ANIMALS FARM RELATIONSHIP WITH MARXIST IDEOLOGIES
In the Animals farm by George Orwell, we clearly see the objectification of work, where the Animals work to earn ration or to be fed in an attempt to better their life. Consequently, working becomes an end to itself, this signifying humans who have objectified their work becoming slaves to work and unable to remove themselves from the vicious cycle of having to work, yet their life is not improving. The strife between the ruling class and the ruled comes to light when the animals in the animal’s farm overthrow the human manager, yet when the animals take over the management is in the hands of rulers represented by pigs, in society representing the bourgeoise amassing power and controlling the factors of production namely the land, the social class strife is manifested. The more the animals produce, the more the ruling class restricts them.
The animal’s farms model initially is an aspiration towards socialism and communal ownership of the work and factors of production ultimately leading to communism as espoused by Karl Marx, where the ruling class or Tsars control all factors of production, this brings about the theme of class strife that is apparent in all society, and in itself a catalyst for revolution. The motivation to make profits and increase wealth is manifest in the book “The animals’ farm” where the ruling class pigs start trading with neighboring farms, even selling off their less productive members, George Orwell captures the reasoning that when the bourgeoise argues for free trade, they are motivated by profit margins and personal gain and not collective welfare which goes against the spirit of communal ownership of land and in essence the factors of production, which favored approach of the ruling elites Tsars and the bourgeoise, this in itself a core driver of revolutions.
Marxist ideologies weigh in heavily in the writing of the animal’s farm where we see from the inception the animals being slaves to a system in exchange for their daily rations, and this ultimately causes a revolution and aspiration to create a farm where all animals are equal; a socialist goal but in this, class struggles eventually become apparent and the ruling class changes the objectives so that the ruling class retains power at the expense of all the others. The communistic and Marxist ideologies where the state owns the factors of production becomes apparent, with the Marxist ideologies playing out in animals farm and ultimately the animal’s farm questioning whether social class parity issues are not what is undermining collective ownership to property and factors of production. The Tsars and bourgeoise eventually end up owning the revolution and in essence bringing about George Orwell’s statement that “humans (represent capitalism or greed) and the pigs representing ruling class and the humans are eating” together, in itself indicating that greed is an overriding factor that entrenches capitalism and kills socialist ideals and thereby defeating the communist state ownership of factors of production thus greed becomes the greatest impendent to socialism.
Bibliography: Putra, A.H., Nugroho, A. and Hum, M., 2019. Dictatorship Of the Proletariat In George Orwell’s Animal Farm Novel (1945): A Marxist Analysis (Doctoral dissertation, Universitas Muhammadiyah Surakarta).