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Animal Farm By George Orwell

Decent Essays

Animal Farm As Lord Acton once said, “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely”. During the beginning of the novel Animal Farm by George Orwell, Old Major, the prize Middle White boar describes the oppression that the animals on Manor Farm have experienced. Old Major goes to foreshadow that a day will come when the animals will overthrow their human masters and build an equitable society. That day does in fact come and the animals cause their previous master, Jones, to flee the farm leading to the farms original name of Manor Farm to be changed to Animal Farm. However, we quickly see that the pigs, by virtue of their leadership of the revolution, quickly become corrupted by the power that they have achieved thus corrupting the primary ideals on animalism. A few days following the revolution, the principles of Animalism were pure and simple, and all abided to the seven commandments put forth. The most significant of the seven commandments and the backbone of animalism was set out by Old Major and enforced by a boar named Snowball during the very beginning of the novel stating that, “‘...above all, no animal must ever tyrannise over his own kind. Weak or strong, clever or simple, we are all brothers’” (Orwell, 11) which was later summarized to be the seventh commandment, “all animal are equal” (Orwell, 25). Old Major having said this goes to show that the initial purpose of animalism and the revolution was not to take out one dictator merely so he can be

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