This speech by Major the pig in 'Animal farm' is an eye-opener.
Animal Farm is an allegorical novel by George Orwell, first published in England on 17 August 1945. According to Orwell, the book reflects events leading up to the Russian Revolution of 1917 and then on into the Stalinist era of the Soviet Union. Orwell, a democratic socialist, was a critic of Joseph Stalin and hostile to Moscow-directed Stalinism, an attitude that was critically shaped by his experiences during the Spanish Civil War. The Soviet Union, he believed, had become a brutal dictatorship, built upon a cult of personality and enforced by a reign of terror.
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Animal farm: a fairy story (George Orwell)------------------------------
- Your Highlight at
location 36-54 | Added on Thursday, 25 May 2017 10:49:11
"Comrades, you have heard already about the strange dream that I had last night. But I will come to the dream later. I have something else to say first. I do not think, comrades, that I shall be with you for many months longer, and before I die, I feel it my duty to pass on to you such wisdom as I have acquired. I have had a long life, I have had much time for thought as I lay alone in my stall, and I think I may say that I understand the nature of life on this earth as well as any animal now living. It is about this that I wish to speak to you.
"Now, comrades,
what is the nature of this life of ours? Let us face it: our lives are
miserable, laborious, and short. We are born, we are given just so much food as
will keep the breath in our bodies, and those of us who are capable of it are
forced to work to the last atom of our strength; and the very instant that our
usefulness has come to an end we are slaughtered with hideous cruelty. No
animal in England knows the meaning of happiness or leisure after he is a year
old. No animal in England is free. The life of an animal is misery and slavery:
that is the plain truth. "But is this simply part of the order of nature?
Is it because this land of ours is so poor that it cannot afford a decent life
to those who dwell upon it? No, comrades, a thousand times no! The soil of
England is fertile, its climate is good, it is capable of affording food in
abundance to an enormously greater number of animals than now inhabit it. This
single farm of ours would support a dozen horses, twenty cows, hundreds of
sheep--and all of them living in a comfort and a dignity that are now almost
beyond our imagining. Why then do we continue in this miserable condition?
Because nearly the whole of the produce of our labour is stolen from us by
human beings. There, comrades, is the answer to all our problems. It is summed
up in a single word--Man. Man is the only real enemy we have. Remove Man from
the scene, and the root cause of hunger and overwork is abolished for ever.
"Man is the only creature that consumes without producing. He does not
give milk, he does not lay eggs, he is too weak to pull the plough, he cannot
run fast enough to catch rabbits. Yet he is lord of all the animals. He sets
them to work, he gives back to them the bare minimum that will prevent them
from starving, and the rest he keeps for himself. Our labour tills the soil,
our dung fertilises it, and yet there is not one of us that owns more than his
bare skin. You cows that I see before me, how many thousands of gallons of milk
have you given during this last year? And what has happened to that milk which
should have been breeding up sturdy calves? Every drop of it has gone down the
throats of our enemies. And you hens, how many eggs have you laid in this last
year, and how many of those eggs ever hatched into chickens? The rest have all
gone to market to bring in money for Jones and his men. And you, Clover, where
are those four foals you bore, who should have been the support and pleasure of
your old age? Each was sold at a year old--you will never see one of them
again. In return for your four confinements and all your labour in the fields,
what have you ever had except your bare rations and a stall?
"And even the miserable lives we lead are not allowed to reach their natural span. For myself I do not grumble, for I am one of the lucky ones. I am twelve years old and have had over four hundred children. Such is the natural life of a pig. But no animal escapes the cruel knife in the end. You young porkers who are sitting in front of me, every one of you will scream your lives out at the block within a year. To that horror we all must come--cows, pigs, hens, sheep, everyone. Even the horses and the dogs have no better fate. You, Boxer, the very day that those great muscles of yours lose their power, Jones will sell you to the knacker, who will cut your throat and boil you down for the foxhounds. As for the dogs, when they grow old and toothless, Jones ties a brick round their necks and drowns them in the nearest pond.
"Is it not crystal clear, then, comrades, that all the evils of this life of ours spring from the tyranny of human beings? Only get rid of Man, and the produce of our labour would be our own. Almost overnight we could become rich and free. What then must we do? Why, work night and day, body and soul, for the overthrow of the human race! That is my message to you, comrades: Rebellion! I do not know when that Rebellion will come, it might be in a week or in a hundred years, but I know, as surely as I see this straw beneath my feet, that sooner or later justice will be done. Fix your eyes on that, comrades, throughout the short remainder of your lives! And above all, pass on this message of mine to those who come after you, so that future generations shall carry on the struggle until it is victorious.
"And remember, comrades, your resolution must never falter. No argument must lead you astray. Never listen when they tell you that Man and the animals have a common interest, that the prosperity of the one is the prosperity of the others. It is all lies. Man serves the interests of no creature except himself. And among us animals let there be perfect unity, perfect comradeship in the struggle. All men are enemies. All animals are comrades."
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Animal farm: a fairy
story (George Orwell)
- Your Highlight at
location 76-77 | Added on Thursday, 25 May 2017 10:52:26
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