The principles of Animalism derive from the words of Old Major, the boar based on Karl Marx who animates the animals at night with his dreams of a better life for them after a revolution in which they overthrow "Man." He says to them,
Never listen when they tell you that Man and the animals have a common interest, that the prosperity of the one is the prosperity of the others. It is all lies. Man serves the interests of no creature except himself. And among us animals let there be perfect unity, perfect comradeship in the struggle. All men are enemies. All animals are comrades.
Like Marx, Old Major dies before the revolution. However, the pigs, who quickly take charge as intellectual leaders of the new Animal Farm, distill his words down to seven maxims, which are then called the Seven Commandments of Animalism. They are painted on the side of the barn as follows:
1. Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy.
2. Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend.
3. No animal shall wear clothes.
4. No animal shall sleep in a bed.
5. No animal shall drink alcohol.
6. No animal shall kill any other animal.
7. All animals are equal
As we can see, the principles come from Old Major's stirring vision of a better world. They are meant to give animals a culture very distinct from human culture and to pull the animals together in solidarity. The ban on alcohol also addresses the animals' awareness that they suffered neglect due to Farmer Jones' excessive drinking.
However, as the story unfolds, we witness how boiling a story down to a set of rules can create problems for two reasons. First, Animalism is a spirit of being, a utopic and joyful way of rethinking the world. A set of principles, in contrast, becomes legalistic, losing the larger picture. Second, the pigs can and do gradually change the wording of the principles over time so that Animalism loses all its real meaning. Orwell thus warns of the dangers of "dumbing down" ideas.
Animalism is a communist philosophy of all of the animals being treated equal and sharing equally in both the responsibilities and rewards of the farm.
Communism is defined as follows:
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless,stateless and revolutionary socialist society structured uponcommon ownership of the means of production. (enotes reference, communism)
The principles of Animalism are espoused by Old Major in his speech to the farm and then modified by the pigs as they see fit. The pigs tell the other animals that “by their studies of the past three months the pigs had succeeded in reducing the principles of Animalism to Seven Commandments” (ch 2). These commandments are intended to keep all of the animals equal.
THE SEVEN COMMANDMENTS
1. Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy.
2. Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend.
3. No animal shall wear clothes.
4. No animal shall sleep in a bed.
5. No animal shall...
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drink alcohol.
6. No animal shall kill any other animal.
7. All animals are equal. (chapter 2)
The pig said that everyone would follow the commandments and “they would form an unalterable law by which all the animals on Animal Farm must live for ever after” (ch 2). Of course, it does not quite work out this way. Soon the pigs began changing the commandments. For example, commandment 4 is changed to forbid not beds, but beds with sheets. Some animals realize the commandments are being changed.
Clover had not remembered that the Fourth Commandment mentioned sheets; but as it was there on the wall, it must have done so. (ch 6)
This commandment is changed when the pigs begin to live in the house. It is significant both because they are re-writing history and because they are beginning to set themselves apart from the other animals and act more human.
Another commandment that the animals “ remembered wrong” (ch 8), meaning it was changed, was commandment 5. It is changed to say that animals cannot drink alcohol “to excess” after the pigs begin to like it.
Commandment 6 is changed to add “without cause” (ch 8) so the pigs can kill animals that disagree with them. Finally, commandment 7 is changed.
There was nothing there now except a single Commandment. It ran:
ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL
BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS (ch 10).
With this change, the pigs cement their power and control over the farm. The pigs become more cruel, and begin to act exactly like humans because “after that it did not seem strange when next day the pigs who were supervising the work of the farm all carried whips in their trotters” (ch 10).
The pigs use the so-called principles to justify anything they have to say. When the pigs want more food, they suggest that “a too rigid equality in rations … would have been contrary to the principles of Animalism” (ch 9). Whatever the pigs say, the other animals have to go along with because they have the dog security force to back up their will.
Ultimately, the change seems to be physical also as the animals "peek in the windows of the farmhouse as this meeting progresses and are stunned to discover that they cannot tell the difference between the men and the pigs at all" (enotes summary). The pigs have become exactly like the humans.
Citation:
Orwell, George. Animal Farm;. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1954. Print.
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What is animalism according to Animal Farm?
