Totalitarianism and Class Warfare in George Orwell’s Animal Farm

Abstract

This article studies the struggle between classes in George Orwell’s novel Animal Farm (1945). The most suitable school of literary criticism to tackle such a subject is that of Marxism. Two basic Marxist principles are at the center of the study: class conflict and the notion of base and superstructure. The article addresses the ongoing class conflict occurring at the base between humans and pigs on the one hand and lower-class animals on the other. Three main questions have been addressed: In what ways does the upper class oppress the lower? How does the lower class respond? What is the outcome of the struggle? The study uncovers the major factors that allow the upper class to overcome the lower in Animal Farm. The lower-class response consists of both constructive and destructive attitudes. The balance is ultimately tipped towards authoritarianism, leading the animals to live in conditions worse than those of the pre-revolutionary period.