ShmoopTube

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Animal Farm 1.1 Even Proletariat… a la Shmoop. [Dollar bills falling]

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Money, money, money. It makes the world go around.

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If you’re a capitalist, you can’t get enough of it. [A man with lots of slices of pie]

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And if you have more, someone else has less.

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Well, actually, a lot of someone elses have less. That’s capitalism dividing the pie

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in unequal shares. The German economists Karl Marx and Frederick [Karl and Frederick appear on a cobbled street]

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Engels were so upset about this inequality that they wrote the famous Communist Manifesto,

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encouraging the proletariat to give the boot to the bourgeois.

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Don’t worry about those fancy words. Just think of it as the haves and the have nots.

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Marx and Engels thought that if you spread money all over the field, everyone will benefit [Marx and Engels throwing money from bags on a field]

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from the growing bounty. You know, like manure.

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But even the best manure stinks. We’ll sniff that out later.

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For now, let’s talk about this communism that Marx and Engels were selling. [Marx and Engel on a street wearing sandwich boards]

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Or… giving out for free. In a nutshell, or a borscht bowl, it’s about

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treating everyone as equals and paying everyone the same so that nobody gets behind…or ahead. [A hand drops food in equal amounts into three bowls]

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There are no rulers, no private property, and certainly no Jimmy Choos.

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Everyone shares the same medicore pie equally. But it’s mostly just crust.[People at a table with an equal portion of pie]

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Don’t like capitalism or communism? What about socialism?

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You grab a little capitalism, mix it with a dash of communism and, voilà, you’ve [A family cooking together]

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got a dish of… Well, that depends on who’s cooking it…

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There are different recipes, but the main ingredient is equality. [A judge staring at sugary food treats]

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Still doesn’t suit your taste? How about this box of totalitarianism?

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Hmmm. There’s nothing but crumbs in this box. Oh, that’s because someone came in

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and stole the whole pie because he was mean and scary and nobody could stop him. [A man eats an entire pie]

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To review, here’s how the pie is sliced:

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Capitalism is the whole pie shared in big chunks and tiny slivers.

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Socialism is the whole pie shared more evenly.

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Communism is the pie crust shared equally.

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There is no rewarding filling. [Capitalism, Socialism and Communism with slices of pie]

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You get the same amount of pie, whether or not you ate your veggies.

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Totalitarianism is pie for the dictators, crumbs for everyone else.

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Now back to Animal Farm and that stinky manure. [Marx and Engel on a farm with bags of coins]

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The revolution at the farm started out with good intentions.

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The animals intended to work their farm together, share all the fruits of their labor equally, [Lots of cows together]

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be kind to each other, be honest, and stay sober.

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You create a vacuum when you suck the air out of a jar. Right?

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Well, nature hates a vacuum.

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Something always rushes in to fill it as soon as it gets a chance. [Engel holding a vacuum and his face turns purple]

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And that’s what happened when all the rulers were removed from Animal Farm. New rulers

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(the pigs!) just came sneaking in to fill the emptied space. [Pigs heads appear on a farm]

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Gradually, these hogs became indistinguishable from the evil humans they overthrew.

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Animal Farm was no longer communist. It was totalitarian.

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The only one left unaffected was the cat. [A ginger cat lying on the grass]

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Surprise, surprise.

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Anybody else hungry for some pie?

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