Nineteen Eighty-Four 853“equal” contributions of work, the definition of work
itself, and how the need for governmental acumen
among the managers of a communal group can be
satisfied in a climate of such concerns. The position
of the pigs as nonworkers controlling a community
wherein an ability to work is the measure of a citi-
zen’s worth highlights the potential exploitation of
the undereducated by the intelligentsia in any com-
munity, and this underscores the need to respect the
diversity of skills a community must have in order
to survive. This post-Rebellion exploitation also
suggests a conflict between the goals of the original
Rebellion—to escape the rule of those who consume
without producing—and the fact that the prime
instigators of that rebellion were not “workers” in
the first place.
The tension caused by the unethical status of
privilege assumed by the pigs is also foreshadowed
by the injustices of the relationship Jones bears to
the animals prior to the Rebellion and the impetus
that relationship gives to the Rebellion. The imbal-
ance between the vast amount of work the animals
contribute to the farm and the meager sustenance
they receive from it compared with the minimal
work Jones undertakes while accruing the wealth
and control of the farm for himself is the key con-
cern by which the animals justify their rebellion.
Major’s charge against “man,” and Jones in par-
ticular, is that he “consumes without producing”—a
statement that makes explicit the animals’ belief that
to be part of their society and receive its support and
sustenance, one must participate in work necessary
to its maintenance. The implicit injustice of this
situation becomes a governing concern defining the
society the animals create, and it is a clear theme of
their revolt that to reside in their community with-
out working is a crime against that society.
The pigs, however, breach this principle immedi-
ately; Napoleon entirely avoids the first work to be
done following the Rebellion, the harvest of the hay,
and thence onward the pigs never perform manual
labor but simply supervise, putting themselves above
the others in breach of the seventh precept of the
Rebellion—“all animals are equal.” Just as this
inequality quickly replicates the imbalance that
existed between the animals and the humans dur-
ing Jones’s time, so, too, do the pigs go on to adopt
ever more overtly human practices, learning to read
and write and to make and use tools. This process
of humanization—most notably the pigs’ avoidance
of manual, animal work—segregates them from the
other animals, exaggerating to the point of carica-
ture the social segregation that inequitable divisions
of labor create in a community.
Michael AikenorwELL, GEorGE Nineteen Eighty-
Four (1949)
Nineteen Eighty-Four is the transcendent political
novel of the 20th century. It remains relevant and
enduring as a powerful condemnation of totali-
tarianism that proved to be extremely prescient for- Many of Orwell’s prophecies became realities
during the cold war in the Soviet Union and, some
would argue, in the post-9/11 era in the United
States.
When Orwell conceived Nineteen Eighty-Four in
1944, the world was reeling from the devastation of
World War II and would soon become entangled in
the epic struggle of capitalism against communism
that would characterize the cold war era. Nineteen
Eighty-Four was a clarion call to Western societies still
uncertain of how to deal with the communist threat,
and an alarming number of their citizens found the
tenets of communism credible and attractive. Orwell
intended to write a story that would inform the public
of the inherent evils of totalitarian societies.
Orwell depicted Oceania as a utopian society
where the totalitarian government controlled by the
Party rules through fear and coercion, where even
thoughts are monitored. Dissension and rebellion
are not permitted, and those who speak against the
government and the Party are branded as traitors
and tortured without due process. The subjugation
of individuality by the ruling Party for the “benefit”
of society is a major theme of the novel.
Winston Smith is locked in a constant struggle
to retain some semblance of his individuality amid
the omnipresence of the Party and Big Brother and
in defiance of the propaganda machine meant to
control the sycophantic loyalists who are ubiquitous
in Oceania.
Drew McLaughlin