As in Egypt, Orwell demonstrates through his allegorical novel “Animal Farm” that leaders are able to establish and maintain power over a people, and in turn create an oppressive and corrupt government system.
Orwell shows the significant difference in the education and levels of knowledge in the animals, and how the government takes advantage of this difference. The split between the levels of intelligence is portrayed in the first chapter when the idea of rebellion is sparked: “… the stupidest of them had already picked up the tune and a few words, and as for the clever ones, such as the pigs and the dogs, they had the entire song by heart within a few minutes” (Orwell 13). When Old Major --the spark that set fire to the idea of revolution-- dies, the claimed more intelligent animals of the farm begin to long for a rebellion: “Major’s speech had given to the more intelligent animals on the farm a completely new outlook on life... they saw clearly that it was their duty to prepare for it” (Orwell 15). The animals who seem to be on the less- knowledgeable/ less- educated side of the spectrum are not as much affected by this. They go on with life, and the pigs are able to establish an oppressive regime because of the other animals’ ignorance and disinterest in the topic of the farm’s well being. The pigs do not try to dissuade the animals in the pursuit of being educated; however, they do encourage the animals to be complacent with their lack of knowledge (Orwell 34). The animals are therefore unable to have opinions or take part in discussion for the welfare of the whole community.
In Egypt, the political system was based on a one man dictator, Hosni Mubarak, who held his regime for 30 years. He governed the citizens of Egypt, a...
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First, political Islam has rogue Egypt and held it down, suffocating the country, not allowing it to stand a chance. President Hosni Mubarak was ousted and people thought that Egypt was getting better. It has not been the case. While Zaki lives in faded luxury and chases women, Bothayna endures sexual harassment while working as a shop assistant to provide for her poor family after the death of her father. Meanwhile her boyfriend, Taha, son of the building's janitor, is rejected by the police and decides to join a radical Islamic group. Egypt is heading towards a bottomless abyss. Everything is controlled by the elite. Jobs are no more; it is preserved for the top. This increases the plight of the people and leads them into committing some of the acts seen in Islam as bad or as a taboo. The political elite are crashing its opponents and ensuring that whoever com...
Ridel, B, 'The real losers in Egypt's uprising', The Daily Best Online, 13 February 2011. Retrieved 19 March 2011< http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2011-02-13/al-qaeda-absent-in-hosni-mubaraks-fall-and-egyptian-revolution/>
The structure of Egyptian politics and state administration was also redefined during Ali’s rule. As the go...
Animal Farm, by George Orwell was published in 1945, a crucial time in history because of Stalin’s takeover of the Soviet Union and his exploitation of the centralized communist government. This was in direct contradiction to the expected results of the Russian Revolution. Orwell felt that revolutions fail because the end result is a change of tyrants and not of government. Orwell exemplifies this failure through the goals of the revolution and their failure to meet them, the malfunction of Napoleon and Snowball’s rule together, and Napoleon’s disastrous reign.
The Egyptian January 2011 revolution initially created hopes that a genuine process of Egyptian democratization would take off under the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood, a religious, political and social movement. The June 2012 presidential elections, brought the group’s candidate, Mohamed Morsi, in office. While in power the Muslim Brotherhood kept and enforced many laws and articles from the old regime to maintain control of the country. The continuation of torture and murder behind bars under the Muslim Brotherhood disqualifies it as a rebellion as Camus clarifies, “to exist, man must rebel, but rebellion must respect the limit it discovers in itself”( Camus 22). On June 26, 2013, El Nadim Center for Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence, published a report in which it described torture during the first year of Brotherhood rule as “widespread and systematic.” “ The report documented 359 cases of torture and 217 cases of torture-related deaths over the period from June 30, 2012, to May 31, 2013” (Selim 193). The transgression in Muslim Brotherhood regime through the use of violence to punish it opponents oversteps the boundaries of a rebel. The main complaint of the Egyptians citizens was that the Muslim Brotherhood failed to live to its promise to get rid of authoritarianism and put Egypt on a path toward democracy. Under
The cyclic nature of political revolutions and the uneven distribution of power creates a problematic and dystopic society. This is depicted in George Orwell’s dystopian, allegorical novella “Animal Farm”. This provides a warning against revolutions as he suggests that revolutions are detrimental to a society and its working class citizens. His novel depicts the unfavourable aspects of the human condition, and the terrible effects they can have on society if political leaders are not regulated. Orwell argues that a political revolution leads to an uneven division of power between citizens and their leaders, and this creates problems within politics such as corruption and propaganda. By portraying the negative characters of greed and ambition,
