Examples Of Illiteracy In Animal Farm By George Orwell

Napoleon knew the alphabet faster than any other animal on the farm, and was able to use that against them. . Because he was so wise he could change the writing on the rules to fit his boundaries, while the other animals would not know. “Clover learned the alphabet but could not put the words together, Boxer could not get beyond the letter D.” (Orwell 28) The other animals struggled, and that led the perfect opportunity for Napoleon.

In the book Animal Farm, George Orwell’s character Napoleon is a sly and very intelligent animal. Napoleon uses many techniques to stay in charge and gain the animals trust such as fear, propaganda and revisionist history. Fear is used as a motivating factor. Propaganda, such as, scapegoat and followers are used. Napoleon revises history and the commandments because he cannot have laws that overrule his ultimate power as a dictator and to show that he is a hero.

The dogs could do anything they wanted to do to the animals as long as they were given permission from Napoleon. John Locke said when you try to take anyone's rights you're at a state of war with them and the dogs took away the right to speak freely and the animals were scared to talk about it with each other for the fear of being hurt by the dogs. The dogs wouldn’t let the animals have some of their rights and they were scared and Napoleon could do whatever he wanted to do to the animals. One example of this is Napoleon started ordering the dogs to kill animals. Third, Napoleon was a horrible leader that only cared about his own prosperity and did anything to get to the top.

In order to make animals agree to his bidding, Napoleon even begins bringing fear to the animals to keep them silent. “The four pigs who had protested when Napoleon abolished the Meetings raised their voices timidly, but they were promptly silenced by a tremendous growling from the dogs.” (Orwell 63) By bringing his frightening dogs to the public, all animals are forced to agree to whatever Napoleon decrees which soon begins taking away their freedom to speak freely.

It states “This work was strictly voluntary, but any animal who absented himself from it would have his rations reduced by half.” (59) This is a motif that these animals are not being treated like individuals. Evidently, this work was not “voluntary”, because rather than rewarding good behavior, the leaders are punishing the “bad” behavior. Napoleon was easily willing to let the animals starve to death if they did not do the voluntary work, thus proving that in Soviet Communism, leaders only care about the work proletariats do, not about their safety, happiness, or personality.

The animals have no idea what is going on in Animal Farm since squealer uses his charming words to confuse the animals. Napoleon, the boar, has many goals but the main one was to have complete and absolute power. The pigs act in specific situations to weaken equality and give up their freedom by giving fewer rations to the other animals and forcing them to work on Sundays. The other animals do not realize that the animals are losing their freedom and equality because they are not smart and do not understand the conflict. The pigs do influence the attitude and behaviors of other followers on animal farm.

The pigs were manipulating the animals into giving away their own food and rations that they had worked for. The animals were told that Napoleon “would only be too happy to let you make decisions for yourselves” (50). The animals failed to see that they were being manipulated to think Napoleon was doing everything for them. Every animal always assumed Napoleon knew everything. The animals failed to shift the power of the farm and question Napoleon’s

And to the benefit of Napoleon, all the pigs can read. So this creates the

“The commandments were written on the tarred wall in great white letters that could be read thirty yards away.” Napoleon knows that all of the other animals are not as smart as him,

These messages include the importance of an informed and educated public, the prevalence of deception and propaganda, and the concept of absolute power corrupting absolutely. A theme conveyed through Animal Farm that is still relevant today is the importance of an informed, educated public. Following Napoleon’s executions of the traitors, the animals begin to question whether this act went against their established commandments. They thought the Sixth Commandment read: “No animal shall kill any other animal.”

For the first few years of his rule, Napoleon had no understanding of agriculture. There were often periods of starvation amongst the animals. In this quote we understand the animals are not meant to be portrayed as idiotic because they truly are led to believe in their ruling to be still taking care of them. While Napoleon does not know how to properly manage a farm, he seeks to receive the praise of one who has.

Napoleon reason that because he is a pig, he would be the best leader for the animals after Old Major himself as a pig died. The words that Old Major shared with the animals inspired Napoleon to take the opportunity to set himself as the leader for the want of the luxuries that come with power. This is shown when Napoleon stayed behind in the barn with the buckets of milk alone, they were soon found empty when the animals came back for their own share of the milk. When the animals questioned what happened to the milk, the pigs and Napoleon made it seem like he drank the milk for the animals gain, but it was truly because he just wanted the milk(8,9). Later on when the commandments were set down in writing on the tarred wall(8), the animals started to leave their doubts behind on starting animalism because the seven commandments were set as a gain for the animals.

He twisted the truth and didn’t keep his promises. In Chapter 8 of Animal Farm, George Orwell wrote, “They had thought that Fifth commandment was ‘No animal shall drink alcohol’, but there were two words they had forgotten. Actually the commandment read: ‘No animal shall drink alcohol to excess’” (Text 1). In Animal Farm, Napoleon changed the rules so that he would be able to do what he wants.

In the novel, the pigs capable of reading and writing wrote down Seven Commandments to be followed by all animals to set a standard of equal expectations. But the power grew among the pigs, especially between Snowball and Napoleon as they influence the animals even more. The two began to have controversies over the construction of the windmill. As tension grew, Napoleon released his dogs to chase Snowball away from the farm by force to gain complete control of the farm (Animal Farm, Ch.5). It then became very noticeable that Napoleon had grown in greed and began to use corrupted force against those who opposed him to remain in power, proving to be no better than Mr.

Throughout history there have been dictators who have corrupted their countries, brainwashed their people, and have been responsible for the deaths of many. In Animal Farm, George Orwell wrote about animals on a farm who were able to speak and suffer through very similar things that humans have suffered through within their country, and under the rule of a modern day dictator. The animals in the novel were fighting for their freedom from the rule of Mr. Jones, a poor leader who often forgot to feed the animals and take care of them daily. Napoleon, a pig, ran out his competition and took power during a time of instability. And suddenly Animal Farm was turned into an allegorical novel. The allegory was for Stalin, the dictator that was responsible