Tuesday, 20 December 2011, 23:40


By S. V. Kirubaharan in France

‘Animal Farm’, a novel published in England on 17 August 1945 by George Orwell, reflects events before the World war during the Stalinist regime in USSR.

George Orwell was born in Bengal in India on 25 June 1903. His birth name was Eric Arthur Blai. He became an activist for political change, a novelist, essayist and critic. He was well known for his controversial writings.

When I think of controversial novelists, essayists and writers, I always think of George Orwell born in the Indian subcontinent, Salmon Rushdie and Taslima Nasrin of Bangladesh. Salmon Rushdie and Taslima Nasrin are living personalities, Muslims who risked their lives for writing about presumed shortcomings in Islam. Animal Farm by George Orwell is still a famous book – Time magazine chose it as one of the 100 best English-language novels (1923 to 2005).

I do not want to go into detail about Salmon Rushdie’s fourth novel ‘The Satanic Verses’ published in 1988 and Taslima Nasrin’s novel in 1993 ‘Lajja’ (Shame). Salmon Rushdie and Taslima Nasrin were faced death threats and lived in hiding.

When I was a teenager, I was attracted to the books of Marxism, Leninism and Maoism and my father noticed my interest. Without discouraging me reading those books, he talked to me about the novel ‘Animal Farm’. Not only me, it is very difficult to convince anyone in their teens of anything, including their romantic affairs. So I listened to my father talk about ‘Animal Farm’ and I concluded that it was, after all, only fiction by George Orwell.

When I started living in Paris, the late veteran Journalist Mr. S. Sivanayagam also joined a French life style. He was a professional Journalist who had worked in Sri Lanka with all the famous Journalists like Tarzie Vittachi, Reggie Michel, Mervyn de Silva and many others in the Lake House and the Times of Ceylon. In the evening he used to tell me about his life in Colombo as a young energetic journalist. We called Mr Sivanayagam ‘Iyah’ (respected Tamil word for elders). He never lost his sense of humour even during his last days. November 29th was his 1st death anniversary. Let Iyah Sivanayagam, champion of Journalism rest in peace.

As Iyah Sivanayagam didn’t speak French, I was his interpreter for day to day appointments with Doctors, Bank, Prefecture, etc. One day we were waiting for an appointment with a Doctor and we were talking about good and bad periods in our lives. Then Iyah told me that, that according to his astrology he was facing a very bad period and everything was a problem for him. He said the only part of his body have any problem was teeth, because he was using a denture. Then he said that, with the way things were happening to him in France, he wouldn’t be surprised if even the dentures start to have toothache! Immediately I started to laugh louder and the whole clinic was looking at him. One person told Iyah that, if he was a good comedian, he could find a place for him in the French TV.

One day, something strange happened to him in the office which he was not at all happy about. That day when he went for his lunch, he came back a little late and told me with his usual nice smile that ‘I have got a gift for you’. In the evening, he presented me with the novel ‘Animal Farm’ and told me, “after you read this story, can you write this in Tamil, so that those who can’t read English can understand this story”. In fact, I still haven’t found time to write this story in Tamil. But I told a group of people who should know these things about ‘Animal Farm’.

Animal Farm is about Stalinism and authoritarian government. Therefore, the author of this book faced lot of obstacles in getting this novel published in the United Kingdom, as the UK supported USSR during the World War II. Eventually this was published in 1945 in UK and a year later in United States.

Animal Farm talks about seven commandments. These commandments are supposed to sustain discipline and the dignity of Animalism within Animal Farm. Seven commandments were drawn to unify the animals and as amalgamated community go against the humans and prevent the members of the Animal Farm following the humans’ harmful weaknesses.

Since not all of the animals can remember these commandments, they were reduced to one basic slogan: "Four legs good, two legs bad!" with wings counted as legs.

