Animal Farm The Pigs example essay topic

Revolution is the most powerful move that a group of people within a country could ever make. A revolution is usually sudden, noisy, confusing, and frightening; it is what people do when they have reached their tolerance limit under a certain group or government. However, George Orwell's Animal Farm has put a new twist on our idea of a revolution by using animals as the characters engaged in the rebellion. It draws an eerie comparison between animals turning on humans and humans reducing themselves to the level of animals in the way they turn upon one another.

Revolutions follow a certain predictable pattern and often result in endings being the same as beginnings. Revolutions begin when rulers abuse and take advantage of their power. For example, in Animal Farm, Mr. Jones abused his power when he didn't feed the animals very much, and continued to work them as hard as they were worked before. There is also a positive side to all of this.

Abuse and mistreatment by the rulers can make some people come out and talk about their desires for a better society. In Animal Farm the animals were motivated by Old Majors speech, which suggested that they were treated very unfairly, and that they should prepare for a rebellion to overthrow Mr. Jones. Revolutions are always sure to begin when rulers mistreat their people and abuse their power. With the overthrow of an old government in a revolution, a new and improved society is formed for the people.

After the rebellion in Animal Farm, all of the animals became optimistic about the future. The pigs began to set up committees to teach the animals how to read and write. After a revolution, new societies always have people that assume power right away, either because they are smarter, or they are better at being leaders. The pigs seemed to assume leadership right away because they were more intelligent than the other animals. After a revolution a society constructs rules or commandments to obey so that the society is organized. In Animal Farm the pigs constructed the seven commandments, which were to be closely followed by all of the animals.

The beginnings of all revolutions are positive and progressive. After a new society has settled, gradual changes start taking place, and in the end everything is the way it was before. The first change is that no one can really agree on a certain leader. There is arguing between the dominant leaders about who is in charge, and who is to make decisions. Finally there is one leader left, because he was smart enough to overthrow the other (s). In Animal Farm, Napoleon and Snowball never could agree with each other.

Each wanted to be the dominator, but neither could accept working together. In the end, Napoleon gets his trained dogs to chase Snowball off. Next, the new leader of a society starts taking more blessings than needed for himself, while the society gets less than him. The leader uses the persuasive powers of others to allow himself, and others like him to get away with such things. This happens in Animal Farm, when Napoleon takes the milk and apples away from the other animals and uses them for the pigs.

Furthermore, Squealer, a pig with persuasive skills, tells the other animals that this is okay because the pigs need better food, due to the hard job they have. In addition to this, the leaders of a society start using threats to make people do what they want them to do and to make them follow orders. The leaders get lazy and stop working, but continue to make the others work hard. Traditions of the society stop.

Trained government agents are used to make people back off if they protest or suspect wrong doing in the society. For example, if the animals didn't want to do something, the pigs would say: "If you don't do this, Jones will come back". Traditions, such as no work on Sundays, committees to improve the society, and special group meetings were stopped. Also, Napoleon's trained dogs would always keep an eye out for troublemakers within the society. Eventually, the leaders of a society start trading with the enemies to get needed supplies. Harsh conditions are once again thrust upon the society, but not the rulers.

The dominator's start breaking the rules, and then bending and changing them; as a result they get what they want. Finally the leaders start forming relationships with the original enemies and they become leaders together over the society. Toward the end of Animal Farm, the pigs start trading with humans to get needed supplies. They reduce the rations of food for the other animals and they also make them work harder. The pigs disobey the commandments and then change them to make it look as if the pigs had been right in the first place. They start practicing all of the things that humans did.

In the end, the pigs and the humans come together to form one ruling power over all the animals. These are the gradual changes that start taking place after a new society has settled. Revolutions can follow a pattern that results in a society becoming the same society it was in the first place. From this knowledge, one can understand that humans are not meant to be equal and will never be totally equal.

Humans cannot live in a society where everyone gives an equal amount and receives an equal amount. Some humans could handle living equally while others could not. Some people are greedy and always want more than they receive. If a certain person is given too much power, then he could take advantage of that power to suit his greed. In addition to this, people with little education have no control over what smarter or more educated people do. Lack of education allows people to be pushed around and be made to do things they may not want to do.

Consequently, we can view revolutions as a series of generally predictable events, both good and bad, which ultimately end in the formation of a new society, but not necessarily a better society.