Animal Farm and the Russian Revolution
This pig represents Joseph Stalin in Animal Farm.
Who is Napoleon?
The drug used to keep citizens happy and docile in Brave New World.
What is soma?
The leader of Oceania in 1984, whose image is everywhere.
Who is Big Brother?
All three books critique this kind of political or social system.
What is totalitarianism?
This new digital ruling class, who own and control the platforms and algorithms, is called what?
Who are the Cloudalists?
The animal rebellion in Animal Farm is an allegory for this 1917 event in Russia.
What is the Russian Revolution?
The society in Brave New World values this over individuality.
What is stability?
In 1984, this manipulated language is designed to limit thought and control the population.
What is Newspeak?
The manipulation of this is a common tool of control in all three books.
What is language/truth/information?
Unlike traditional capitalists, Cloudalists create value by commanding users to produce this without pay or even awareness.
What is Command Capital?
This character represents the working class, blindly loyal and hardworking.
Who is Boxer?
This character questions the meaning of happiness and individuality in the World State.
Who is John (the Savage)?
This organization in 1984 is responsible for monitoring and punishing unorthodox thoughts.
What is the Thought Police?
In each book, this is sacrificed for the sake of stability or obedience.
What is individuality?
In cyber feudalism, platforms like Amazon or Google are not true markets but resemble this historical system.
What is a feudal fiefdom (or feudal state)?
The original idealistic leader of Animal Farm, based on Lenin and Marx.
Who is Old Major?
Modernism is often defined by its focus on this concept, which is repressed in Brave New World.
What is individuality?
The youth organization in 1984 is similar to this Chinese group that targeted cultural "enemies."
What are the Red Guards?
The leaders in all three books use this technique to maintain power and public opinion.
What is propaganda?
After 2008, this replaced private profit as the engine that drives many leading companies, according to the cyber feudalism thesis.
What is central bank money (state money)?
Stalin’s purges are mirrored by this series of events in Animal Farm, in which Napoleon executes his rivals.
What are the confessions and executions of the animals by Napoleon?
The World State’s society is heavily influenced by this historical figure and his assembly line, symbolizing mass production and uniformity.
Who is Henry Ford?
In both 1984 and the Chinese Revolution, these two books symbolized dangerous or forbidden knowledge and Mao’s doctrine, respectively.
What are the Little Red Book and Winston’s diary?
Each novel explores the dangers of this—absolute power in the hands of a few.
What is unchecked authority?
In cyber feudalism, the traditional capitalist class becomes this, subordinate to the new digital elite.
What are vassals (or capitalist vassals)?