2004. Critic Roland Barthes has said, "Literature is the question minus the answer." Choose a novel, or play, and, considering Barthes' observation, write an essay in which you analyze a central question the work raises and the extent to which it offers answers. Explain how the author's treatment of this question affects your understanding of the work as a whole. Avoid mere plot summary.
In the novel Animal Farm, George Orwell implicitly addresses the question of why communism fails as a system of government. The question is neither directly stated nor directly answered; instead, through obvious allegory and the fictional farm animal's society, Orwell shows the reader how communism fails. Throughout the novel, Orwell shows in his fictional society that communism fails because it manifests in corrupted form, because it provides only works temporarily, and because members of society are innately unequal, but he leaves his implicit question unanswered.
Orwell shows the reader the corruption of true communism through the animals' deviation from the vision of Old Major, who is representative of communism's founder Karl Marx in the novel. In the beginning, Old Major present his pure vision of a utopian society in which all are equal and share the work equally according to their ability. As the play progresses however, that utopia is corrupted as the pigs seize power. This change occurs gradually so that the animals are unaware of it. The reader, however, who can perceive events neutrally and whose memory is superior to that of the animals, sees the gradual progression that leaves the system in a totally different state than that in which it began. These changes are explicitly presented on the barn wall in the novel, where the commandments of the government system are written, which change many times throughout the novel. Each time they change, the animals still treat them as divine law. Orwell never explicitly states anything regarding deterioration of the utopian ideals, but the irreversible trend from good to bad to worse makes his message clear. He does not offer any solution to the problem, simply cutting off the novel at a low point, and leaving the reader to reflect on the problem and think about what a possible solution could be.
Orwell shows how short lived of a solution communism is by making the story form a complete circle, ending exactly as it started. In the beginning, the farmer oppresses the animals, and as the novel progresses, the pigs become more and more alike them until the two are indistinguishable to the other animals. Thus the problem was only solved for a short time, because of the nature of the animals themselves. Orwell presents implicit questions of why the animals do not recognize it, or what could be done to prevent the deterioration of the system, but again he gives no answer.
The main question Orwell addresses with his allegorical society, is whether communism could ever achieve the utopia Old Major saw. He asks this by presenting and emphasizing the main problem with communism-that there will always be innate inequality among people and animals. Each time of farm animal in the novel represents a stereotypical person in society, and throughout the novel the differences between them destroy the system. The main example of this is the horse Boxer, who is loyal and selfless, giving far more to the system than he gets out of it. In the same way, other animals contribute more or less than their equal share of the work because of their personalities or because of the innate abilities of their species. The result is that the farm society is destroyed because some species like Boxer are worked to death, while other's contribute nothing. Orwell leaves the reader with the unanswered question of whether this could have been prevents to realize Old Major's dreams.
Old the events and representations in Orwell's allegory serve to indirectly ask questions about the nature of communism. Instead of writing an essay giving specific details and professing possible solutions, Orwell presents his questions in an allegory, leaving the readers to make connection on their own. Essentially by leaving the questions implicit and unanswered, he escapes any possible criticism of his views. The obvious allegory paralleling events of the Russian Revolution establish the real and heavy undertone to the events of the farm, which seem rather absurd if taken at face value. With his fictional society, Orwell forced people to reconsider questions about the political movement which shaped the 20th century.
This is a great blog post! You answer that prompt very thoroughly and avoid too much plot summary! Personally, I don't think you need to make any more changes to this post! I really like how you make the direct connection between Old Major and Karl Marx. SInce I have never read Animal Farm, this comparison made you point clear to me without feeling lost by not reading the text.
ReplyDeleteIn this essay, you do an excellent job of finding multiple examples of Orwell's implicit questions. I see that you emphasized that part of the prompt by adding in reminders that Orwell poses questions about certain aspects of communism/the allegory that he never answers. You might want to avoid repeating that so frequently; the language starts to sound repetitive.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, I wouldn't keep saying that Orwell offers absolutely no answer to any of his questions. While he does not provide an explicit answer to each of them, I think much of the meaning of the work comes from his implicit answers - what happens to the farm and how long the system lasts. You acknowledge in your thesis that Orwell shows how communism fails through his allegory. It might not be an explicit response to the main question, but it's a pretty clear implicit response, so I think you should recognize that in your essay.
The prompt also asks you to explain how Orwell's treatment of the question affects your understanding. That the work is an allegory for communism is pretty clear; I think you need to go deeper and perhaps compare and contrast how powerful his message would have been had he given a more or less explicit answer.