ECONOMIC EXPLOITATION AND SOCIAL INEQUALITY IN GEORGE ORWELL’S ANIMAL FARM: A MARXIST PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

The research uses a Marxist perspective to examine George Orwell's Animal Farm: it focuses on economic exploitation and social inequality. The research investigates how the ruling pigs exploit the labor of other animals to consolidate their power and control over resources, and examines how social inequality is constructed and maintained through class divisions, hierarchical structures, and ideological manipulations. A qualitative approach, using literary analysis, thus interprets the text, informing the evidence through Orwell's narrative, character actions, dialogue, symbolic events, and relevant scholarly literature. It Emerges that the pigs establish themselves as a ruling elite, appropriating for themselves the best food, comfort, and decision-making privileges, while the laboring animals-class persons, such as Boxer and Clover-are compelled to work tirelessly day after day for the benefit of the ruling class. Propaganda, revision of the Seven Commandments, and persuasive slogans are used strategically to legitimize inequality and suppress dissent-the running themes underpinning Marxist concepts of false consciousness, surplus value, and class domination. The paper, in any case, demonstrates that the maintenance of social hierarchy is not solely done through economic controls but also through ideological manipulations which make the working animals accept subordination as natural or necessary. Animal Farm has remained a perpetual critique of oppression and class divisions, as well as an exploration of ideals being corrupted during a revolution in history and in society. This paper has addressed its importance in understanding power and class divisions and could be used to further studies in other subjects such as sociology and literary theory.