Animal farm by George Orwell paints a grim picture of the human condition in the political 20th century. Orwell believes that this era marks the end of the very concepts of human freedom.
When reading Majors speech in chapter 5 we slide back and forth between reading it as Marxist dogma calling for a proletariat revolution, and in terms of mistreated animals. Animal farm shows us that in many ways politics is really no more profound or rational than natural farmyard activity.
Both farms and revolutions need managers, and for all their evil, the pigs are the most capable animals on the farm. Orwell may be suggesting that capable people are inevitably evil, or conversely, that evil people are inevitably capable. .
Orwell questions the failure of ideology to accommodate human variety. An example of this is Mollies selfish behavior is inconsistent with selfless social ideals. Orwell suggests that strict attention to the harsh demands of life obscures beauty in the world. .
Another aspect of social anarchy in Animal farm is falsification. The pigs distort the reality for the animals. This is at the heart of the main internal struggle on the farm. Fact is distorted and misinterpreted.
"There was nothing there now except a single commandment. It ran: All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.".
This is the most darkly pessimistic aspect of Animal farm. The animals are unable to even recognize their new oppression, let alone combat it.
Power inevitably corrupts the best of intentions. Orwell shows us that it doesn't matter who possesses this power, in the end all representations of the various ideologies are indistinguishable.
"The animals looked from pig to man, from man to pig, and then from pig to man again, but already it was impossible to tell them apart.".
In Orwell's eyes communism is no better, or worse, than capitalism, or fascism. Religion is only a tool of the corruptor, it is neither offensive nor helpful to master nor slave.
