“All animals are equal.” To what extent is this statement true?

One of the best 20th Century examples of allegory is George Orwell’s novel, ‘Animal Farm’ which is a satire on the Russian Revolution. While Jones is in control of the farm all the animals are treated unfairly, but equally. After the pigs take control, the animals become less equal and the pigs abuse their power by ordering around the other animals and not doing any work. Mr Jones is the first leader of Animal Farm, when it was called Manor Farm, however he is careless which causes the animals to rebel. Also like Mr Jones, Napoleon treats the animals unfairly and follows the habits of Mr Jones. Boxer and the other animals are exploited by Napoleon and the pigs, causing their lives to be harder than before the Revolution. The animals seek to be equal, however under the guidance of Snowball and Napoleon their plans aren’t achieved as well as they dreamed.

Initially on Animal Farm, the animals are equal as they are all exploited by Mr Jones. Much like Tsar Nicholas II prior to the Russian Revolution, Jones abuses his power and profits from the work performed by the animals. Mr Jones frequently got drunk, like when he “went into Willingdon and got so drunk””without bothering to feed the animals.” The animals become sick of Jones’ carelessness and rebel against him. Mr Jones and his men become “frightened almost out of their wits.” Jones doesn’t care about his animals and when Boxer’s “great muscles lose their power, Jones will sell him to the knacker, who will cut his throat and boil him down for the bloodhounds.” The animals become so angry at Jones for being uncaring that they rebel against him to achieve equality between them and chase him off the farm. The animals are equal under Jones’ rule, but all treated unfairly, however this changes when Snowball and Napoleon take over leadership.

Representative of the emergence of the leadership and rivalry between Trotsky and Stalin during the Russian Revolution, the inequality amongst the animals also becomes prevalent when the pigs, Napoleon and Snowball, become the official leaders on the farm. Napoleon uses the puppies to make the other animals stay under his control, with the dogs “growling so threateningly” the other animals had no choice but to agree with Napoleon’s ideas. Squealer constantly lies to the animals, but so that he doesn’t get found out, he “convinces them that their memories had been at fault.” Napoleon black mails the animals into working Sundays, even though “this work was strictly voluntary, any animal who absented himself from it would have his rations reduced by half.” Napoleon and the pigs exploit the animals into doing the hard labour and receiving hardly anything in return, however the animals only just start to realise what is happening at the end of the novel, when it is too late.

Boxer represents the loyal proletariat who, while is unassuming and trusting, is totally exploited by his supposed ‘peers’. Boxer is always working harder than all the other animals, “whose strength seemed equal to that of all the rest of the animals put together.” Whenever he slows down or becomes tired, he chants to himself “I will work harder” which not only motivates himself, but also encourages the other animals to keep going when it is starting to get tough. Boxer is always doing longer hours than the other animals, and “gets up a full hour earlier in the mornings.” After all the hard work Boxer puts into working on the farm, when he falls over and damages his lung, although Squealer claims he is being taken to the vet’s, the pigs exploit him and “take Boxer to the knackers.” Boxer puts more effort than anyone else into working on the farm, however instead of letting him retire, the pigs exploit him time and time again, in the end taking him to the knackers and lies about it the other animals, exploiting them as well.

Boxer is not the only animal on the farm that is exploited by the pigs. In fact, the majority of the animals on the farm such as the dogs, hens and sheep are exploited and are therefore ‘less equal’ than the pigs, namely Napoleon. Jessie and Bluebell have their puppies taken away from them so that Napoleon could “make himself responsible for their education,” making sure they “could only be reached by ladder” so that no one except the pigs would be able to reach them. The hens refuse to give their eggs up to Napoleon, so he takes action and “ordered the hens’ rations to be stopped” causing “nine hens to die in the meantime.” Napoleon exploits the sheep by ordering them to “remark casually in his hearing [with Mr Whymper] that rations had been increased.” Napoleon makes use of the sheep because they are easily convinced and wouldn’t question his motives. All the animals on the farm are exploited by the pigs and are definitely not treated equally, in fact the complete opposite, doing hard labour and receiving barely any rations.

The original outcome of the Rebellion was for all the animals to be equal, however under the leadership of the pigs, the animals become less equal than when Jones ruled the farm and treated worse. At the beginning of the novel, every one of the animals were treated the same, however after Jones gets kicked off the farm, the animals become less equal as every day goes by, with the pigs receiving all the privileges when doing nothing in return. However much the animals wanted equality amongst themselves, leadership got to Napoleon’s head, like it got to Jones’, and Napoleon ends up becoming exactly like Jones by the end of the novel, uncaring and selfish.