Critical Thinking in George Orwell’s Novel Animal Farm

Critical Thinking in George Orwell’s Novel Animal Farm
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Critical Thinking in George Orwell’s Novel Animal Farm
Most literary work is symbolic of a real-life situation in the past, present, or foreshadowing of a situation. Critical thinking helps people to get a deeper meaning of what a piece of literary work represents. According to Alan Jacobs, critical thinking refers to the in-depth analysis and evaluation of a situation to form a judgment. The novel Animal Farm by George Orwell tests people’s critical thinking abilities. Orwell personalized the characters and scenes in the story, giving them human abilities and traits. The whole plot symbolizes real-life events that happened and what may happen in the political and leadership sectors. This essay explores what happens to critical thinking in George Orwell’s novel Animal Farm, how and why it happens, the consequences for the story, and its implications for our world today. It also helps us understand how critical thinking is deteriorating and how the novel helps us become better human beings and citizens.
Orwell intensively applies critical thinking in his novel Animal Farm. It is a novel about a farm run by pigs. The animals agreed to rebel against Mr. Jones, the owner of the farm and rule themselves. The rebellion was successful, and pigs took over the leadership of the farm. They developed seven commandments that guide their lives on the farm. The greatest of all was that all animals are equal. However, as time goes on, Napoleon betrays Snowball and chases him away. They were the pig leaders of the newly independent farm. The betrayal began with Napoleon crossing Snowball. Soon his propagandist, Squealer, made all animals believe that Snowball was a traitor. The few who questioned the narrative were prosecuted. The pigs began breaking the seven commandments reducing it to one that “all animals are equal, but other animals are more equal than others.” Pigs started wearing clothes, drinking whisky, and engaging in trade against the commandments. Napoleon manages to rule through intimidation and propaganda.
The novel is a political satire that uses animals to expose how politics and leadership regimes operate, but without critical thinking, the reader may not know it. First, animals plan a rebellion to win and organize to rule themselves (Orwell and Heath 2003). Naturally, animals do not have the intelligence to organize a revolution and agree on one of them to be a leader. Critical thinking helps a person to realize that animals’ behavior is symbolic. However, one has to have basic education to think critically. Lack of education would make readers believe that animals were once so intelligent to rebel against man and live independent lives.
Secondly, the animal leaders, the pigs, manipulate their subjects through propaganda and creating fear (Orwell and Heath 2003) to ensure they do not rebel. Pigs are not ordinary animals. They are fat and dirty, an attribute that Orwell uses to describe Animal Farm’s leadership. The pigs began on a positive note after the rebellion. They promised heaven to the other animal only to take them to hell later in the novel. The greed of the pigs makes them break the initial animalistic values and begin behaving like other human political leaders. They drink whisky, engage in trade, walk on two legs and wear clothes. A reader who is not critically thinking will take this behavior literally. However, a critical eye will know that pigs eat a lot of food as political leaders do. They pretend to champion the rights of the oppressed but instead take advantage of their situation to enrich themselves.
Thirdly, betrayal is a common scenario in politics and leadership. Boxer had been a loyal servant since the start of the story when old Major was the leader of the a...