Examples Of Propaganda In Animal Farm By George Orwell

Napoleon uses propaganda through blaming Snowball for false crimes. “...[T]his traitor has crept here under cover of night and destroyed our work of nearly a year,”(Doc D, Chapter 6). Napoleon uses Snowball as a scapegoat to keep the animals on his side. When Napoleon's propaganda doesn’t always work, Napoleon turns to ideology.

The fact that wars give rise to intensive propaganda campaigns has made many people suppose that propaganda is something new. The truth is, it is not. The battle with persuasion for power and men’s minds is as old as human history (Casey, 1994d)

In the book Animal Farm propaganda is used in many different ways, it's the manipulation of facts and feelings to influence public opinion ( background essay questions). Napoleon uses propaganda as one of his ways to stay in power. Napoleon becomes a leader after old major dies and the animals ran off farmer Jones. Then Napoleon takes over and tries to become a superior leader. Napoleon wants to become a superior leader so he can take care of the other animals and himself. But Napoleon runs into some difficulty trying to be fair to everyone and give them what they need. How does Napoleon stay in charge? Napoleon remains in power by using Animalism, fear, and propaganda.

Napoleon is an opportunitist. When he realizes that he can turn a situation, whether good or bad, to his advantage, he does so. For example, when the windmill topples, he tells that that Snowball is the cause and turns the animals against him. From then on he makes Snowball a scapegoat. Whenever something goes wrong, it is because of Snowball. This makes the animals feel that they are lucky to have Napoleon instead. It is also an easy way out as it keeps the animals from finding out where the blame really lies. This secures Napoleon's leadership position as the he will not be blamed for anything wrong and creates the illusion that Napoleon's ruling is perfect, making him indispensable. In the case of the timber, he uses Snowball to back up his decision. Since the animals are against him, the party he is not selling to will have Snowball residing there. This causes the animals to support his decision.

When Napolean came up with ideas for the farm the animals would be convinced that everything being done was for the better. Boxer and Squealer would lead the animals to stand by Napolean’s ideas, usually those who always disagreed with him. Propaganda used to influence a public’s opinion can be very effective based on the techniques like ad nauseam. Napoleon is able to use appeal to fear in the farm so the animals believe he is right and listen to his ideas. In the book Animal Farm By George Orwell, Napoleon says “Surely, none of you want Jones back?” (Orwell 67). This shows he is using fear in his slogan to manipulate the animals in a way so they’ll listen to him. There were duties assigned to all of the animals. Some animals disagreed with the decisions made by the pigs. The pigs decided to come up with a solution to scare them with Jones. This leaves the rest of the animals no choice but to do their work, because nobody wanted to see Jones again. Another propaganda technique is the bandwagon effect that is used to get people to agree with their argument. The song “Beast of England” is a revolutionary song came up with to symbolize a change on the farm when the animals refused alliegiance with the

Napoleon was clever enough to know that he could concoct lies about Snowball in order to get the animals on Napoleon’s side. Once the animals are on Napoleon’s side, they would be able to go against Snowball, as one united force. Even though Napoleon didn’t have the qualities of a good leader, he was still able to manipulate the uneducated populace of Animal Farm. This shows that even a very cruel, murderous leader is able to sway a population to immense

History shows that when people are outraged and unhappy, they will follow those who share their ideals, regardless of their history or ideas that they themselves do not agree with, which are often brushed underneath the carpet to only show the good qualities. People such as Germany’s Hitler, Russia’s Stalin, and current leader of North Korea’s Kim Jong Un rule with an iron fist while continuously feeding their people lies to stay in power. In the novel Animal Farm, an allegory depicting communism by representing Soviet Russia with farm animals, shows how propaganda, when used effectively, allows for a dictator to stay in absolute power. The propaganda used in George Orwell’s Animal Farm by Squealer, Old Major, the Sheep, and the dogs all helps aid Napoleon’s want for power by using the animal's’ lack of education against them.

"Propaganda tries to force a doctrine on the whole people... Propaganda works on the general public from the standpoint of an idea and makes them ripe for the victory of this idea." ( Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, 1926).

