Power Corrupt, And Absolute Power In Animal Farm By George Orwell

Have you ever lived in a society that promised many promises but always broke them? Have you ever been lied to? Animal Farm shows how the societies and rulers oppress their citizens without the citizens realising that. It also shows how rulers will always change when they are in power and only work for their personal privilege. In Animal Farm, George Orwell argues that Napoleon has solidified his power by using fear mongering, manipulation, and scapegoating.

(Orwell, 27) The animals still haven’t realized Napoleon is rising and becoming similar to Jones as time progresses. Napoleon is taking the easy way out by being lazy and having everything handed to him from his peers which was promised to never happen before the revolt. The animals have forgotten their purpose, and destiny already they are too involved in getting brainwashed by Napoleon. This is an example of Orwell’s philosophy because slowly as time progress Napoleon is getting more power and becoming the new tyrant to replace jones but still act similar to him.

Napoleon ruled animal farm harshly and overworked the animals. Orwell described, “This work was strictly voluntary, but any animal who absented himself from it would have his rations reduced by half” (Orwell 59). The animal’s are given a choice in the sense that if they wanted to, they could have Sundays off. However, the brutal consequences the animals would face if they did not work forced the animals to listen to the pigs.

He became very selfish and on the other side of that, Boxer became very selfless. Boxer did everything around the farm. He worked on the crops and no matter how hurt he was or how bad he felt, each and everyday he went and helped rebuild the windmill. This was an example of why not every animal on the farm was equal. Napoleon did nothing and was considered the leader of the farm.

Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.” Luther’s statement about ignorance being dangerous is a recurring idea in Animal Farm, written by George Orwell. In this allegorical story, Orwell uses the animals of Manor Farm to represent the corrupted leaders of the Russian Revolution, as well as the people who stood by and let it happen. Through his characters, Orwell attempts to expose the seriousness of the dangers presented by Stalin and other totalitarian leaders at the time and the need for people to think for themselves and oppose the tyranny. George Orwell uses Napoleon to take advantage of the other animal’s hardworking, albeit ignorant and naive attitudes to gain power and provoke fear and manipulate the farm animals, proving that, without followers, leaders have no power.

Tree frogs, maybe, or snakes or flying squirrels or who-knew-what.” The author’s purpose for using personification in this particular passage is to reveal how chilling this war is, how it’s unlike any other battlefield. Also, how it intimidated the soldiers. The war must had been alarming for these animals to behave this way, abnormal and out of character. Another reason why this war is horrifying.

“...every animal down to the humblest worked… even the ducks and hens… carrying tiny wisps of hay in their beaks.” (ch.3, pg.28) They were very proud that they could run a society by themselves with each of them having a different job. These differences lead to what the animals did: the stronger animals worked on the fields while the smarter ones used their intellect to guide the farm. Some jobs were also more important and were more respected than others.

The animals that tried to protest ended up being killed since the government's power in Animal Farm is corrupt. People can effectively protest by speaking out for what they believe in, and by protesting in the streets so they force change to happen. The context for an effective protest is

Taking authority for granted is dangerous. If leaders abuse authority they expose an opportunity for revolting; as concluded from the fable. In the allegory, Animal Farm was owned by a man named Mr. Jones who has lately been under the influence of alcohol. When Mr. Jones started to not tend to him animals, the animals took advantage of Mr. Jones ' inadequate authority. They all rose up against him and took his power and control over the whole farm.

It shows the extent he will go and lies he will tell to ensure the power he has isn’t taken away. This reveals how the people we trust can always turn against us without us really even noticing until it’s too late. Like the animals trusted Napoleon until he turned against them and his corrupt leadership was what let the farm fail. Along with his power hungry attitude, he

He would be only happy to let you make your decisions for yourselves. But sometimes you might make the wrong decisions, comrades, and then where would we be?’” (18). Despite the fact that these are Squealer’s words, Napoleon is influencing and deforming what Squealer is saying. Napoleon and the other pigs believe the animals are so dumb they cannot make their own decisions and know to follow Napoleon , but they also know the animals may be just smart enough to figure out that what Napoleon is doing and how he is running Animal Farm might not be for the greater good, but for his own benefit.

A leader has incredible power, but with it he can choose to build up the community as a whole or to keep all the power to himself. Many leaders choose to keep all the power to themselves, but they still need a follower who believes every word the leader says. In George Orwell’s, Animal Farm, the animals decide to rebel against Farmer Jones, as they did not like the way they were treated. Life on the farm seemed promising after the rebellion, until Napoleon got greedy. Napoleon ran off any threats to his power and took away the other animals rights slowly, using his trusted followers, until he treated the other animals worse than Mr. Jones.

The pigs "directed and supervised the others. With their superior knowledge it was natural that they should assume the leadership" (3.2). Any non pig was denied resources to teach themselves, and the pigs became the only source of information on the farm (3.3). Knowledge is power, and the pigs ensured

As Lord Acton once said “Absolute power corrupts absolutely”. When one is given the choice of what actions to take with their power, they are more likely to take actions benefiting themselves than others. George Orwell’s Animal Farm is used to define power and the corruption that comes from absolute power. The quote is demonstrated in Animal Farm as the characters show how power can corrupt absolutely. Napoleon, the fierce Berkshire Boar, starts to become corrupt after he fought Snowball for the mastery, gaining full control of the revolution.

Power can be a wonderful thing, which leads to success. On the other hand, misusing it can lead to corruption, depending on who is handling it. George Orwell in his book Animal Farm uses animals to show that humans abuse their power. The most significant topic in the novel is the abuse of power that keeps happening again and again. When unconstructive human qualities take over what is really important and overcome one's ability to govern competently, power is corrupted.