Yesterday is Tomorrow

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“The Revolution will be complete when the language is perfect.”(Orwell 1984). George Orwell wrote Nineteen Eighty-Four as a warning to the reader in the future of the dangers of totalitarian government. Where, also, the novel Animal Farm is an allegorical satire of the Russian Communism. Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four share several similarities. The humans in 1984 exist in much the same state as Orwell left the animals in Animal Farm. They are defeated, scared, and completely subservient to their totalitarian dictator. Throughout these two novels, one can notice the comparison between the worlds in the books and the society in Soviet Russia ruled by Stalin. Nonetheless, George Orwell utilizes his similar yet distinct characters to unravel the shared theme of the two novels, absolute power corrupts absolutely. Animal Farm, written in 1940s, is an allegory of the Russian Revolution, on how communism does not work. In this novel, a bunch of farm animals overthrow the farmer who treated them badly. They set up an ideal society in which all the animals are equal, and work for the benefit of each other (basically a communist society). The pigs take a leadership position, even though technically all the animals are equal. On Pig, Napoleon, who is power hungry, kicks his co-leader, Snowball, and then becomes a tyrant. He mistreats the other animals in a similar way as the farmer mistreated them. The animals are back to square one, and no improvement has been made. This new regime shows the other animals that the pigs are no better than- and indeed, come to resemble- the humans they supplanted. After Lenin’s death, there were two guys ready for the job of taking over the communist party. Lenin did not want Stalin to take over, but ... ... middle of paper ... ...wspeak Dictionary” Newspeak Dictionary. n.d. Orwell, George. 1984. Ed. Erich Fromm. New York: Harcourt, 1949. Rejali, Darius. Torture and Democracy. Princeton University Press, 8 June 2009. Rodden, John. The Cambridge Companion to George Orwell. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2007. Print. “The effects of propaganda in 1984 - part 1.” Bukisa. 2008. Yemenici Alev. “Animal Satire in Animal Farm.” University of Ankara. 10 April 1997.

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