Animal Farm is George Orwell’s allegorical novel that describes the stories of a group of animals that turn out as rebels against their oppressing human farmers.William Golding in his novel “Lord of the Flies” describes the story of a group of British students that are stranded on an island and later form groups to govern themselves.Orwell and Golding present their Animal Farm and Lord of Flies that refers to oppression that they observed in societies around them.
Orwell was a critic of the Stalin, and his novel Animal farm is the Russian Revolution’s metaphor. Characters in the novel represent actual people and Napoleon and his fellow pigs were actually metaphors for Kremlin. He focused on writing about the greed and lust for power. The In Animal farm, Orwell’s mentions, “Four legged good, two legs bad”(Orwell, 1945) He saw that the leaders had drifted away from Marxism and he used these lines to relate to that era’s leader. This line represents the idea that not all humans are equal. Dinesh Kumar in his articles agrees with the mindset of refers to the “Vision of Society in George Orwell’s Animal Farm” describes how Orwell expressed his views on authoritarianism andtotalitarianism regarding the globe world through symbolically using the character’s in the novel, regarding Oppression, Tyranny and injustice. (Kumar, 2014) This reinforces oppression as a theme of the novel.“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”(Orwell, 1945)Here, Orwell refers to a satirical presentation of the idea regarding all the animals as being equals, yet some are equal. He referred to are equal in everything except the ones that is chosen by humans as leaders. Napoleon in this Novel represents Stalin and Orwell symbolizes the started wearing clothes that were not allowed for animals. He also started to walk on two legs. Furthermore “If you have your lower animals to contend with,” he said, “we have our lower classes”(Orwell, 1945)refers to the class system in animals as well as human beings. Animals have classes where some are weak, and some are strong. Some are fast, and some are slow. That is what ranks them from lower to the upper tier in the animals. On the other hand, there are classes in human beings as well. Golding
Likewise there is oppression in Lord of FliesI ought to be chief…because I’m chapter chorister and head boy. I can sing C sharp.(Golding, 1954)Jack uses these words to claim to be the natural leader of the boys. His choice of words depicts his oppressive attitude towards others. One who claims by himself that he is the one deserving to be the leader of the group claiming he can sing C sharp? with the notion that Jack was actually an oppressor that represents savagery. Xiaofang Li in her article, “On Symbolic Significance of Characters in Lord of the Flies” refers to jack in the exact word as a savage. He is a dictator by nature and forces the followers to do so. (Li, 2009)Jack attitude towards other is belittling and he doesn’t respect his team mates.Golding further writes, “His specs – use them as burning glasses!”(Golding, 1954) Another highly demeaning and insulting comment that Jack passes is for Piggy’s glasses. Soon as they feel the need for fire, Jack refers to piggy’s glasses that can be used as fire. This is another insulting comment by Jack for one of the group members that yet again represents the word oppression. He is so arrogant that in spite of looking for some woods for fire, the first idea that comes to his genius mind is to use his group member’s glasses to be used for fire.Eat! Damn you!(Golding, 1954)These are words used by Jack for his team members soon as he manages to kill the pig, he asks the team members to eat it in his honor. This is another example of oppression where he oppresses his team member to do something against their will and be happy with it as well. Li in her article writes about Jack choosing to hunt because of his urge for blood and that he wants to share a conquest of killing something and enjoy the pleasure of taking life. (Li, 2009) This depicts his autocratic attitude towards others and his oppressive attitude depicts by it. His wants to prove himself strong and powerful. This makes him the symbol of oppression in Lord of the Flies.
In the light of this evidence, it can be concluded on the fact that there was the portrayal of oppression by characters in both the novels. Jack in Lord of the Flies was the oppressor that time and again proved of being a oppressor in the novel by his actions. On the other hand, Napoleon in Animal farm was the oppressors.He was an oppressor who took charge from snowball by force. His personality changed soon as he became the oppressing leader in Animal Farm..Hence, both Animal Farm and Lord of the Flies had the element of oppression in it.
References
Golding, W. (1954). Lord of the Flies. Faber and Faber.
Kumar, D. (2014). Vision of Society in George Orwell’s Animal Farm. International Journal of Research, 89-99. Retrieved from www.jurnal.unsyiah.ac: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.675.6294&rep=rep1&type=pdf
Li, X. (2009). On Symbolic Significance of Characters in Lord of the Flies. School of Foreign Languages, 119-123. Retrieved from https://muse.jhu.edu/article/644662/summary
Orwell, G. (1945). Animal farm. Secker and Warburg.
