betrayal is another theme which is present in both novels. InAnimal Farm, it is the pigs who betray the other animals. Specifically, their corruption of the Seven Commandments leads to a betrayal of the ideals which inspired the Rebellion. Instead of making all animals equal and free, the pigs create a clear distinction between themselves and the others. They enjoy the finest quality of life while the other animals are left on the brink of starvation and worked as hard as possible.

In 1984, it is Winston who is betrayed. Firstly, he is betrayed by O'Brien because he believes that O'Brien is an ally when, in fact, he is working for the Party. Secondly, he is betrayed by Julia who chooses to save herself in Room 101 and, therefore, betrays their love.

Ultimately, as a result of power and betrayal, both Winston and the animals are trapped in a system from which there is no escape.

Though George Orwell was a socialist, the key similarity between his two most famous books is that both deal with the corruption of a system that is intended, initially, to be based on socialist principles.

Animal Farm is an allegory which retells the history of the Bolshevik Revolution and the Soviet Union in a fairy-tale format. The animals (the Russian people) overthrow Mr. Jones (the Czar) and take over his farm with the supposed goal of fairness and equality for all. But due to the power struggles of the leaders, Napoleon and Snowball, and the imperfections and tendency toward hypocrisy of animal nature (that is, human nature), the experiment in equality fails and the animal farm becomes just like traditional human-controlled farms (in other words, capitalist countries) in having a ruling class that exploits the population as a whole. 1984 is also a picture of a Soviet-like state, supposedly socialistic and with equality of people as its goal, projected into the future in an extreme form where the ruthless, totalitarian rule of a Stalinist type of government has crushed the population and controlled it not only physically, but mentally as well. The state imposes a nightmarish form of mind control, illustrated by Winston's re-education after his arrest for thought crime.

Orwell's message in both books is not so much that these examples of socialism gone wrong are inevitable, but that this is what has happened in the twentieth-century, and that it can occur in the future in a worse form. Each story identifies the weaknesses in society that have allowed this to happen: power lust and hypocrisy among ruthless leaders and the tendency of people in general to let themselves be victimized and to exhibit a herd mentality (the animal allegory is thus especially appropriate) when intimidated by the leaders and by one another. Both Animal Farm and 1984 are descriptions of society and grave warnings of the horrors that humans are capable of, given the bloody history of the twentieth-century.

By the end of Animal Farm, Napoleon has set himself up as a dictator, controlling all the other animals through force, trading with their "enemies," and keeping all the profit from the farm for himself and his selected elite. 1984 shows one eventual path from this dictatorship, with a government that censors and controls all its citizens, not allowing any opposing points of view, and killing or brainwashing anyone who begins to think differently.

It might be that their lives were hard and that not all of their hopes had been fulfilled; but they were conscious that they were not as other animals. If they went hungry, it was not from feeding tyrannical human beings; if they worked hard, at least they worked for themselves. No creature among them went upon two legs. No creature called any other creature ‘Master.’ All animals were equal.
(Orwell, Animal Farm, msxnet.org)

The future path of 1984 is a conclusion, a world where the "Napoleons" have taken full control of society and refuse to allow any dissenting views. The "equality" of citizens is assumed in both works, but obviously false when viewed objectively. The animals on the farm and the citizens in the city are equal to each other, and inferior to the elites. Even by the end of Animal Farm, dissent was punished with death; in 1984, dissent is punished with brainwashing, which is in some ways worse, as the dissenter now acts as a propaganda machine for the government. In both cases, the corruption of leadership is shown as almost inevitable, and the use of government power to control the citizenry is simply a byproduct of the ruling class keeping their power.