Animal Farm: How Does Napoleon Stay in Charge? George Orwell’s Animal Farm, is an allegory to the Russian Revolution and Joseph Stalin. An allegory is a story, painting, or sculpture with a hidden meaning. (Animal Farm Background Essay)
The farm fails because of the pigs not being fair to the other animals, plus the animals being too dumb to realize it. The other animals made mistakes, by not speaking up when they thought something was wrong. Animal Farm starts to fail because pigs start to make power grabs that screws the “perfect life” vision the animals have. These reasons, including many more, are why Animal Farm fails. One reason Animal Farm fails, is because of power grabs by animals.
"The seven commandments would be inscribed on the wall; they would form an unalterable law by which the animals must live by forever," said Snowball. "For once Benjamin consented to break his rule, and he read out what was written on the wall-All animals are equal. Some are more equal than others." Theme 1: Animal Farm is most famous in the West as a stinging critique of the history and rhetoric of the Russian Revolution. Retelling the story of the emergence and development of Soviet communism in the form of an animal fable, Animal Farm allegorizes the rise to power of the dictator Joseph Stalin.
To begin, in the stories of “Animal Farm” the book concludes on how the animals of Manor Farm turn into the owner of them by dictating each other, stealing ideas from one another, changing rules, overworking each other, and being just overall a communist farm. The author’s perspective and tone regarding intelligence explains how the pigs and Napoleon used their intelligence to trick and persuade the animals to their way of living. In the book “Animal Farm”, “The pigs did not actually work, but directed and supervised the others. With their superior knowledge it was natural that they should assume the leadership” (Orwell 12). The pigs dictate the animals and use them as slaves because they were not intelligent.
Animal Farm, an allegory written by George Orwell, compares to the Russian revolution. In the story, animals rebel against humans and take control of the farm they live on. They adopt the idea of “Animalism”, comparable to Communism. This idea is based on the principle that all animals are equal; that is, until their leader, Napoleon, takes total control of the animals and farm. He uses the other pigs to convince the rest of the “comrades” to follow his ways.
While trying to get their freedom and create the perfect utopia, animals found themselves in a difficult situation. They managed to cast out Mr Jones, but another dictator came to the farm, but this time it was one of them. By creating animalism, the pigs used an illusion in order to satisfy their greed and lust for power. George Orwell is more interested in political psychology rather than with individual characters.
This relates to the theme because, throughout the story, the pigs have been in charge because they have more knowledge than the other animals. They were also really clever and could think of a way around every difficulty the farm experienced. ( Orwell 13) In the middle of the story, some crucial rules were being changed and the animals did not do anything about it. “ … pigs not only took their meals in the kitchen and used the drawing-room as a recreation room, but also slept in the beds.”
The pigs attempt to hide their oppressive nature by calling the animals comrade. However, this phrase carries no meaning, as no mutual respect exists between them. As this dynamic progresses on the farm, Napoleon begins to be glorified in a similar manner to the way in which Mr. Jones experienced glorification previously. The animals easily fall victim to this, as they feel respect by only being called comrade, shedding light on their ignorance. Before the animals know it, the previous commandments are changed to “ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS” (Orwell 134).
Throughout the novel the commandment are being changed ever so slightly to favor the pigs to show they are stronger. In the end the pigs have learned how to walk on their hind legs and changed the commandments to one single commandment, ”All animals are equal; but some are more equal than others.” In Animal Farm, George Orwell presents the idea that Language is used to maintain power because the leader/leaders change
In Animal Farm, we see the sinister theme of abuse of power and corruption displayed throughout the story. The epitome on how the pigs abused the power was how they manipulated the 7 commandments to their own benefit. The 7 commandments were inscribed on the wall and they would form “an unalterable law by which all animals on Animal Farm must live for ever after”. Ironically, the 7 commandments were changed one by one to suit the benefit of the pigs. For example, when the pigs discovered a case of whiskey and got drunk, they got attracted to the taste of alcohol.
Animal Farm illustrates how leaders become corrupt when they abuse their power, treat the population differently based on their status, and the leaders manipulate and oppress the working class. Over the course of the book, Napoleon and the pigs abused their power. After an announcement about trading with the humans for supplies, Squealer
The ensuing rebellion under the leadership of the pigs Napoleon and Snowball leads to the animals taking over the farm. Vowing to eliminate the terrible inequities of the farmyard, the renamed Animal Farm is organised to benefit all who walk on four legs. But as time passes, the ideals of the rebellion are corrupt, then forgotten. This is all due to the lust for power that the pigs Napoleon and Snowball have that made them all selfish and corrupted. Animal farm in context to The Russian Revolution in terms of corrupting influence of power : Orwell 's goal was to portray the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the early years of the Soviet Union that resulted in a more oppressive and deadly government than the one it overthrew.
However, Orwell depicted, “The animals would still assemble on Sunday mornings to salute to the flag, sing Beasts of England, and receive their orders for the week; but there would be no more debates” (Orwell 54). In the past, the animals had the ability to speak out at the farm Meetings, even if they chose not to. However, now that Napoleon took this right away from them, he got to be in charge of all the decisions for the farm and no one could contradict him. As Animal Farm developed, the pigs slowly disregarded animals’ rights and opinions, and the farm subtly gained more dystopian
One dominant theme in animal farm is totalitarianism and abuse of power. Totalitarianism is defined as a political system in which the state possesses complete authority over the society and controls all aspects of public and private life whenever necessary. The author criticized totalitarianism and believed that it was inevitable in a communist system, as those put in charge will result in the abuse of their power. The theme Orwell intended to get across was that all totalitarian regimes are the same and those who hold power will do anything to maintain it. The pigs, who were the leaders, frequently displayed this throughout the novel.
Utopia to Dystopia: The Collapse of Animal Farm The attempt at creating a utopian society led the animals closer to a dystopia. The novel Animal Farm demonstrates that a fantasy paradise is unattainable and is parallel to the attempt of the Soviet Union. As leaders, the pigs paraphrased the rules, and made themselves as superior to the working class of animals. Not all the animals acknowledge the idea of a farm governed by animals and disregard the rules.
