Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • 192 views

    Old Major, Karl Marx, And: The Communist Manifesto

    Uploaded by

    chinecherem1239786
    Old Major, the respected prize boar on the farm, shares a strange dream with the other animals where he tells them that their miserable lives are due to humans taking advantage of them. He says that humans force the animals to work and produce goods like milk and eggs but keep all the benefits for themselves. Old Major believes that if the animals overthrow the humans and take control of the farm, they can live equally without humans oppressing them. He teaches the animals the song "Beasts of England" to remind them of this goal. Old Major represents Karl Marx, who believed that the working class would overthrow capitalism through revolution. In Animal Farm, the animals represent the working class and the humans represent capitalists. Three days

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Old Major, Karl Marx, And: The Communist Manifesto

    Uploaded by

    chinecherem1239786
    192 views2 pages
    Old Major, the respected prize boar on the farm, shares a strange dream with the other animals where he tells them that their miserable lives are due to humans taking advantage of them. He says that humans force the animals to work and produce goods like milk and eggs but keep all the benefits for themselves. Old Major believes that if the animals overthrow the humans and take control of the farm, they can live equally without humans oppressing them. He teaches the animals the song "Beasts of England" to remind them of this goal. Old Major represents Karl Marx, who believed that the working class would overthrow capitalism through revolution. In Animal Farm, the animals represent the working class and the humans represent capitalists. Three days

    Original Description:

    Original Title

    english

    Copyright

    © Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)

    Available Formats

    DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    Old Major, the respected prize boar on the farm, shares a strange dream with the other animals where he tells them that their miserable lives are due to humans taking advantage of them. He says that humans force the animals to work and produce goods like milk and eggs but keep all the benefits for themselves. Old Major believes that if the animals overthrow the humans and take control of the farm, they can live equally without humans oppressing them. He teaches the animals the song "Beasts of England" to remind them of this goal. Old Major represents Karl Marx, who believed that the working class would overthrow capitalism through revolution. In Animal Farm, the animals represent the working class and the humans represent capitalists. Three days

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    192 views2 pages

    Old Major, Karl Marx, And: The Communist Manifesto

    Uploaded by

    chinecherem1239786
    Old Major, the respected prize boar on the farm, shares a strange dream with the other animals where he tells them that their miserable lives are due to humans taking advantage of them. He says that humans force the animals to work and produce goods like milk and eggs but keep all the benefits for themselves. Old Major believes that if the animals overthrow the humans and take control of the farm, they can live equally without humans oppressing them. He teaches the animals the song "Beasts of England" to remind them of this goal. Old Major represents Karl Marx, who believed that the working class would overthrow capitalism through revolution. In Animal Farm, the animals represent the working class and the humans represent capitalists. Three days

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 2

    ig)

    Character Analysis In the beginning of Animal Farm, we learn that old Major, the prize Middle White boar, had had a strange dream on the previous night and wished to communicate it to the other animals (1.2). Old Major is the most respected animal on the farm, and is known to be extremely wise. One suspects that the animals wouldnt gather for just anyones strange dream; they feel confident that Old Major has something important to share with them. Old Majors message is that animals do not have to live the short, miserable lives that they do. He thinks that their misfortunes can all be traced back to Man, who is the only creature that consumes without producing (1.9). In other words, Man takes advantage of the animals by forcing them to work themselves to death, while he (Man) does nothing but boss them around. Yet when the animals produce goods whether it be milk, eggs, or fertilizer it is Man that reaps the benefits. As Old Major says, Is it not crystal clear, comrades, that all the evils of this life of ours spring from the tyranny of human beings? (1.11). But Old Major does more than just describe the problem. He also thinks that he has a solution. He thinks that if only the animals can overthrow Men and take control of the farm then all animals can live in a state of equality. To remind them of this goal, he teaches them the anthem "Beasts of England," which they continue to sing for many years after his death.

    Old Major, Karl Marx, and The Communist Manifesto


    Old Major is meant to represent Karl Marx, one of the most famous philosophers and political theorists in the history of the world. Marx wrote a little book called The Communist Manifesto in 1848 that is now known all over the world, in large part due to the Russian Revolution of 1917, which tried to implement many of Marxs ideas. The Manifesto opens, The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles. Marx goes on to explain the internal tensions that will lead capitalism to eventually destroy itself. He imagines that the next

    economic stage of society will be a stateless, classless society, what he calls the dictatorship of the proletariat (working class). In Animal Farm, the animals represent the proletariat, the working class, those who are supposed to usher in the next stage of history. The humans represent the capitalists, those who take advantage of the working class and keep the benefits of their labor for themselves. According to Marx, its only through revolution that this situation can end. As Marx says at the end of his book, Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communistic revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win. Workers of the world, Unite! Old Major leaves his animals with a similarly revolutionary message. He even gives them "Beasts of England" to remember it by. Yet three days later, he dies, and the slow process of distorting his ideas and ruining his legacy begins.

    You might also like