The original seven commandments were:

1- Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy. 2- Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend. 3- No animal shall wear clothes. 4- No animal shall sleep in a bed. 5- No animal shall drink alcohol. 6- No animal shall kill any other animal. 7- All animals are equal.

The commandments began with common animal identity, but the pigs unilaterally amended certain commandments under the leadership of Napoleon to suit their own purpose:

1- No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets. 2 - No animal shall drink alcohol to excess. 3 - No animal shall kill any other animal without cause.

Eventually the basic slogan was replaced by "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others", and "Four legs good, two legs better!" as the pigs become more human.

The association between Clover, Muriel, and Squealer fencing in the Seven Commandments, determined how easy it is to change the cardinal rules of society in the animal farm, where most of the animals remember only that four legs are good and two legs are bad.

All the animals in Animal Farm were exploited under Napoleon’s control for nepotism – safeguard the interest of the pigs. Even the dogs, which worked closely with the pigs, were abused. The dogs faced the worse form of fiddling than the other animals, because they were given the responsibility of intimidation and carrying out killings.

Boxer’s life is a sad example of crookedness, because he exploits himself, believing wholeheartedly in Napoleon’s benevolence. In the end, Napoleon exploits Boxer, then had him butchered.

Characters

The characters in the Animal Farm are : Mr. Jones – Tsar Nicholas II whom the Russian Revolution ousted.  Drunken farmer who runs the Manor Farm before the animals stage their Rebellion and establish Animal Farm. Mr. Jones is an unkind master who indulges himself while his animals lack food; Mollie – the vain, flighty mare who pulls Mr. Jones’s carriage. Mollie craves the attention of human beings and loves being groomed and pampered. She has a difficult time with her new life on Animal Farm, she represents the petit bourgeoisie that fled from Russia a few years after the Russian Revolution. Napoleon – Joseph Stalin, the pig who emerges as the leader of Animal Farm after the Rebellion; Pinkeye – a pig that Napoleon enlists as his taster of food to make sure it is not poisoned, in response to rumours about an assassination attempt on Napoleon; Squealer -  the pig who spreads Napoleon’s propaganda among the other animals. It justifies the pigs’ monopolisation and spreads false statistics pointing to the success of the farm; Snowball – Leon Trotsky -  the pig who challenges Napoleon for control of Animal Farm after the Rebellion is intelligent, passionate and eloquent; Boxer – the cart-horse shows much devotion to Animal Farm’s ideals but little ability to think about them independently. He naively trusts the pigs to make all his decisions for him. His mottoes are “I will work harder and Napoleon is always right”; Clover – a good-hearted female cart-horse and Boxer’s close friend who always forgets the commandments. She often suspects that Napoleon and his gang was violating Commandments; Muriel – the white goat who reads the seven commandments to Clover whenever Clover suspects the pigs were violating; Benjamin -  the long-lived donkey who refuses to feel inspired by the Rebellion. He firmly believes that life will remain unpleasant no matter who is in charge. Of all of the animals on the farm, he alone comprehends the changes that take place, but he seems either unwilling or unable to oppose the pigs; Moses – Moses plays only a small role - spreading stories of Sugar candy Mountain, the paradise to which animals supposedly go when they die. He shows how communism exploits religion as something with which to pacify the oppressed; Mr. Whymper – the human solicitor whom Napoleon hires to represent Animal Farm in human society. Whymper’s entry into the Animal Farm community created contact between Animals and human society. This move alarmed the other animals. Also there were a few other characters who play small roles in Animal Farm.

By the end of the novel, we see clearly how the animals participate in their own exploitation. They were beginning to build a schoolhouse for the thirty-one young pigs. That schoolhouse would never benefit the animals that build it. It would be used to educate the pigs and influence them into exploiting others. The novel indicates that lack of respect for fellow inhabitants will bring total disaster. But never recommended the right path to secure it. end

S. V. Kirubaharan

France

http://www.nation.lk/2011/12/18/eyefea3.htm