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Stephanie Touch Dr. Alesha Gayle English 0701 19 Nov 2013 Animal Farm and Class Structure Animal Farm makes Farm makes a connection to the idea of class structure and how people have different advantages depending on their class. Th e higher a person’s social class, the more respect that person will receive. In America, we live in a society where there is a hierarchal system where people are discriminated based on t heir social class. In a class structure, people are categorized and ranked higher than others. Social class is a problem because people of higher class will have advantages over people of lower class. Animal class. Animal Farm illustrates how class structure will exist in the world no matter where you co me from. George Orwell uses the animals to demonstrate how Napoleon and the other pigs used their power of intelligence and leadership to control the farm and the animals. The novel illustrates how people of higher classes are better educated than people of lower classes. The pigs are at the top of the class structure because they are more intelligent than the rest of the animals. Being in a higher social class gives an individual the advantage of being better educated because he or she comes from a family with a history of higher education. In “Class in America,” the Carnegie Council on Children found a study that shows “the higher the student’s social status, the higher the higher the probability that he or she will get higher grades” (Mantsios 710). This statement relates to the novel, Honky novel, Honky by by Dalton Conley because he also explains how being in a certain class can affect one’s education. Conley lived in a low class neighborhood where the schools had a poor education system. The teachers would punish the children for
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misbehaving by striking their hands with a ruler. Students found that being disobedient was more important than being smart. When he switched to a school in a high-class neighborhood, he discovered that the students focused more on academics rather than being disobedient. Conley Co nley writes, “In my first two years of schooling, I had b een socialized into thinking that kids who showed off how much they knew were outcasts, ner ds” ds” (Conley 66). He then learned in the new school that intelligence was important to receiving a good education. It connects to the social structure in Animal in Animal Farm because Farm because the pigs were given an advantage of being more intelligent than the other animals on the farm. Children from low-income backgrounds receive worse education than children from high-income backgrounds and one program that emphasizes this problem is Teach for America. Teach for America was established to help children from low-income backgrounds acquire a good education however, it is doing the complete opposite. Katie Osgood writes, “TFA claims to fight to end educational inequality and yet ends up exacerbating one of the greatest inequalities in education today: that low-income children of color are much more likely to be given inexperienced, uncertified teachers” (Osgood 1). Education inequality is one of the prime factors why low income families receive poor education. Consequently, coming from a low-income family will result in receiving poor education. Animal Farm shows the benefits of being in a higher social class. Napoleon took advantage of being in a higher class by doing what he desired such as contradicting the commandments. The commandments simply stated that humans were the enemy, the animals were not allowed to portray human-like actions, and that all animals were equal. Napoleon and the other pigs defied all of the commandments co mmandments they created and tweaked them, making it right for them to act against the commandments. For example, the sixth commandment changed from
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“No animal shall kill any other animal” to “No animal shall kill any other animal without cause” (Orwell 98). This demonstrates how high-class citizens use their social status to protect them. People of high social class are receive better treatment than ones of low social class. For instance, in the Steubenville case was a case where two star athletes raped a girl and the town was covering for them. They used their status to protect them from prosecution of disobeying t he law. Levy wrote in her article, “The police had implicated Mark Cole and Evan Westlake, both football players, in the crime, but the coach did not suspend them until the eighth game of a ten-game season. As Goddard learned more, she became convinced that there was a cover-up to protect the team” (Levy 4). The cover up ties to what happened with Napoleon because when he did something that contradicted the commandments, the other pigs covered it up by making alterations to the commandments to protect him. It displays how being in a higher class can help you. Another example that shows how social class can be an advantage is from the book Honky by Dalton Conley, where the kids were given an advantage due to their race and social class. They started a fire and did not get into trouble for it because of their class. After the fire Conley realized that it was not fair that the y were not punished and wrote, “But we were lucky —for Raphael’s family represented the right class and I the the right race” (Conley 181). It shows that they were getting treated better than pe ople of lower classes because if he was not white or his friend was not in the upper class, they would have been in a great deal of trouble. Therefore, Conley and his friend had an advantage by being in an upper class. In Animal In Animal Farm, Farm, the animals, other than the pigs and dogs, are being oppressed. They are being held back in having their say in anything. All the animals did was work like slaves because they thought that it was a good thing that they were working for themselves. What they were
