rebellion the pigs assumed the supervisory positions.

The pigs being the most intelligent animals on the farm were able to easily manipulate other animals and therefore live luxuriously. The disappearance of the milk and apples is the first luxury the pigs allowed themselves and this is justified by the pigs as brain food for decision making. “Milk and apples (this has been proven by science, comrades) contain substances absolutely necessary to the well being of a pig”. Another luxury the pigs impose upon themselves is moving into the farmhouse and sleep on bed.

This breaks another commandment, “No animal shall sleep on a bed”. We can see that the powerful and intelligent class will take advantage of the unintelligent class thus forming the privileged class. The pigs also impose upon themselves more human luxuries such as drinking whisky and wearing clothes. The pigs continue to further give themselves human luxuries throughout the book and after discovering the case of whisky in the basement this was one of them. “No animal shall drink alcohol”, was another commandment that the pigs overlooked.

When the pigs started wearing clothes the animals were amazed as this was also against the seven commandments, “Napoleon himself appearing in a black coat, ratcatcher breeches and leather leggings”. The fact that the pigs completely ignored the seven commandments shows us that they were ready to destroy the beliefs of Animalism to surround themselves with luxuries. An important lesson that George Orwell teaches in Animal Farm is that leaders will use their power to work for their personal gain, which makes a utopian society impossible. Trading with other farms is on way Napoleon works for his own advantage.

He announces that, “Animal Farm will engage in trade with neighbouring farms”, he uses the produce of the animals on the farm to obtain profit for himself. One of the main things napoleon engages trade in is eggs, “Squealer announced that the hens,…must surrender their eggs”, this happens despite the hens being against it. Another profit gaining scheme Napoleon announces is that the small paddock which had been intended to be set aside as a grazing ground for animals who could no longer work and were retired, “was to be ploughed up…to sow it with barley”.

This shows us that Napoleon does not care for the animals under his ‘rule’ and will only work for his own profit. Other ways that Napoleon works for his own profits is, sending Boxer to the knackers and using the completed windmill for his own advantage. When boxer was being sent to the knackers the animals were horrified, “Do you not understand what that mean? They are taking Boxer to the knackers! ” this is one of Napoleon cruellest acts. After Boxer is of no use to Napoleon and becomes injured, he is sent to his death at the knackers rather than be treated at the vet.

The windmill which had been made as a result of tremendous hard work was not used for generating electrical power for the benefit of the animals but, “it was used for the milling of corn, and brought in a handsome money profit”. Sending Boxer to the knackers and using the windmill for milling corn completely destroys the dream for a utopian state and establishes Napoleon as a cruel dictator who will only work for his own profit and not for his people. In conclusion the composer George Orwell teaches the audience that a utopian state cannot exist.

This is because leaders will always want absolute power and will go to any lengths to achieve this. The desire for a luxurious life will also lead the intelligent class to go against their original beliefs, therefore becoming the privileged class. Working for personal gain also disallows the formation of a utopian state because corrupt leaders will only do things that bring them profit and not work for their people they rule. Therefore Animal Farm is a good book as the composer George Orwell teaches us these lessons.

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