Stratification

Stratification has become a serious issue in the United States when “the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer” (CNBC, “US income inequality continues to grow” ). “Animal Farm” by George Orwell is a perfect example for stratification and social class issue. It has become a popular cartoon movie since 1945 by director John Stephenson. It is a terrible picture of which personal freedom is nonexistent.

Orwell draws a picture of the animals’ lives as our society at that time, where personal freedom is something impossible. When Mr. Pilkington tells Napoleon, “If you have your lower animals to contend with,(...) we have our lower classes!”, it shows clearly the picture of Orwell is drawing of our society being just like the animal society. The animals are divided into different levels, which are based on their knowledge. While the pigs become the governors, the horses and some other animals who are not able to read and write have to work harder and harder. “None of the other animals on the farm could get further than the letter A. It was also found that the stupider animals, such as the sheep, hens, and ducks, were unable to learn the Seven Commandments by heart.”

Additionally, the persuasion of the pigs to all the other animals is also surprising and interesting. The biggest example of this is the seventh commandment of the Animal Farm. In the beginning, the pigs wrote “ All animals are equal” on the wall of the main house. However, when the pigs completely take control of the farm, they change the laws a little bit in secret to get more benefits for themselves to be “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” Even though some animals recognized it, by the persuasive voice, the high class of the farm easily skips the queries.

According to Jonathan Russo, “[t]he leaders of Animal Farm maintained thought control by obscuring the facts with smokescreens. In this way, the allegory to the Trump administration is dead on”(‘Animal Farm’ Perfectly Describes Life in the Era of Donald Trump). The pigs in the “Animal Farm”, who were afraid they would lose control of the farm, created imaginary threats as a tactic to bind their subjects. In the same way, Trump alerts us to the threat of Mexican rapists. Yet, he has “offered unprecedented access to some of the largest corporations in America in exchange for their millions of dollars of donations” (‘Animal Farm’ Perfectly Describes Life in the Era of Donald Trump). It likes the way the governance in the “ Animal Farm” do to placate the horses, sheep, and chickens with feel-good slogans and false agendas. Even Trump’s deleted tweet about how it was an “honor to host [Palestinian] President Mahmoud Abbas” at the White House was foreseen in Animal Farm, as writing on the barn wall was changed and erased as politically necessary. The animals could not recall the original writings or how they were altered.

The “Animal Farm” by Orwell has a lot of similarities with our society’s stratification and social class issue. Orwell’s view is not a rosy picture, where everyone can live in peace, and where the war is not the only main reason for the poor life. It is a lucky thing when the animals recognized the problems in the old organization, where they just worked as slaves so they rebelled. However, unluckily the new major, which has a good idea for rebuilding the society, has the bad governance who does everything to get more and more benefits for themselves.