Equal in Responsibility: Civilian Participationin the Birth of a Totalitarian State. A Study in George Orwell’s Animal Farm

Abstract

Orwell's Animal Farm has been widely discussed and analyzed from multiple standpoints, some of them diametrically opposite. This article examines the features that enable such divergent socio-political interpretations and argues that a core literary device that has been generally disregarded is that of the civilian contribution in the creation of political systems. When one shifts the focus to citizens, one sees how the work actually manifests the responsibility of regular individuals in the development of a totalitarian government by means of their acceptance of the elite’s discourse, their creation of national symbols, and the apathetic, negligent attitude of many toward politics.  The article undermines the idea that the seemingly powerless animals stand as mere victims of an oppressive system and shows that, in forging a new governmental system, all animals were indeed equal in responsibility.