When you think of a pig, the image that comes to mind is probably a pink creature rolling around in the mud. Now think of ruler, a commander, a chief -- a dictator. Your mind is probably figuring an image of tall man in a suit. He probably has a mustache or possibly is smoking a pipe. These things have nothing in common, right? Well think again. George Orwell, the author of Animal Farm, portrays a telling of the Bolshevik Revolution. But there’s a catch: the important dictators, rulers, leaders…those are pigs. Napoleon the pig is the ruler of the farm; he is a leader, an enemy, a dictator – much like Joseph Stalin, a man who had great power in the Bolshevik Revolution.
As people, when we are given an opportunity to have power, we take it. Napoleon the pig was served a chance to become a ruler on a silver platter after Mr. Jones, the farmer, left. Stalin on the other hand gained complete power after Trotsky’s ordered death in 1940 (Joseph Stalin (1879-1953)). In both cases, the previous ruler was kicked out, or expelled from leadership. In Animal Farm Mr. Jones had been rebelled against by the animals: “Jones was expelled, and the Manor Farm was theirs”(39). As for Stalin, he knew he would be in compete power after Trotsky was killed. For Mr. Jones and Napolean, if they did not get the previous runner of the Farm or the Soviet Union out of power, they would not have dictatorship of their land.
Not only would both of them have no importance if they did not get the previous ruler out of power, but once in power they both changed rules and made others work. Part of Joseph Stalin’s ruling was creating a five year plan. At the looks of things it was supposed to be pretty good – hopefully bringing the country back to a happier place. Having trouble finding the problem? The plan made the residents of the Soviet Union work (Joseph Stalin ). An unfair amount of physical labor was poured onto them. Whereas, in Animal Farm the animals all had to work on the farm for long hours of the day. Dragging their souls in sacks on their back, the animals all had problems with the rules that were created. In both cases, the workers spent all of their time being slaves, with the tasks leading many into death.
Besides the chance of being able to have power, and the laws they put in effect after they got that power, there is a difference between the characters. I can go right ahead and tell you, yes – one is a pig, and the other is a person, but there’s definitely more behind the difference of these characters. In the end of the revolution in the book Animal Farm, Napolean the pig is still in power. He still rules the farm, in fact he rules the people in the farm, too. However in the real Bolshevik revolution Joesoph Stalin was dead, ending his ruling (Joseph Stalin). I don’t know why George Orwell changed the ending of the character, maybe it was because Joseph Stalin did much more than ruin socalism (Joseph Stalin (1879-1953)) in the Bolshevik Revolution, and he wanted to portray that. Or maybe it was because he thought it would be a better ending to the story. All I know is that the ending is different.
Pigs and dictators are completely different things. One can talk – the other can’t, ones a person – the other isn’t, yet both of them happen to represent the same thing. Joseph Stalin may be a real life dictator that made life horrible for many, and Napoleon may just be a pig that made other animals work hard on a farm. But digging deeper, we see that they both kill, they both rule, they both have so many things in common. They both ran a Revolution.
Bibliography
Joseph Stalin. 2012. 19 March 2012 <http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/stalin.html>.
"Joseph Stalin ." Biography. 30 March 2012 <http://www.biography.com/people/joseph-stalin-9491723>.
"Joseph Stalin (1879-1953)." 1999. PBS.org. 19 March 2012 <http://www.pbs.org/redfiles/bios/all_bio_joseph_stalin.htm>.
Koeller, David. The Bulshevik Revolution . 19 March 2012 <http://www.thenagain.info/webchron/easteurope/octrev.html>.
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