George Orwell is one of the most prolific writers of the twentieth century and was heavily influenced by his own experience in the Spanish army fighting hars political regimes. The political systems that he grew under and the control of colonizing countries jaded him and as such, he became harshly critical of political regimes. Animal Farm became one of Orwell’s most famous works as it serves as an allegory of the problematic nature of the totalitarian government in Russia. In Animal Farm, Orwell demonstrates how the control of education and the use of fear and violence enables the pigs to easily take advantage of the other animals and exercise their dominance of the farm for their own benefit. Firstly, the pigs hoard the information and
Old Major used his trust and reasoning and took advantage of his power to persuade the others to pursue the vision in his dream. Over the course of the years, history has sustained that dictatorship is ineffective and disastrous, suitable to the statistic that dominance will lead to corruption in a communism style establishment like the one of Animalism. Animalism is a system of thought that condenses all of Old Major’s teachings that embodies the fundamental principles that all animals are to be treated equally, and no animal shall acquire human qualities or characteristics. Subsequently, the prevailing pigs lack contribution in sustaining Animal Farm. The central message of “power corrupts those who possess it” is additionally conveyed through the pigs’ proud actions when they refuse, “The pigs did not actually work, but directed and supervised the others. With their superior knowledge it was natural that they should assume the leadership” (Orwell 13). This upholds that the pigs are perceived as superior amongst the other animals, for they are the only ones that can read. This relates to the Russian Revolution, for the pigs deliberately think of themselves as inferior, as do the capitalists, which
Zayan, J. (2011, February 14). Egypt Activists and Army Discuss Reforms. The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved December 7, 2013, from http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/egypt-activists-and-army-discuss-reforms-20110214-1as8u.html
Levinson, C. (2005) Egypt's Growing Blogger Community Pushes Limit of Dissent. Christian Science Monitor, 24 august.
George Orwell’s Animal Farm is a political satire of a totalitarian society ruled by a mighty dictatorship, in all probability a fable for the events surrounding the Russian Revolution of 1917. The animals of “Manor Farm” overthrow their human master after a long history of mistreatment. Led by the pigs, the farm animals continue to do their work, only with more pride, knowing that they are working for themselves, as opposed to working for humans. Little by little, the pigs become dominant, gaining more power and advantage over the other animals, so much so that they become as corrupt and power-hungry as their predecessors, the humans.
The novel “Animal Farm” written by George Orwell revolves around the themes of dreams, hopes and plans. In the novel these themes clash with one another and bring out the turmoil in the novel. The writer has carefully chosen the appropriate characters which are helpful to bring out these themes. The animals in the farm, who insanely fallowed the dreamy utopian concepts which promised them a world of which everyone works well with each other and is happy, finally trapped and enslaved by the same concepts they fallowed. Anyone may argue that it is the self-centered rulers, the pigs who have power over the poor animal transform ‘the dream of a better or more perfect society in “Animal Farm” into a totalitarian nightmare.’ This paper discusses ‘the main causes that transformed the dream of a better or more perfect society in “Animal Farm” into a totalitarian nightmare’, such as intellectual inferiority, violation of rules and regulation, lack of education and awareness in relation to the “actions” and the behavior of the subjected animals.
Fili, Aisha. "The unexpected Egyptian revolution." Newsbank. N.p., 27 Jan. 2011. Web. 1 Apr. 2011.
The dictatorship of President Hosni Mubarak continued for three decades in Egypt. Autocracy, police brutality, radically skewed distribution of nation’s wealth, youth unemployment, domination of all institutions by older men were major factors that stimulated the Arab Spring Revolution. With an autocratic leadership there was no free speech from the Egyptian citizens which led to too much power being
Without his understanding this thesis would never have been completed.I also wish to thank my sister Fidan Korkut for her suggestions in the planning stage of this study and her endurance during my long study days at home.My special thanks go to Özgür Ceylan, who constantly granted me her moral support. She was always there when I needed her.<font face="3">THE AUTHOR: GEORGE ORWELLPresentationThis chapter introduces general information about George Orwell's life. It includes chronological progress of his life and his political convictions. Furthermore, important events, such as The Russian Revolution and The Spanish Civil War which had significant influence on his commitment to write Animal Farm will be discussed. Lastly, general information about Animal Farm will be given.His LifeThe British author George Orwell, pen name of Eric Arthur Blair, was born in Motihari, India, June 25, 1903. His father was an important British civil servant in India, which was then part of the British Empire.