What Are The Similarities Between Anthem And Animal Farm

When thinking of a reformed society, one does not usually think of oppression and conformity. The leaders of these corrupt societies, created by Ayn Rand and George Orwell, attempt to maintain control and promote conformity to the point at which subjects are being literally and figuratively beaten into obedience. In Anthem and Animal Farm, both authors explore ideas such as control by fear, propaganda, and the power of individuality. Manipulation and propaganda are used to promote conformity. The society in Anthem taught men and women from birth that “it is a sin to think words no others think and to put them down upon a paper no others are to see” (17). The narrator believed his actions were sins because they went against his society’s ideals. In Animal Farm, Squealer justified the pigs’ hoarding of the milk and apples by claiming the pigs did not even like the milk and apples, but they were essential to the pigs’ superior brains (36). The animals were manipulated into believing that if the pigs did not have all of the precious milk and apples, their previous oppressor Jones would return. Manipulation and

The narrator in Anthem wrote of a man being “burned alive in the square of the city” for speaking the “Unspeakable Word” (49). He admitted the scene “haunts [him], and follows [him], and gives [him] no rest” (50). This punishment was a warning to the public from the authorities that if they stepped one foot out of line, severe punishment would be in store for them. The animals in Animal Farm were forced into confessing to crimes they did not commit and were executed in front of the entire population of the farm until “there was a pile of corpses lying before Napoleon’s feet” (84). From then on, the farm had an scared and uneasy atmosphere and the animals obeyed all of Napoleon’s commands. Fear was an immoral, albeit effective, way to maintain control in these