Class Warfare and Conflict in Orwell's "Animal Farm"

“A permanent division of labor inevitably creates occupational and class inequality and conflict,” a quote stated by Robert Shea that perfectly depicts the complexities of class warfare in general as well as within Animal Farm. An allegorical novella by George Orwell, the fable reflects events leading up to the Russian Revolution of 1917 and then on into the Stalinist era of the Soviet Union. Class warfare can be found in the novel’s major plot points, arising from conflict between different classes in a community resulting from different social or economic positions and reflecting opposed interests. Due to different perspectives between social classes, major plot points in the novel showcase the complexities of class warfare and it is through direct and indirect conflict, such as altering the 7 commandments, using propaganda while taking advantage of the animals’ lack of intelligence, and contrasting opinions causing chaos.

One major plot point in Animal Farm includes altering the 7 commandments. These 7 commandments serve as principles of “Animalism,” expressing the idea of self-government through the animals, thus a “way of living” is created. The 7 commandments were written and changed multiple times throughout the novel by the “superiors” and only the superiors; the pigs. As time passes, the commandments go through several subtle changes in order to suit the pigs’ agenda, including “No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets (Orwell, 67),” “No animal shall kill any other animal without cause (Orwell, 91),” “No animal shall drink alcohol to excess (Orwell, 109),” and “All animals are equal but some are more equal than others (Orwell, 134),” the underlined phrases being inserted into the original commandments every time the pigs break a rule. The pigs, being in control over the 7 commandments, causes indirect class warfare amongst the other animals as their voices were not applicable in the finalization of the commandments. The complexity within class warfare in this scenario is evident because due to the pig’s superiority, the animals of the lower class (everybody else) did not have a say in the alteration of the commandments, they were not “powerful” enough to be able to break boundaries revolt against the higher class’ repetitive and fallacious action. In addition to that, knowing that the other animals’ intelligence fell short behind the higher classes, the pigs decided that fear can be easily used to keep their mouths shut. Due to the animals’ lack of intelligence, the pigs took this as an advantage to maintain authority and continuously be in control through propaganda.

Propaganda, especially through speech/language, was used to maintain power and have the other animals obey the “higher class.” Propaganda is mainly used in order to “scare” the other animals, the pigs making sure that the lower classes would not dare to interfere with what is going on “up there,” so the farm will run however way the pigs wanted it to, no matter whether their way of ruling is good or bad. Propaganda is evidently used in many different scenarios throughout the novel, especially within major plot points of Animal Farm. Propaganda is present when the animals discovered the pigs were better fed (Orwell, 63), the dogs who served Squealer (although not speech propaganda) caused fear towards the animals and so whether they like it or not, the animals were forced to do whatever was told, proven in the statement, “they were promptly silenced by a tremendous growling from the dogs. (Orwell, 63),” and when the pigs broke the rules (commandments), Squealer was able talked the other animals out of it (Orwell, 67). Complexity is evident within class warfare in the previously stated scenarios, as it is unfair for the lower classes to be made a fool off and lied to, the pigs taking advantage of the lower class’ naiveness, manipulating them into believing that there was nothing wrong with unfair and unjust treatment. Squealer was able to manipulate the clueless animals into going along with whatever Napoleon has in store. Propaganda is used to avoid contrasting opinions of the lower classes from arising. Still, these contrasting perspectives still have the ability to cause chaos and conflict, both internally and externally.

Contrasting opinions/view between animals of different social classes highly affect the rise of class conflict. Complexities of class warfare can be seen through this plot point due to the fact that having social classes in the first place and treating the lower classes unfairly goes against the idea of Animalism; only certain ideas and opinions can be acknowledged whereas the lower classes, the ones with less intelligent animals (everyone else aside from the pigs), were forced to work and do whatever the pigs command them to, meanwhile the pigs can just sit back and relax while other animals due the hard work for them. Besides that, there was a point in which members of the same social class got into an argument due to contrasting opinions. Snowball and Napoleon’s contrasting views on the windmill (Orwell, 48), the animals of the lower class having to “work like slaves (Orwell, 59)” as the pigs make the decisions, and taking sides, even from the start (Napoleon vs Snowball) shows evidence on how this factor causes chaos, hence leading to class conflict. At the beginning of the novel, Snowball proposed the idea of building a windmill while Napoleon refuted it, forcing the animals to take sides and choose whether they agreed with Napoleon or Snowball. Napoleon decided to chase Snowball away from the farm with the dogs he and Squealer have raised and when Napoleon had all the power to control the farm, he proposed the idea of the windmill. The other animals were pretty perplexed due to the fact that he refuted the original idea brought up by Snowball, but had to work on its construction anyways as told by Napoleon. The contrasting, evident differences between animals of different social classes based on perspective and work ethic is a huge aspect in the origin of class conflict, proving that chaos, created by the pigs’ authority plays a huge role in the creation of class warfare.

Arising from conflict between different classes in a community, resulting from different social or economic positions and reflecting opposed interest, complexities of class warfare can easily be explored throughout Animal Farm. It is evident how scenarios, such as going against the farm/societies’ original beliefs and moralities (Animalism), as well as letting the higher class be in control over everything, especially using propaganda can cause direct and indirect conflict within the animals. Different social classes with different perspectives causes complex class warfare as seen in major plot points including altering the 7 commandments, using propaganda and taking advantage of the animals’ lack of intelligence, and contrasting opinions causing chaos, through direct and indirect conflict. What is most complex within class warfare is how, as Victor Hugo words it, “the paradise of the rich is made out of the hell of the poor.”