Criticism of Animal Farm: A Political Mess
- Ralph Steadman's Paintings for Animal Farm
A few days ago, I bought a new book. The very famous Orwell's Animal Farm, which has many relevant drawings and cartoons by Ralph Steadman.
The drawings are very helpful. They do an excellent job to transfer the relevant feelings. And also, every page has few sketching around the text. Now, reading the book is even a better experience.
But there is one thing that is not right: the exaggerations in drawing of the animals. Even in the very beginning of the book, pigs are painted as very evil characters and also Boxer and Clover as very silly, which is not right; considering the spirit of the book.
- Political Analysis and Orwell's Motive
The edition I've bought has two appendixes. One of them is an introduction that Orwell wrote for the Ukrainian readers (which I've already read it). And The other article is about the difficulty of publishing the book in the middle of WWII, and also Orwell's opinion on leftist intellectuals in general.
The irony is, Orwell only wrote this book for changing public opinion about the Soviet Union. But as we all know, the book is read by the public because of its fantastic and touching criticism of unsuccessful new governments raised by revolutions.
Youth and others don't read the book to learn Soviet Union history.
Considering the Orwell's intention, the book is a failure.
If he had stayed alive for a few years more, he would see the Khrushchev's area and the book wouldn't be written at all.
Orwell wrote Soviet Union history in the time of Stalin, without proper and sufficient information and data. More like a fairy tale: as the title.
He was criticizing official Soviet Union use of Marxism (call it Stalinist). But eventually, he thought in a very same way.
He stated that the happened event in U.S.S.R. was inevitable. There is no other way around.
If an animal (labour) get rid of humans (capitalist), they will become just like them. The end!!!
Let me adopt his idea about one thing before capitalist: Slavery (actually before feudalism).
In Orwell's idea, if slaves become free of oppression, one group of them will become masters again. The end!!!
Slavery is an inevitable fact. And be careful! If you become free (like African Americans), you will end up to a new slavery, this time led by a new African American group. The idea belongs to a good old grumpy man who loves conspiracy theories and is tired, not an intellectual mind or even a sophisticated person.
And also, Orwell wrote the book as an anarchist. All the goody and cute things belong to the masses, and all the bad things belong to the state.
All and I mean all the animals were taught reading and writing but not expect pigs, dogs, and the donkey can go forward in alphabets more than D!!!
Seriously? I know that Russian peasants were famous for being uncultured, arrogant. But still, nobody should say they couldn't be intellectual because of their nature.
Some best and genius scientists are from rural and uneducated parents. Why should divide people and their classes to represent as different animals?? As Orwell said, some animals are stupid. It doesn’t matter who is the horse: Boxer, Clover and the new four horses. They can't learn (it doesn't matter the horse character, gender, age and …). Really?? Are humans like this? Horses and especially Boxer represents Labour. So, this is the story?? Labour are …
Coming back to slaves as an oppressed class, which means no matter if we give them culture and education, the result is the same??
And coming back to the own writer's image in the book: Benjamin, the donkey. He understands, learns and is very sceptical. He doesn't get excited easily and is usually apathetic. Finally, he has this slogan: donkeys live a long life.
There is a problem here, our Benjamin (call him Orwell) died shortly afterwards in middle age. Benjamin is not a very Orwell's image when we observe Orwell's life himself.
Why does Orwell represent an intellectual like this? The answers are in those two appendixes. British intellectuals' cowardice to criticize USSR and Stalin in 1943 (in the middle of WW2). Something that they used to do before. And Orwell was sad.
We should go back to the book and read chapters again.
It is obvious that Orwell saw the concerns with the ignorance of animal. But he translated it as innocent.
The concern is not with the lack of knowledge and the imbeciles… god bless their souls… No, it's with smart ones who are a genius and capable. Animals are happy as long as they just eat and sleep. Just another nonsense book about farmers' Utopia (the anarchist Utopia).
“Foolishness is the final redemption.”
Seriously?! This is more like a medieval priest's way of thinking or some ultra-conservative red neck movies like Forrest Gump or Last Samurai. Not someone like “George Orwell”!
Education for the major part of the public is useless. So, what to do? Just eat and reproduce. The end!!! P.s. do it freely.
In one of the appendix, he was frustrated that why British media this year (1943) read the history of the “Red Army” in BBC and its famous wars without mentioning the head and builder of the Red Army: Leon Trotsky. He wrote> this is like explaining the Napoleon Bonaparte wars without mentioning his name. Outrageous!
Yes, changing history is the most disgusting and disgracing act. Yes, yes. Stalinists made a disgusting act to remove Lenin, Trotsky, Bukharin, Zinoviev, Kamenev, Lunacharsky and… from 1917 history.
But hello!!! Dear Orwell, haven't you just removed the Bolshevik party from the 1917 October Revolution??
Seriously (again), let's look at the book translation of the October Revolution. Animals got hungry, and then animals (no mentioning of pigs in particular) got rid of humans. Somebody who knows the history of intellectuals and the tsarist regime will be disgusted.
In this book, the bright and shining moments like revolutions and defensive wars had done by goody innocent masses, and then smart evil ones came later. What a history… absolute faking of the history for satisfying an anarchistic view.
The funny thing is that even some bourgeoisie historians, because of the critical role of Bolsheviks (Trotsky or Snowball) in October Revolution, call it a coup (which is wrong). Orwell knew this and wrote it many times in his awesome articles. He is the one who asked why Stalinists were so shameless to remove Trotsky's name from the revolution. He was so frustrated because British Stalinists had changed “Ten Days that Shook the World” but our hypocrite author did the very same thing and removed Trotsky and the other figures of revolution and why?? This time, it's because of satisfying one kind of anarchistic ideology (Anarcho-syndicalism).
Orwell is not the honest and fair historian; he is just another Stalinist thinker with a different colour (black instead of red).
Anyway, back to the beginning, the book is read by youth for the ironic approach to an unsuccessful state raised from a revolution. We can easily find far more close resembles of it all around us.
Nowadays, even a high school student knows the Bolsheviks' role in the October Revolution. And the Stalinist and bourgeoisie and Orwellian versions are forgotten.
Yes, the Orwell's version is far better than the Stalinist version of that time which was repeatedly published in those years by British Communist parties:
“Comrade Stalin, the father of labour, was born on a glorious day and some years later, he succeeded the revolution. The end!!!”
Yes, it's better to say Russian peasants were Communists and later after they announced the Soviet Union, Bolsheviks appeared in the Russia and destroyed the communist utopia. The end! But why anybody in the 21st century, when she can easily google the subjects, accepts a false version of a history, especially by an author who intentionally manipulated it?
OK, so far, people who like Orwell's writings or are a fan of this astonishing book (included me) would be angry with me. So, I'm sorry, and I try to make it up to you (and myself) in Part B.
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