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really doing was working for the pigs so that the pigs would make more money. mon ey. Orwell writes, "Somehow it seemed as though the farm had grown richer without making the animals an imals themselves any richer--except of course, f or or the pigs and the dogs” (Orwell 129). The pigs kept telling them that all “all animals are equal” bu t towards the end of the novel, nov el, the pigs changed it to “all animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others” (Orwell 133). Th is connects to how the working class or the poor does not have the same opportunities as the upper class and that they are being held h eld down because of their status. Class domination is one of the things that keep people from being creative and productive. Gregory Mantsios writes, “People do not choose to be poor or working class; instead, they are limited and confined by the opportunities afforded or denied them by b y a social and economic system” (Mantsios 712). Then he continues by saying “The class structure in the United States is a function of its economic system: capitalism, a system that is based on private rather than public ownership and control of commercial enterprises” (Mantsios 712). The enterprises are conducted to generate p rofits for the owner, instead of achieving collective needs (Mantsios 712). Therefore, the working class is working to help these markets make profits for themselves. They are working to produce their own money but they are actually working for the owners of these markets which are selling their products to a pool of cheap labor. This all goes back to how the upper classes have an advantage over the working class because they the y are the ones benefiting from the people peopl e of the working classes’ work. The United States is supposedly the land of democracy where every voice counts. If this is true then why does the government take advantage of their powers pow ers by having restrictions against certain voters such as minorities? For example, Adam Liptak talks about the Voting Rights Act that states, “Section 5, 5, which sets out the preclearance requirement, was o riginally
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scheduled to expire in five years. Congress Con gress repeatedly extended it: for five years in 1970, seven years in 1975, and 25 years in 1982” (Liptak). This shows that although con gress knew that the law was unconstitutional they extended the law anyways. The law applied to nine states where if they wanted to make minor changes to the voting procedure they then must receive a clearance from the Justice Department or Federal Court in Washington. Making m inor or major changes to voting procedures were difficult because the proce ss to receive a clearance usually were denied. d enied. One issue was in certain states in the south, there was a device that limited the votes down, counting only less than 50 percent of the votes. The Voting Vo ting Rights Act displays how congress uses their power to exclude minorities’ voices and contributing to the country. Throughout the novel, Orwell shows how the working class cannot come out of their repressive leadership. The animals on the farm, who are not leaders, contribute very hard work but do not say anything about the pigs not working at all. The pigs arranges what the animals’ tasks are and the animals perform them without an y complaints. Being workers of the farm and not being able to contribute to the rules and commandments relates to how ho w Congress excludes the votes of minorities. Both of these situations show how the working class do not have an advantage of voicing out their judgments and demonstrates how the upper class take advantage of their power. To conclude, Animal conclude, Animal Farm is a novel that illustrates the meaning of how class structure works in America. The novel presents how the upper class gets treated better and receive more opportunities than the lower class. Some of the things that the upper class receive is great education and more respect. Social class will persist as a problem because people of hi gher class always will have advantages over people peopl e of lower class. The middle and lower classes work very hard, only to benefit the higher h igher class. Animal class. Animal Farm uses the animals to symbolize how being in
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the upper class can benefit a person and how the power gets abused. The upper class have a say in things that the lower classes do not and the lower class cannot do anything an ything about it because they do not have the power to. Orwell manipulates this huge problem of class structure in America with something so small, the Animal Farm which reveal that class structure will stand, regardless of where you are from.
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Works Cited “About Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.” Justice.gov. Act.” Justice.gov. Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.
n.d. Web. 20 Nov. 2013.
Conley, Dalton. Honky. Dalton. Honky. New New York: Random House Incorporation, 2000. Print. Levy, Ariel. “Trial by Twitter.” New Twitter.” New Yorker. 05 Yorker. 05 Aug. 2013. Web. 20 Nov. 2013. Liptak, Adam. “Supreme Court Invalidates Key Part of Voting Rights Act.” New Act.” New York Times 25 Times 25 June 2013. Print. Mantsios, Gregory. “Class in America.” Norton America.” Norton Field Guide to Writing 2nd Edition. Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc., 2009. 697-715. Print. Orwell, George. Animal George. Animal Farm. Penguin Farm. Penguin Group Incorporation, 1996. Print.
