Theme Of Rebellion In Animal Farm

The word “rebellion,” since its inception in the English language in 1382, has been used within many contexts, including law and literature such as the Bible, Shakespearean plays, and the works of George Orwell. Perhaps more interesting than the actual usage of the word over time is the themes which are described as rebellious. Themes of rebellion are often presented in a cyclical manner, where rebellions don’t actually accomplish anything as they end in a similar or worse situation. Such a cyclical motif is often used in literature, and highlights the fact that rebellion is often considered a part of human nature. Cycles of rebellion, and rebellion itself, can be viewed negatively or positively. In the case of the Bible, both the cycle and

In particular, Animal Farm, a satire of the Russian Revolution, tells the story of a rebellion of barnyard animals against a farm owner, who had treated them poorly. The story takes place on what is originally called Manor Farm, run by Mr. Jones, a drunk who is despised by most of the animals. Old Major, the prized boar of the farm, shares his dream of a farm run entirely by animals. It is this dream, and Old Major’s subsequent death, that provides the catalyst for the rebellion of the animals to overtake Manor Farm. The animals rename the farm Animal Farm, and set up seven commandments of Animalism. Each of these commandments though, is eventually violated by the pigs, who quickly rise to power. The pigs declare the rebellion over, as their lives have improved exponentially, but “Some of the older [animals] among them racked their dim memories and tried to determine whether in the early days of the Rebellion, when Jones’s expulsion was still recent, things had been better or worse than now.” By the end of the story, the farm returned to the state it was in before the Rebellion. Napoleon renamed Animal Farm “The Manor Farm,” once more, “which, he believed, was its correct and original name.” In addition, the pigs had violated and changed each of the original commandments of Animalism. The final sentence of the book, “The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig,

This is in contrast to the Bible, where rebellion was seen as Israel’s straying from G-d. However, in Animal Farm, this better life that the animals had dreamed of was only seen by the pigs, who take control. By the end of the book, the farm’s original title was restored, and the pigs took the place of the humans. The book ends with the animals in the same place they were before, but still believing in the power of a rebellion. It would be reasonable, then, to assume that another rebellion could arise, and the pigs could be overthrown just as Mr. Jones was. Through employing the use of a cyclical motif in Animal Farm, Orwell highlights the inability of a rebellion to truly succeed. “All revolutions are failures, but they are not all the same failure,” Orwell writes in his essay “Arthur Koestler.” Orwell’s belief in this statement can be seen in Animal Farm, where the Rebellion is seen as a failure- only the pigs had a higher quality of life, and the other animals had perhaps a worse life than they had under the ownership of Mr.