First, one must define propaganda and since many have done so already, I shall use the Sheryl Ross model. Her model defines propaganda as “an epistemically defective message designed with the intention to persuade a socially significant group of people on behalf of a political institution, organization, or cause.”

Propaganda is the “spreading of information in order to influence public opinion and to manipulate other people’s beliefs” ("Propaganda."). In the 1920s, the Soviet Union used propaganda such as posters, lectures, and radio broadcasts to spread the ideas of socialism. Lenin was one leader of the revolution who used propaganda to get people’s attention without exposing them to the whole truth ("Propaganda."). He used the technique of agitprop, which is both agitation and propaganda, to gain support for the communist party ("Agitprop"). The most common type of propaganda that was used during Stalin’s rule was glittering generalities. Stalin, dictator of Russia after Lenin and Trotsky’s death, used propaganda to rise to power and to appeal to people’s emotions. He “employed phrases such as "genius of the age" and "wisest man alive," designed to create a cult of personality around a leader who could do no wrong, and to legitimize a dictator whose qualifications and motives were questionable at best” (James). In other words, Stalin used words and phrases to manipulate how people felt about him. Similarly, in Animal Farm, Minimus writes a poem that praises Napoleon and the things he does for the farm, but in reality, the animals do all of the work and Napoleon takes all of the credit. Through the use of glittering generalities, Napoleon was called “Father of All Animals, Terror of Mankind,

Propaganda is described as the act of persuading other people into believing what you believe. In regards to its application in the World War 2, propaganda was used to persuade other nations about the military and political might of the Nazi. "Propaganda" enforces the doctrine to all people. It employs a plethora of mediums such as speech, rally, mass media to achieve its purpose of “brainwashing” and makes it extremely compelling and powerful. Hitler and the Nazi advocated for the spreads of ideas using propaganda as the platform.

Propaganda is a form of communication, where a group tries to influence a larger population. It has many different effects on the people it sways, and all of these consequences serve a purpose. These goals can revolve around power and status. In the novel Animal Farm by George Orwell, the pigs use many different techniques of propaganda to help them achieve their ends. The animals affected by it experience both the positives and negatives of a revolution, as they try to achieve a perfect utopia. As the story progresses, Napoleon, an ambitious pig, uses propaganda to create a false sense of unity and prosperity among the farm. He and the other pigs also use propaganda to create a feeling of superiority between them and the rest of the animals. Napoleon’s cunning use of propaganda to reflect his power and maintain absolute dominance over Animal Farm shows that power and authority corrupt the mind and lead to the abuse of power.

But Napoleon is not saying this, at least not directly. Instead, he uses Squealer’s silver tongue to elaborate his plan and this is when we first begin to see Snowball being used as a scapegoat propaganda. He elaborated that the windmill was actually Napoleon’s idea and Snowball had stolen and branded it as his own. Napoleon understands that propaganda is an useful tool that can be used to inform and adopt ideas that benefits the head of state. David Cromwell writes: “As Machiavelli knew, the secret to successful propaganda is to declare with great sincerity and confidence that we are good, caring, unselfish people - defenders of powerful and powerless alike.”

In the wide spectrum of politics, there are many manipulative tools that can be used to persuade an audience. In communist countries, such as Russia, government leaders use propaganda to convince their citizens to believe their actions are right. Just like in Animal Farm by George Orwell, Squealer consistently spreads propaganda to the other animals throughout the book. Similarly, Frank Luntz, a pollster and political consultant, often spreads his opinionated thoughts to the public. Using propaganda as a tool to influence the masses is not justifiable because it causes the masses to only hear one sided information and is often misunderstood.

Throughout history propaganda has been a way for sinful leaders to manipulate their citizens. In George Orwell's novel Animal Farm, an allegory based on events that took place during the Russian Revolution pigs overrule the farm. In the novel the animals take over Manor Farm from their past leader and establishes a new community. Napoleon, the leader of the farm, and Squealer the mastermind behind persuading the animals, manipulate the animals into trusting their leader completely. Napoleon and Squealer effectively use propaganda to achieve domination on Animal Farm.