I would
select 's speech to the animals, at the very start of the story, as a perfect example. , of
course, uses the terminology of real-life socialism by having Old Major address the others as
"comrade." The aging pig also uses the fact that he has not much time left on earth as
an element of persuasion. He has seen more of life than the other animals and has concluded that
Man is the source of all evil. "Man," he says, "is the only creature that
consumes without producing." This is Major's key point, although (as with much propaganda
in the real world) it is a falsehood, in spite of the element of truth in it from the animals'
perspective.
The most interesting thing about the speech, in my opinion, is
that it is capped off with a song, "Beasts of England," which, we are told, has a tune
somewhere between "Clementine" and "La Cucaracha." This is the
equivalent, one presumes, of the "Internationale," the anthem of world
Socialism. Any persuasive message in the...
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