Exploring Social Commentary in Orwell's Animal Farm
What social commentary about communist Russia does Orwell make with this excerpt?
Read the passage from Animal Farm:
Sometimes the work was hard; the implements had been designed for human beings and not for animals, and it was a great drawback that no animal was able to use any tool that involved standing on his hind legs. But the pigs were so clever that they could think of a way round every difficulty. . . . They met with many difficulties—for instance, later in the year, when they harvested the corn, they had to tread it out in the ancient style and blow away the chaff with their breath, since the farm possessed no threshing machine.
What social commentary about communist Russia does Orwell make with this excerpt?
A) Russians faced many challenges and struggles working on collective farms.
B) Russians lacked the creative abilities to innovate solutions to problems.
C) Russians were able to predict and avoid potential struggles.
D) Russians lacked knowledge of basic modern agricultural practices.
Answer:
The best option is letter A) Russians faced many challenges and struggles working on collective farms.
The passages above were taken from the allegorical novella "Animal Farm" by George Orwell. The novella is a criticism of the Soviet Regime established after the Russian Revolution.
The animals of the Manor Farm rebel against their human owner and drive him away from the farm. The most intelligent animals, the pigs, take control of the situation - representing the Soviet leaders - while the other animals follow the new instructions, at first voluntarily, but forcibly later - representing the people.
In the passages, Orwell is highlighting the difficulties the animals are facing when farming. Those difficulties refer to the real challenges faced by Russians who worked in collective farms. The Soviet leaders decided to take rural properties from their owners and have peasants farm them in a collective effort to produce and export grain. The intention was to obtain money from exportation that would be used to invest in machines and industrialization. Unfortunately, many property owners did not agree with such a policy. Upon being forced to give up their lands, they would destroy equipment and kill their livestock. The lack of machinery and of horses and cattle that ensued from such actions greatly hindered the farm work.