The Downfall of Animalism

The Downfall of Animalism
While the seven basic commandments of Animalism consist of the following: 1. Whatever goes on two legs in an enemy, 2. Whatever goes upon four legs or has wings is a friend, 3. No animal shall wear clothes, 4. No animal shall sleep in a bed, 5. No animal shall consume any alcohol, 6. No animal shall kill another animal, 7. All animals are equal, and may have been designed to do nothing more than provide basic guidelines for happiness and equality, all they accomplished was isolating the majority of the farm animals from the pigs. The demise of these basic commandments ultimately proves Orwell’s theory that revolutions fail because a new dictator will always rise to power.
         The 1st commandment of animalism was first noticeably in fractured when Napoleon began trading freely with human beings.  “From then on Animal Farm would engage in trade with the neighboring farms, of course not for commercial purpose, but to obtain certain materials that were urgently necessary” is just one of the countless acts of deceitful statements used to justify the corrupt usage of power by Napoleon and other political figures of the farm. 
         There were several occurrences in the duration of the book violating the 2nd commandment, beginning with there recent terribly occurrences all being attributed to the recently exiled snowball, followed by a bounty being offered for his dead body.  To me that’s pretty much saying he isn’t a “friend” therefore violating the 2nd commandment. 
         Beginning with the incident of Jones’s bowler hat the 3rd commandment had been desecrated by you guessed it, the pigs.  To my knowledge there was no explanation given to the remainder of the farm animals from the pigs, but I suppose the rest of the animals had more important matters at hand, therefore the pigs assumed a cleverly developed explanation for this was unnecessary. 
         Another example of the political figures of the farm altering the original commandment to their own advantage is the issue with the pigs beginning to sleep in the farmhouse beds.  “You have heard, comrades that we pigs have now begun to sleep in beds of the farmhouse” Squealer exclaims, enthusiastically whisking his tale from side to side.  Following this manipulatively delivered statement Squealer again begins to, yet again justify the pigs insubordination of the commandments of animalism by carefully explaining how a mattress and a bed frame with no sheets is no different that hay in a stall.  The fact that the fourth commandment was modified so it’s convenient for the pigs could have also contaminated the thoughts of the remainder of the farm animals.
         By changing the 5th commandment from a no tolerance prohibition “no animal shall drink alcohol” to a “no animal shall drink alcohol in excess” the pigs are wisely preventing animals with characteristics simyaler to me.  More importantly they are, yet again modifying the original commandments so as they are much more convenient for them.  Napoleon also decree’s that consumption of alcohol is punishable by death (trust me, its true) enabling him to avoid spending priceless minutes out of his all too monotonous life worrying about his liquor supply being stolen. 
         Several events in the book are in violation of the 6th commandment, but when I read the book two stood out more so than any others.  When Napoleon decreed that Snowball shall receive the death penalty that was one of the more noticeable violations of the second commandment, but the most obvious violation would have to be the Confessionary Massacre, as I refer to it.  Just like a much more gruesome Patriot Act several animals were slaughtered for suspicion of treason and other apparently death worthy crimes.  Personally my favorite would have to be the incident in which two younger sheep chased an old ram until he collapsed.  That one is someone humorous and if you put some thought into it that action bridges the equality gap between the pigs and the rest of the mob of animals. 
         Finally I get to verbally enlighten you to the numerous infractions of the final commandment, “All Animals are Equal”.  It’s clearly evident throughout the book how the pigs regard themselves and each other much higher than the remainder of the animals on the farm.  Notice how the work is done by the rest of the animals, but never the pigs.  Now time for something not quite as obvious as my previous statement; “It had come to be accepted that the pigs, who were manifestly cleverer than the other animals, should decide all questions of farm policy”.  Sorry, that was just as obvious, but its clear that there was never complete equality on the Animal Farm, just at different points in the book the conditions of this so called equality was not as dramatically unequal as it was towards the end of the book. 
         During the numerous hours that I’ve spend reading the book and compiling that summarization of sorts, the true meaning of this book has been repetitively scorched into by mind, ultimately achieving the goal of the book and the meaningless assignments from the book I presume.  As I closing statement I’d like to point out how Orwell’s idea is fail safe, even in a symbolically fictional book.