The Revolution of the Animals in the Novel Animal Farm by George Orwell

George Orwell’s 1945 novel, Animal Farm, follows the revolution of farm animals against their cruel, human ownerst What starts off as a rebellious mutiny, leading to the improvement of conditions on the farm, quickly morphs into a tyrannical rule, similar to that of the humans before them. Likewise, many similar revolutions have taken place throughout human history; The French Revolution, The Bolshevik Revolution, and more recently, the 2011 uprisings in Egypt. In the case of the revolutions of both Egypt and Animal Farm, neither of the new regimes is successful in improving the quality of life for the people as promised.

The revolution in Animal Farm is sparked by an exceptionally liberating speech given by Old Major, a philosophical pig who dreams of a future utopia in which all animals live in peace. Inspired by Old Major, the farm animals organize a revolt against their human slave owners.

Spread simply by word-of-mouth, the uprising sweeps throughout the farm like wildfire. Similarly, news of the January 25 demonstrations in Egypt’s Tahrir Square was spread quickly across social media by young revolutionaries who were fed up with their president, Hosni Mubarak.

His presidency, which began in 1981 with an emergency election and enactment of martial law, was detailed in a 2011 article by The Guardian as being replete with “routine and pervasive police brutality” and “rampant government corruption? Because he was elected during an emergency election after the assassination of the previous president, Mubarak had the ability to circumvent certain mandates, yielding him more power as president His misuse of power instilled outrage in the Egyptian people who wanted a more democratic system of government.

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As in Egypt, pre-revolution Manor Farm was filled with animals fed up with Mr. Jones’ cruel treatment of the animals. The animals were overworked and given the bare minimum to keep them alive. Sick and tired of the injustice, the animals of Manor Farm gathered together to discuss their collective future. Finally, the animals were moved enough by Old Major‘s speech to officially establish a revolution. They laid in wait for the perfect time to revolt, which came much sooner than expected in the form of a drunken night in which Jones is too careless to feed them, What followed was a swift attack, with relative ease, against their human enemies. As soon as the humans were overthrown, the animals celebrate for nearly a week before a new leadership of the farm is declared. In Egypt, quiet whispers quickly turned into loud roars as young Egyptians from different social groups and religions merged over their shared frustrations with the Mubarak‘s presidency.

Soon, people from throughout the country were communicating on the social media site Twitter, which became a revolutionary tool that was soon the key to the success in the Egyptian Revolution. Initially, Twitter was used to spread anti-Mubarak propaganda because of its ability to spread a message to a wide audience who are interested in a topic, dissimilar to the leaflets of past revolutions that paled in efficiency. On January 14th, the Tunisian people overthrew their government, sparking excitement across Egyptian social media. News of Tunisia’s revolution spread across Twitter, with many Egyptians vowing to do the same Two days later, three men lighted themselves on fire in front of the Egyptian Parliament building, quite literally sparking the flames of revolution. Almost instantaneously, several facebook events were set up for demonstrations to be held in Tahrir Square.

Soon, thousands had RSVPed to the events on Facebook, giving hope to the revolution, The date of the demonstration, January 25th, would be one to be remembered forever; on this day, nearly 200,000 people descended on Tahrir Square in Cairo to protest the Mubarak administration For 18 days, countless people occupied Tahrir Square, protesting day and night, waiting for a break-through. On February 11, 2011, weary protesters finally got the news they were hoping for, Mubarak had resigned his presidency. Just as celebrations took place across Egypt, animals on Manor Farm happily trotted, ran, strutted, wandered, and gallopped across their new land, now known as “Animal Farm’K.

Their festivities continue as two pigs, Snowball and Napoleon take leadership of the farm. Soon they enact various, multi-year plans aimed at bettering Animal Farm and its inhabitants Not long after the start of the multi—year plans, Snowball is ousted by Napoleon and a propaganda campaign is launched against him. When Napoleon assumed total control, life on Animal Farm slowly began to resemble that of before the revolution The animals’ rations were being cut more and more frequently, they were being forced to work longer hours than ever before; all in the name of preventing the return of farmer Jonest Napoleon used fear as a tactic to keep the animals under his strict controls.

The abuses against the animals became increasingly more atrocious until the pigs become indistinguishable from the humans they once hatedi In June of 2012, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, Mohammed Morsi took the office of president, bringing temporary order to Egyptt Unfortunately, the newfound democracy of the Egyptian people would not last; just five months after being elected, Morsi enacted the new Egyptian Constitution, limiting the freedoms of Egypt’s liberated citizens, The Constitution reinstated the absolute power that the military enjoyed under Mubarak, sparking new protests against a president the people had once supported. Hundreds of thousands of Egyptians signed petitions protesting the new constitution and countless others returned to Tahrir Square, in the same position as just two years before. The revolutions in Egypt and at Animal Farm are inherently similar, in that both started in hopes of a better future.

Overall, neither effort was successful because neither group experienced a significant (and permanent) change in living conditions Both of the new regimes made no progress in the improving their respective societies, but instead left it the same, or worse, than it once was, This is true of most Utopian experiments; when given absolute power, leaders are bound to become corrupt and cruel, The best laid plans of early revolutionaries can never truly compare [0 the greed that humans, in general, possess, This greed is yet to cease to exist in humans entirely; whether or not this is possible remains to be seen, but for the time being, we will tirelessly wait for the day when humans forget how to Covel.