Page 102 - Dragon Flood

Aristocracy of Deceit

Opening Line from Declaration of Independence by Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson chose as the opening line to the Declaration of Independence the words:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are
endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life,
Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.

In the 1940s, George Orwell published the book Animal Farm in which he made a clever
reference to these words of Jefferson. What is interesting is that Orwell wrote his political
satire as an attack on communism, but the literary reference of what is perhaps the most
famous line in his book points back to America’s founding document. Indeed, the entire plot
of Animal Farm could very well be the story of America.

In Orwell’s book a group of animals revolt against the farm’s owner who is a severe
alcoholic. The farmer, a Mr. Jones, neglects to feed and care for the farm animals so they
run him off of the farm. Although Orwell may not have intended this association, there is
a parallel found here between the colonialists of America who banded together to
overthrown the rule of the King of England whom they accused of mistreating them.

Old Major, the old boar on the Manor Farm, calls the animals on the farm for a meeting,
where he compares the humans to parasites and teaches the animals a revolutionary
song, 'Beasts of England.' When Major dies, two young pigs, Snowball and Napoleon,
assume command and turn his dream into a philosophy. The animals revolt and drive the
drunken and irresponsible Mr. Jones from the farm, renaming it "Animal Farm." They
adopt Seven Commandments of Animal-ism, the most important of which is, "All animals
are equal."
[Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_Farm]

Animal Farm