Animal Farm: Q2

• Are there any current situations in the world that relate to the novel?
• What are they, and how do they relate?
• Does the novel shed any light on how current situations could be resolved or "fixed"?

The current situation in the world that relates to the novel is the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, which is commonly known as North Korea. The reason why I emphasized the original, long name of the country was to show that the word ‘democratic’ is included. Animal Farm is a novel about fighting over the power and one character having dictatorship more than they need to. President Kim Jung Ill is like Napoleon, who has extreme dictatorship over the people they rule. Napoleon was living an abundant life while all of the other pigs were working for the Windmill, which generally was working for the pigs.

President Kim Jung Ill is known as a dictatorial leader, criticized by world governments and international NGOs for human rights abuses carried out under his rule. North Korea is also widely known as the production of nuclear weapons, which in the novel we can relate to the Windmill. There are also problems like deficiency of food, murdering babies, and gross violations of human rights when the government is only focusing on their good and their benefit. President Kim Jung Ill sets the first priority as himself and the nuclear weapons, not his people. These dictatorships eventually fall into failure, in both of the situations: the novel and in North Korea. The novel is vaguely giving the solution of these problems. Since it is saying that over-powered dictatorships eventually fall into failure, we should have a democratic system, considering of people’s opinions. Of course, the decision is made by the ‘leader’, but in able to make a government where everybody harmonizes and live peacefully, considering other’s opinions are necessary.

For my first book, Lord of the Flies, I also related the current situation to the war that separated Korea. I think the reason why this question always makes me think of the situation in Korea first is because all Koreans have the sorrow of one nation being divided into two. Dystopia-related books all have one common thing, coming to a failure. I think this is a consideration or a warning to the leaders living in 2007.