Monday, April 02, 2012

Compare and Contrast: Animal Farm and Animal House

Had an idea for a possible recurring theme, Compare and Contrast.  So, let's see how it goes.

Compare and contrast Animal Farm and Animal House.

My take -- in both cases we see the cautionary tales about power and repressive regimes.  When a non-democratic structure causes power to rest in the hands of a small group, it inevitably gives rise to oppression and to the rise of anti-structural organizations which see the enemy not only as those in power, but the power structure itself.  However, where in Animal Farm, Napoleon sought to leave that power structure in place and assume control of it in the name of fairness, Dorfman, Bluto and company sought an anarchist solution.  The irony, of course, being that at the very end of Animal House, when we learn that John Blutarsky would go on to become a United States Senator, it does seem that we see him transforming into a structural insider and thus something more akin to Napoleon.