Totalitarian State Analysis

Hayes, Paul M. “The Concept of Totalitarian State.” Fascism, p. Tucker, Robert C. The Marx-Engels Reader, W.W. Norton & Company, 1978, p.

Locke, John, Second Treatise of Government, p.

Heywood, Andrew, Politics, p. Book Review of ‘Animal Farm’

Analysed with the help of ‘Politics’ by Andrew Heywood, ‘The Concept of Totalitarian State’ by Paul M. Hayes, ‘Second Treatise of Government’ by John Locke and ‘The Marx-Engels Reader’ by Robert C. Tucker.

Animal Farm is a novel written by George Orwell. It was published in 1945, around the time WWII came to its end. The novel is set at a farm in United Kingdom. It tells the story of an animal rebellion against

Squealer using his sharp tongue becomes Napoleon’s spokesperson and the dogs become his personal guards. He continues to use deceptive tactics, like blaming any loss on Snowball, and by lying to animals (e.g. circumstances of Boxer’s demise), Napoleon starts changing the rules and gains much more power. He alters the wording of the commandments to suit his needs. Under his leadership, the farm is attacked by Mr. Fredrick, a neighbouring farmer who destroys the windmill. Slowly, the pigs start acting like humans and superior to the other animals. They start trading with other animals, sleep in Mr. jones house and wore his clothes. Even the saying changes from ‘All animals are equal to’ to ‘All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal’. At the end, other animals can’t differentiate between the pigs and the humans, whom they were so

Old Major, a pig, represents both V. I. Lenin (1870-1924), the leader of the Bolshevik Party who led the Russian revolution and seized control in 1917, and Carl Marx, the German political economist. Snowball represents Leon Trotsky. Snowball, a pig, was an idealist who whose sole purpose was to Animalism. He used different ways to achieve this. Despite being a pig with principles he was also morally flawed. He accepted that pigs were superior while promoting commandments like “All animals are equal”. This shows his hypocritical nature. Napoleon, a pig, represented USSR leader Joseph Stalin. He was shown to be a ruthless opportunist. He had no interest in the development of the farm or the ideology it had. Even during the battle with Mr. Jones, he took a backseat and let Snowball and the other animals fight them. He didn’t believe in the strength of the Animal Farm, but simply in his own strength. He used the brainwashed the dogs as his own police just like Stalin used the Secret police to monitor potential insurgents. But Napoleon is not just a representation of Joseph Stalin but of many dictators throughout the history like Mao Tse-tung, J osip Tito, Augusto Pinochet, Pol Pot and Slobodan Milosevic. Both Napoleon and Snowball and Stalin and Trotsky had a rivalry. In both cases an In both the historical and fictional cases, the idealistic but politically less powerful figure (Trotsky and Snowball) is