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| ==Old Major in the ]== | ==Old Major in the ]== | ||
| With ''Animal Farm'' being parallel to the formation of the ], Old Major was based on both ] and ]. The animals hold him in high esteem, and dig up his ] and walk past it and salute it every day, until the end of the novel when Napoleon announces that he had buried the skull, much as Lenin's body was preserved and is kept on display in Moscow. Marx, author of the '']'', died before the ], whereas Old Major, founder of ], dies before the Animal Farm revolution. His body was saluted by the soldiers everyday, even after the rebellion. This show of respect was a sign that the animals remembered their roots and the roots of the Rebellion. Old Major was very much honored in this way because he was the idealist behind the Rebellion and initiated the work towards it. |
With ''Animal Farm'' being parallel to the formation of the ], Old Major was based on both ] and ]. The animals hold him in high esteem, and dig up his ] and walk past it and salute it every day, until the end of the novel when Napoleon announces that he had buried the skull, much as Lenin's body was preserved and is kept on display in Moscow. Marx, author of the '']'', died before the ], whereas Old Major, founder of ], dies before the Animal Farm revolution. His body was saluted by the soldiers everyday, even after the rebellion. This show of respect was a sign that the animals remembered their roots and the roots of the Rebellion. Old Major was very much honored in this way because he was the idealist behind the Rebellion and initiated the work towards it. | ||
| ==Notes== | ==Notes== | ||
Revision as of 23:45, 16 April 2009
Old Major (also called Willingdon Beauty, his show name) is the first major character described by George Orwell in Animal Farm. This "purebred" of pigs is the kind, grandfatherly philosopher of change. According to one interpretation, he could be based upon both Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin. However, according to Christopher Hitchens: "the persons of Lenin and Trotsky are combined into one , or, it might even be truer to say, there is no Lenin-pig at all."
Old Major proposes a solution to the animals' desperate plight under the Jones' "administration" (representing the tsar and autocracy) when he inspires a rebellion of sorts among the animals. The actual time of the revolt is unsaid. It could be the next day or several generations down the road. Old Major's "Barn-Yard Speech" at the very onset of the story could be a reference to the Communist Manifesto. The animals are stirred up by this speech, and set to work immediately on the bringing about of the Rebellion.
Shortly after his death, the animals rise up in revolt and oust the men from power. This rebellious act is so quick that many don't realize it happened until it already has. The animals drive Mr. Jones and the farmhands off of the farm. They also work to remove harnesses, axes, and anything that reminds them of the cruelty of Jones's rule. Now the animals must rule the farm by themselves. Early on, everything goes well and Old Major's dream seems to be coming true. The animals are happy, working at their own pace and reaping their own rewards. The pig Snowball largely takes on the intellectual and political leadership of the farm and seems to share Old Major's principle of genuine concern for the animals of the farm. Snowball and Napoleon, the Belkshire boar who is another prominent pig on the farm, become political rivals and often disagreed at the Sunday meetings. While Snowball is respected by most of the animals, the rest of the pigs, tricked by Napoleon, begin to move to oust Snowball. This occurs after the debate over the windmill when Napoleon unleashes his trained dogs to chase Snowball from the farm. Then, Napoleon steals Snowball's ideas as his own and also twists incidents to look as though Snowball is guilty of them.
The Seven Commandments that Snowball had transcribed, that were supposed to encompass Old Major's general philosophy, are gradually altered and deformed under Napoleon until they come to entirely opposite meanings than were originally intended. Also, "Beasts of England", the song that came to Old Major in his dream, was later banned on Animal Farm by Napoleon, at which time it was replaced by "Animal Farm", a hymn composed by Minimus the pig that pledges allegiance to Animal Farm and to work to protect it.
In both film adaptations, Major dies while provoking the animals into rebelling. In the 1954 adaption, he dies suddenly while the animals are singing. The 1999 version is even more unfaithful- Jones slips in mud while investigating the sounds coming from the barn, fires his shotgun, and indirectly hits Major in the rear, killing him.
Old Major in the allegory
With Animal Farm being parallel to the formation of the Soviet Union, Old Major was based on both Lenin and Marx. The animals hold him in high esteem, and dig up his skull and walk past it and salute it every day, until the end of the novel when Napoleon announces that he had buried the skull, much as Lenin's body was preserved and is kept on display in Moscow. Marx, author of the Communist Manifesto, died before the first communist revolution, whereas Old Major, founder of Animalism, dies before the Animal Farm revolution. His body was saluted by the soldiers everyday, even after the rebellion. This show of respect was a sign that the animals remembered their roots and the roots of the Rebellion. Old Major was very much honored in this way because he was the idealist behind the Rebellion and initiated the work towards it.
Notes
- Hitchens, Christopher (2002), Why Orwell Matters, Basic Books, pp 186-187.
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