Animal Farm Individual Rights Essay

Words: 961
Pages: 4

Society is made up of individuals, and each individual has rights and liberties granted to them. Many argue whether or not individuals or the collective group are more important, but the common good will always hold priority over individual rights. However, individual liberties should always be respected. Albert Einstein, a German physicist, said “All that is valuable in human society depends upon the opportunity for development accorded the individual”. While Einstein is correct that individual freedoms are essential in society, the common welfare is more important. In order for societies to succeed, the rights of the individual must be respected, and individuals should not be forced to conform, but the common good is more important for the …show more content…
In the novel Animal Farm by George Orwell, the rights of the animals, particularly the “lower-class animals”, or any animal who wasn’t a pig or dog, were not protected. The animals rebelled against the humans because their rights were not respected, but once the pigs, who in the book were seen as superior, were put in power, the other animals’ rights were not respected. The text reads, “[The harvest] work was strictly voluntary, but any animal who absented himself from it would have his rations reduced by half” (Orwell 73). The animals’ basic right to sustenance is being taken from them. This is a clear abuse of power, especially considering the pigs do not have to do any work. Because the animals’ rights were not respected, the leaders of Animal Farm, the pigs, became corrupt. Similarly, the novel 1984 by George Orwell is based upon the entire premise that individual rights have become absent from society. The text reads, “You had to live - did live, from habit that became instinct - in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and except in darkness, every movement scrutinized” (Orwell 3). This shows that the right to privacy has been taken away from members of the Party in 1984. The leaders of 1984’s society, such as the members of the Inner Party, are corrupt because they observe other members’ movements, but they themselves are not