George Orwell’s Animal Farm: An Exploration of Dogma, Power, and Propaganda
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.70670/sra.v4i2.2380Keywords:
Animal Farm; Marxist Theory; Cultural Hegemony; Ideology; Propaganda; Class Struggle; False Consciousness; Power Relations.Abstract
The selected novel is widely read as an allegory of Russian Revolution, however this study focuses on how ideology, hegemony, propaganda, class struggle, and false consciousness serve together as tool of control. This study draws heavily on argument how domination is not static but dynamic in the way that it evolves from evident, visible forces into something hidden, insidious. It expresses that this kind of authority resides in people’s psyche, sustained not by threat but habit, belief, ad manipulated perceptions.
This study takes a qualitative approach and analyze the text through Marxist view and Antonia Gramsci’s concept of cultural hegemony as its main theoretical framework. By closely examining key scenes and its characters, this study explains how language, information withhold, and ideology influence the way reality is understood in the novel. This analysis reveals a failed revolutionary attempt in achieving genuine equality that instead of demolishing unjust hierarchical system it reconstructs a new where pigs holds the role of ruling class. Propaganda is utilized as the key instrument in shaping reality and manipulating truth, while false consciousness causes the oppressed animals to accept and even defend their own exploitation. This study also discusses that hegemony over time converts visible savagery into consent establishing roots.
Eventually, this study concludes that Animal Farm is not merely a political expression but far beyond that, it exposes the psychological manipulation and ideological framing through which power, violence, dominance, and savagery is regulated. It argues that George Orwell’s narration presents an everlasting example of how revolutionary ideals, gradually overtaken by force, convert into controlling systems Hence, this study certifies novel’s unending significance in understanding present day’s power structures.
References
Bennett, W. L., & Livingston, S. (2020). The disinformation order: Disruptive communication and the decline of democratic institutions. European Journal of Communication, 35(2), 122–139. https://doi.org/10.1177/0267323120905111
Brandt, M. J. (2021). Ideology, belief systems, and social hierarchy. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 34, 18–23.
Celikates, R. (2022). False consciousness and ideology critique in critical theory. Critical Horizons, 23(1), 1–15.
Das, R. J. (2022). Marxist class theory for a skeptical world. Brill.
Freeden, M. (2021). Ideology: A very short introduction (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press.
Gramsci, A. (1971). Selections from the prison notebooks (Q. Hoare & G. Nowell Smith, Trans.). International Publishers. (Original work published 1929–1935)
Jost, J. T. (2020). A theory of system justification. Harvard University Press.
Jowett, G. S., & O’Donnell, V. (2021). Propaganda and persuasion (7th ed.). SAGE Publications.
KhosraviNik, M. (2020). Social media and critical discourse studies: New directions in critical discourse analysis. Routledge.
Kotkin, S. (2017). Stalin: Waiting for Hitler, 1929–1941. Penguin Press.
Livingstone, S., & Bennett, W. L. (2020). The disinformation age and political communication. Journal of Communication, 70(5), 643–651.
Loughnan, S., Haslam, N., Sutton, R. M., & Spencer, S. J. (2020). Dehumanization and social inequality. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 29(3), 278–284.
Marx, K. (1867). Capital: A critique of political economy (Vol. 1). Penguin Classics.
Marx, K., & Engels, F. (2002). The Communist Manifesto (Original work published 1848). sPenguin Classics.
Miller, D. (2022). Propaganda and information control in modern political systems. Pluto Press.
Orwell, G. (1945). Animal farm. Secker & Warburg.
Piketty, T. (2020). Capital and ideology. Harvard University Press.
Stanley, J. (2020). How propaganda works. Princeton University Press.
Therborn, G. (2020). Inequality kills: The idea of class war and the global rise of inequality. Verso Books.
Till, B. D. (2020). Propaganda, persuasion, and political communication in modern society. Routledge.