Animalism is the version of communism/socialist espoused by Old Major. Old Major describes a community where animals are in charge and not subordinate to humans. Another feature of animalism is that all animals are equal. There are seven commandments:
THE SEVEN COMMANDMENTS
1. Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy.
2. Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend.
3. No animal shall wear clothes.
4. No animal shall sleep in a bed.
5. No animal shall drink alcohol.
6. No animal shall kill any other animal.
7. All animals are equal.
These are the basic tenets of animalism. They are intended to keep the animals from being corrupted by man, and to develop a society where all animals are equal.
Over time, animalism is corrupted. The pigs take control of the farm and lord over the other animals, and they slowly chip away at the tenets of animalism by changing the commandments until they are all gone and there is only one.
ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL
BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS
In other words, the pigs are in charge and all of the other animals are equally subordinate to them.
Explain the concept of Animalism as it is depicted in the novel Animal Farm.
As mentioned in chapter two, the term Animalism is the name Snowball, Napoleon and Squealer had given to the lesson that Old Major had taught the animals when he spoke to them at their meeting in the big barn.
These three had elaborated old Major's teachings into a complete system of thought, to which they gave the name of Animalism.
In his address to the animals, Napoleon made it pertinently clear what values and codes of conduct they should adopt to avoid resembling their greatest enemy, man, as shown by the following extract from chapter one:
I merely repeat, remember always your duty of enmity towards Man and all his ways. Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy. Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend. And remember also that in fighting against Man, we must not come to resemble him. Even when you have conquered him, do not adopt his vices. No animal must ever live in a house, or sleep in a bed, or wear clothes, or drink alcohol, or smoke tobacco, or touch money, or engage in trade. All the habits of Man are evil. And, above all, no animal must ever tyrannise over his own kind. Weak or strong, clever or simple, we are all brothers. No animal must ever kill any other animal. All animals are equal.
After the animals' successful rebellion, what Snowball, Napoleon, and Squealer then did was to further expand these basic ideas and develop a theory around them. The principles of Animalism were to be adopted and strictly adhered to by all. The concept, therefore, had theoretical and practical applications. The formulation of the seven commandments which were written on the barn wall after the Rebellion embodied the practical application of Animalism and would make it easier for the general animal public to understand. In all, the commandments stated:
1. Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy. 2. Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend. 3. No animal shall wear clothes. 4. No animal shall sleep in a bed. 5. No animal shall drink alcohol. 6. No animal shall kill any other animal. 7. All animals are equal.
No mention, however, was made of what penalties would be incurred if an animal should disobey any of these prescripts. It was taken for granted that the animals would realize the value of these rules and would adhere to them out of respect for their fellow animals, Old Major's memory and, on the whole, that it was the right thing to do. They were, after all, comrades. This, unfortunately, turned out to be an oversight as later developments would prove.
Since the pigs assumed leadership of the farm, they formulated plans and tasks to ensure prosperity. Their initial dedication was quite admirable for they, even though they did not perform any physical labor, did well in organizing things. They were the ones, however, who clearly disobeyed the principles of Animalism when they claimed certain privileges to the exclusion of all the other animals, the first of which was to take the milk and windfall apples for themselves - an obvious disregard of the rule: All animals are equal.
Although some animals expressed displeasure at the pigs' disobedience, they were quickly appeased by Squealer's explanation and the threat that 'Jones would come back.' There was no punishment or sanction. It soon became easy for the pigs to fool the animals into believing that whenever they broke a commandment, that it had never been what they believed. They secretly altered sections of whichever commandment they broke, such as when they started sleeping in beds. The original commandment read: 'No animal shall sleep in a bed' which Squealer surreptitiously altered to: 'No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets.'
Since the other animals lacked memory or intelligence to truly challenge the pigs, they were easily persuaded by Squealer's clever explanations. Thus began the pigs' wholesale adjustment of each commandment for their benefit. The other animals were gradually exploited more and more and were constantly hungry and tired whilst the pigs grew fat and sleek.
In the end, the pigs, under the leadership of Napoleon, had established a dictatorship and their tyrannical rule put the other animals in an even worse position than they had been before the Rebellion. Animalism and its noble principles had been thrashed by the pigs and had been replaced by a supercilious, paradoxical and fatuous single commandment:
All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.