Another misunderstood novel

Poor George Orwell. He was a socialist and even fought for a socialist political party, the POUM, during the Spanish Civil War. POUM, incidentally, means "Workers Party of Marxist Unification". It was formed by the Spanish supporters of deposed Russian revolutionaries Leon Trotsky and Nikolai Bukharin. Orwell's famous novels "1984" and "Animal Farm" aren't anti-socialist either. However, they have been interpreted in that manner by many Americans, who apparently think that Orwell was some kind of Cold Warrior.

You can see these misinterpretations in the customer reviews at Amazon. Weirdly, "Animal Farm" has also been misunderstood by some as a children's story about nice little animals. Gee, guys, it's a political allegory for adults for crying out load!

It's also interesting that many of the reviewers read the book in high school, which indicates that their teachers didn't get it either. My English-language teacher was a real Tory, but she did get it. I guess she assumed that telling the truth about "Animal Farm" makes the novel more interesting, which it sure does.

"Animal Farm" is anti-Stalinist, not "anti-socialist". Orwell believed in democratic, revolutionary socialism. He may have been naïve, of course, but that was his actual position. In the novel, the oppressed animals of a certain farm stage a rebellion against the farmer, Jones. The rebellion is the Russian revolution, while Jones symbolizes the Czar. The animals are led by Old Major, a pig who symbolizes both Lenin and Marx. After the death of Old Major, a battle for control ensues between the pigs Napoleon and Snowball, obviously based on Stalin and Trotsky. The name "Napoleon" for the Stalinist pig is presumably based on Trotsky's accusation that Stalin was a "Bonapartist". Here, Orwell made an intentional or unintentional mistake, since the Marxist term "Bonapartism" originally referred to Louis Bonaparte, not Napoleon Bonaparte. (Of course, Orwell might have chosen the name for a more mundane reason: just as Napoleon "betrayed" the French revolution, so Stalin "betrayed" the Russian revolution.)

In the novel, the pig Napoleon emerges victorious, and transforms the liberated Animal Farm into a new system of oppression by a combination of violence, propaganda and deceit. He also gradually changes the message of Old Major, eventually replacing his commandment "All animals are equal" with the classic line "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others". In the last chapter, Napoleon's pig faction negotiates with humans, and as the other animals are looking in, they realize that the Napoleonic pigs have become so similar to humans, that they are impossible to tell apart. (In the novel, humans symbolize capitalists or monarchists.) Another classical part of the novel deals with the old horse Boxer, who symbolizes the Russian working class. Boxer is eventually sent away to the glue factory by Napoleon.

In other words, it's a novel claiming that the true principles of Marx and Lenin were betrayed by Stalin. Neither more nor less. Deal with it.

At the same time, both "Animal Farm" and "1984" are very pessimistic. I suspect Orwell became demoralized at the end of his life. "1984" describes a society that combines the worst aspects of capitalism and Stalinism, a society many intellectuals at the time believed was quite possible. The British working class is depicted in a very unfavourable way, and the only real resistance to Big Brother comes from individuals of the middle class. "Animal Farm" also contains veiled attacks on the working class. For instance, the old horse Boxer is sympathetic but stupid. And it's Boxer who symbolizes the workers... There are also unsympathetic sheep, who uncritically follow Napoleon. Finally, there is the smart but cynical donkey Benjamin, who some people believe symbolizes George Orwell himself!

And now, let the attacks begin...