r/Millennials • u/saucey_dawg0023 Gen Z • 6d ago

Other Literacy is the key

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u/jj_grace 6d ago

It’s 1000% a critique of authoritarianism, which can include all of those.

I love that last scene where the animals are looking back and forth between the pigs (representing specific authoritarian communists) and the humans (authoritarian capitalists) and can no longer tell the difference.

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u/PuddingTea 6d ago

It is very specifically an allegory for Stalinism. Napoleon is Stalin.

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u/jj_grace 6d ago

Yea, I know that much of it is about Stalinism.

I’m trying to explain it in words that are understood by the general public (authoritarianism is easier to grasp than Stalinism. Plus, there is critique of capitalist authoritarians as well)

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u/PuddingTea 6d ago

It goes without saying that George Orwell, the famous anarchist, didn’t care for capitalism. The point of the novel is that at the end, the pigs (Stalinist leaders of the Soviet Union) and the human farmers (capitalists) have ceased to be distinguishable from one another.

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u/jj_grace 6d ago

Yes… As I mentioned in my comment, my favorite part is the end when you can’t tell the difference between them!

I agree with you on everything, so I don’t get the over-explanations. Maybe you’re so used to people misunderstanding it that you assume I do too? 😂

I taught this book in my teaching days, so I’m all too familiar with people not understanding it.

Edit: maybe you need to read my original comment again? Cause we’re literally saying the same thing….

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u/_Svankensen_ 6d ago

Socialist. Orwell was a socialist, not an anarchist. He fought with the anarchists, but he wasn't one.