Article المقال ( Janvier )

 

Animal Farm: A Fairy Tale

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Written by: Prof. Essam Fattouh

Professor of English Literature 

Department of English

Faculty of Arts – University of Alexandria

Orwell was fully aware of how his experience as a volunteer, defending the republican cause, over-determined and revolutionized his political philosophy and influenced all of his writing accordingly.

 Orwell headed out for Spain late in 1936 and joined the POUM (The Party of Marxist Unification). He narrowly escaped death when he was wounded in the throat by a bullet. He witnessed first-hand the false accusations levelled at the POUM, rendering it both fascistic and Trotskyist. He was personally accused of high treason and espionage. In Homage to Catalonia (1938), he observed how the communist press circulated absurdities and “flagrant lies,” as he managed, by the skin of his teeth, to flee to Morocco before his return to England.

For Orwell, from this point onwards, Stalin became the actual embodiment of the absolute dictator, who destroyed the possibility of Russia ever achieving the socialist goals for which the Bolshevik Revolution had taken place.

In Animal Farm, Stalin becomes Napoleon the unscrupulous pig and anti-hero of the novel. Leon Trotsky is depicted with greater sympathy as Snowball, a composite of both Marx and Lenin, who is maligned and chased ruthlessly by Napoleon’s dogs on Napoleon’s orders.

The founder of “Animalism,” and the first to ignite the spark of revolution, is represented by Major, who establishes the seven key principles guiding the revolution and outlining its utopian vision. Mr. Jones, the original drunkard owner of “Animal Farm”, allegorically stands for Tsar Nicolas II, who abdicated after the Revolution of 1917, and was executed in 1918.

With the defeat of Jones, Napoleon and Snowball assume command, adopting Animalism, and a promising future seems to loom large for the united animals. As matters come to a head between Snowball and Napoleon, the latter succeeds in banishing Snowball and declaring him a traitor, while declaring himself the supreme commander of “Animal Farm”.

A committee of pigs, led by Napoleon, takes over running the farm. The Seven Commandments, over time, degenerate into hollow signifiers, totally devoid of signification, and are reduced to jingles exemplified by the sheep bleating their support of the new dictator, Napoleon. “All animals are equal” becomes “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others”; “No animal shall sleep in a bed” becomes “No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets”; the prohibition of alcohol becomes “No animal shall drink alcohol to excess”, etc.

Without revolutionary zeal and vigilance, even a successful revolution can become an easy prey to the machinations of fascism and dictatorship. Napoleon’s modus operandi, like that of Stalin, achieves total hegemony through instilling fear among the entire animal population; the creation of a personal cult; and gaining total control of propaganda through Napoleon’s second in command, Squealer. The latter is endowed with the ability to make language mean only what his master deems important to propagate.

Napoleon soon enters into alliance with Mr. Frederick, reminiscent of Stalin’s pact with Hitler. Orwell’s allegory concludes with the animals gazing upon pigs and men, unable to distinguish between them. The alliance between America and England with Stalin’s Russia in order to defeat Hitler forced no less than four different publishers to reject Orwell’s manuscript. With its publication, however, common readers in different languages accorded it the unique status of being one of the best dystopian novels written in English—if not the best.