Alumna: Schmidt Stefania

The seven commandments throughout “Animal Farms”

“Animal Farm” is considered a fable with a satirical and political approach against totalitarian
governments. The set of laws called the Seven Commandments were stated by the pigs to
control and organize the new farm regime after the animals take control of the place; as the
years go by these laws suffered some changes which benefited some and left behind the rights
of others, showing the corrupt behaviour of the pigs.

First of all, the laws were set to create a peaceful yet controlled environment of the life in the
now called “Animal Farm” under the regime of Snowball the pig; in the first couple years
everyone including those who could not read knew them by heart and lived by them; one of
the commandments stated that in this new era called animalism “All animals were equal”, in
the first few chapters we can see the change in this law by noticing that the pigs, who were
apparently much more intelligent than the rest of the animals, enjoyed the benefits of the farm
at the expense of others, so it became apparent that “All animals were equal but some were
more equal than others.”

Furthermore, we can see that the major changes to the laws in the farm occurred with the
accession to power of Napoleon, a pig who had much stronger ideas in the way of ruling;
another commandment to be changed was “No animal should kill another animal”, in the rise
of power of Napoleon he declared that those who helped Snowball escape were traitors and
murder them, substituting the law for “No animal shall kill other animal without cause”.

Lastly, as the years go by and the government of Napoleon becomes harsher on all the animals
of the farm, the commandments are no longer the same, most of them have changed, this is
due to the fact that the pigs became more and more like humans which is a clear image in the
last scene of the book when the pigs meet with other farm owners, as the book says “The
creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again;
but already it was impossible to say which was which.”

All things consider, I can say that the Seven Commandments became the laws that controlled
the animals but in favour of the few, suffering the changes of corruption from those who
thought themselves to be better. Orwell’s work is a great example of real-life situations in
which rebellion, power and manipulation can lead the masses to exploitation and totalitarian
governments.