Democracy
What is democracy and what are the characteristics of it?
- A political system where the government is governed by the people, the direction of the country is determined by the people
- Separation of power
- It is a fair system where everyone has the right and freedom to express their idea and thoughts
- Decisions are make by voting
- There are protection of human rights
- Leaders are elected through election
Democracy in Animal Farm
In the novel Animal Farm, many characteristic of a democratic system can be seen in the farm before Napoleon took charge and turn himself into a dictator. In a democratic government, leaders are always voted through a election , unlike monarchy or dictatorship, the one who select the leader was not his or her blood, not how much power he or she hold, but the reputation that the person has within his citizens. After the leader is selected, the leader does not hold all the power to prevent him from turning into a dictator. Snowball and Napoleon were elected as the new leaders after Old Major’s death for being the most intelligent animals in the farm, the separation of power forced Napoleon to not able to turn himself into a dictator straight away. Under the lead of Snowball, Animal Farm became a place with democracy, a place where the animals had protection on their rights and had the say on the direction of the farm. The windmill project was a good example of that, when Snowball first introduce the project to the animals, he explained that benefits of the project was to shorten their working days in a week, he asked for ideas and thoughts of the animals on rather or not they want to create the windmill; The project was then rejected by the other leader Napoleon, forcing the project to be cancelled. We can see that Snowball was working hard on creating a democratic society for the best of the other animal, a place where they have the freedom to say, sing and vote.
Why did Orwell represent the system in the way he did?
Orwell used the hard work of Snowball to portray a modified version of how Trotsky was trying to create a democratic government in Russia. He used this modified version to show his personal idea of how a democratic society work. Orwell was also trying to create a contrast between Snowball’s democratic society and Napoleon’s society that run with dictatorship, allowing the readers to have a better understanding of the two system and easily spot how different the two system are. By giving the readers a better understanding of what the character was trying to achieve, Orwell successfully create a compulsory aspect of a fiction novel, the justice side and the evil side, making the readers to feel sad for the animals because of how their society changed from democratic to a society ruled by a dictator.
How successful do you think it is?
I think Orwell was successful on promoting the characteristic of democracy. As I reader, I find it very easy to understand what kind of atmosphere will be find in a democratic society. I can strongly feel how Orwell is looking forward to live in a democratic society through the way he described the thoughts of the animals before Snowball was exiled and the change of atmosphere in the farm under the control of Napoleon.