The Comparison of Ruling Methods in Animal Farm and 1984

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Animal Farm and 1984 are the two best known novels written by George Orwell， who was believed to be a socialist. Both of the two books are aimed at showing us the harm of the dictatorship and totalitarianism. Animal Farm tells a story about animal revolution. At first， it was a great revolution under the guidance of Old Majors thought， all animals rose up against the farmer， Mr. Jones and establish their Animal Farm. However， lack of democracy and supervision made the leader Napoleon a dictator， he betrayed the revolution and finally the revolution failed.

While 1984 tells an even more terrible story. A super dictator named Big Brother and his party rule a superpower in the future world. Its a world of endless war， omnipresent government surveillance and public manipulation， dictated by a political system named English Socialism. Theres no human rights or freedom in the future. The party seeks for absolute power， everything is under control， even ones mind. Big Brother controls the present so that he can change the past and future. Through Thought Polices， the party can arrest anyone who hate the party and abuse them to “cure” their “mental disease”.

The protagonist of 1984， Winston Smith， is an Outer Party member. He secretly hates the Party and dreams of rebellion against Big Brother. He had a lover and they even believed in the existence of the Brotherhood， a secret organization that intends to destroy the Party. However， everything was wrong， he was arrested by the Thought Polices， all of his beliefs were destroyed， the only thing he know now is that he loves Big Bother. In this book， we can hardly find any hope.

The two novels have many similarities， especially the social environment and their political systems. Their political systems are both dictatorships. But there are also many differences. The political system in the Animal Farm can be viewed as the early version of the political system in the 1984. With the development of modern technology， the party can use telescreen to monitor everyone. The animal farms dictatorship may finally evolve into the one in the 1984. A comparison between the two kind of dictatorship can find some differences and similarities of their ruling methods.

The first similar ruling method is establishing a new ideology. For governors， give the public an ideology to believe in is important. Both the pigs in Animal Farm and the Party in 1984 have their ideologies. In Animal Farm， old Majors theory is named Animalism. While in the 1984， the Oceania also has its own ideology called English Socialism. Ideologys propaganda combined with terror can indoctrinate people into absolute obedience， gaining mass-based supporters.

The second similarity is changing history， by doing this， people can only see the filtered history. Who controls the past， controls the future； who controls the present， controls the past. Winstons work is to rewrite the news on the newspaper to erase the true history. Big Brother controls the present， he can easily change the history， the past was erased， the erasure was forgotten， the lie became truth. The data in the telescreen shows that they are enjoying a much better life than fifty years ago， but no one knows what life really was fifty years ago. If a person is “guilty”， he will not only be killed， every evidence that can prove his existence will be erased. The person will evaporate.

In Animal Farm， Napoleon cheats other animals in the same way. He tells them it was him who defeated Mr. Jones. He also rewrites the Seven Commandments written on the wall such as “No animal shall sleep in a bed.” into “No animal shall sleep in a bed with a sheet.” So the other animals allow pigs to sleep on the bed. From then on， more and more commandments were changed by the pigs. The other animals dont know what is wrong， until the Seven Commandments become one： “All animals are equal， but some animals are more equal than others.” That means the revolution was finally betrayed by the pigs.

The method of language control is also similar in Animal Farm and 1984. Language is the basis of thoughts. Controlling language means controlling peoples thoughts. Therefore， the rulers use equivocal language to mislead and deceive people. In Animal Farm， only those clever animals can know enough words. As for the pigs， they could already read and write perfectly. Its easy for pigs to do what they want because other animals dont know how to refute. In 1984， theres a more complex projects that aimed at killing the old language and invent a new language called “Newspeak”. Newspeak is the only language in the world whose vocabulary gets smaller every year. The whole aim of new speak is to narrow the range of thought， making thoughtcrime literally impossible. The revolution will be complete when the language is perfect.

In Orwells novel language is a weapon， without language， thoughts cannot be spread and shared. The governors like using easy slogans for propaganda. In Animal Farm， there are “The Seven Commandments” for every animal to learn their ideology， animalism. In 1984， the slogans are： WAR IS PEACE， FREEDOM IS SLAVERY， and IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH. They are words of opposite meanings. Only those who know doublethink can understand them. The Seven Commandments are painted on the wall， and the partys slogans can be see everywhere， so they can exist in everyones mind.

The last but not least method is creating an enemy. Rulers always create an enemy and distract peoples attention to cover their own guilty and evil intentions. Its not important who the “enemy” is. Even he does not exist， the rulers can create one. In Animal Farm， the animals enemy is Snowball. When the windmill was perished， Napoleon told everyone it was Snowball who destroyed it. The animals then all hate Snowball and became afraid of him. Its the same in the 1984， Big Brother has an enemy called Emmanuel Goldstein， it is said that he has a group of people called Brotherhood， who want to overthrow the party. Snowball and Emmanuel Goldstein resemble to each other. They are the founder of their farm or the party and then betrayed it. The “enemies” can undertake the responsibility of crimes committed by the dictator.

Although the two political systems are resemble to each other， there are some differences. First one is the international environment， in Animal Farm， there are many enemies around the farm， because human beings are afraid of their animals rising up against them too. While in 1984， all the superpowers own similar ideologies with different names. They all use endless battles to consolidate their regime. To some extent， they rely on each other to exist. Besides， in Animal Farm， animals still have some privacy. In 1984， all belongs to the Party， there is hardly any freedom.

All the ruling methods rely on absolute power. Governors use their power to limit others freedom. George Orwell， a socialist， wrote 1984 and Animal Farm to indicate the essence of totalitarianism by literary language. One power system should know its drawbacks and be aware of the dangers. Only in this way can give everyone a peaceful world.

References：

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[3]朱坤领.奥威尔的反面乌托邦及其对现实政治的关注-浅评奥威尔和他的代表作《1984年》[J].中山大学学报论丛.