Animal Farm

Have you ever imagined a farm ran by greedy pigs? Animal Farm is a novel that shows why animals cannot govern themselves. The novel was written by George Orwell. George Orwell was an English novelist and critic. Most of his work was on the government. He often criticized it as shown in the novels Animal Farm and 1984. George Orwell’s Animal Farm portrays the futility of the Russian Revolution through the themes of abuse of power, greediness, and ignorance.
Animal Farm portrays the theme of abuse of power. When the pigs declare themselves leaders if animal farm, they say that they will run a proper, equal farm. Josef Stalin abused his power as leader of Russia. Yet, the pigs prove that power is too much for them. They start taking advantage of the other animals. They started corrupting small things at first then they realized that they could not be stopped so they took full advantage of the animals. “Twelve voices were shouting in anger, and they were all alike. No question, now, what had happened to the faces of the pigs? The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.” This quote shows how the pigs started out by running an animal friendly farm, but eventually they began to resemble the corrupt leaders they revolted against.
Greediness is shown in this book in multiple forms in the novel. Humans in the book are greedy because they exploit the farm animals for personal use. The same is said for the Bolsheviks, the people who took over Russian after the Revolution. The pigs are greedy themselves. They were the ones who were well fed when all the other animals had their rations cut in half. Napoleon is the greediest animal. He could not share power with no other animal that he actually drove snowball out of the farm so he can have absolute power. He even makes sure that he is the only animal in the farm that eats sugar. All these examples prove how greediness is a very important theme in the novel. Ignorance is another major theme in the novel. All the animals are too ignorant too realize what is going on. The animals represent the humans from the Russian Revolution. Every animal except for the pigs, do not understand how the pigs are taking advantage of them. They are too ignorant to realize that even though they are always working, the pigs always seem to have more than enough food and luxuries while they are starving. The animals even caught Squealer changing the seven commandments, yet they could not pout tow and two together. Even the pigs are ignorant. When they sold their timber, they did not realize that they were given fake money. This shows that every animal in the farm is ignorant and this is why it is a major theme in the book.
In conclusion, Animal Farm is about these three themes: abuse of power, greediness, and ignorance. Since the novel represents the Russian Revolution, this shows how the humans were during and after Russian Revolution. George Orwell’s Animal Farm portrays the futility of the Russian Revolution through the themes of abuse of power, greediness, and ignorance.