What is Social Commentary? -Social commentary is the act of using rhetoric, verbal and/or written, to provide commentary on societal issues that people are prohibited from mentioning or do not believe to be true. It is a silent but bold form of rebellion. The goal of social commentary is normally to promote change. Our Social Commentary: -Language and the use of language plays a vital aspect in attaining power and manipulating others through said power. How do some of the characters contribute to our understanding of social commentary in Animal Farm? -Napoleon: Napoleon is the star of our social commentary. He constantly uses fear-inducing methods and rhetoric, words he'd taken from Old Major's speech about animalism and twisted it, to gain the favor of his fellow farm animals. Along with the help of propaganda (from Squealer), he becomes the leader of Animal Farm and, in the process, gains power over the animals. Napoleon not only twists the words of Old Major into his own version of animalism to benefit himself, he also uses rhetoric to twist the image of Snowball in everyone's mind. One major instance in the book would be when he convinces the animals that the windmill idea was his all along, and that Snowball was …show more content…
While Napoleon draws attention to himself in order to attain power, Napoleon does it to popularize his ideas. The intentions behind his ideas were good; he'd wanted to improve the farm and the lives of the animals. Based on contributions, Snowball is the unwilling assistant to Napoleon's schemes because despite not directly or intentionally helping him, the destruction of Snowball's image helped elevate Napoleon's position on the farm. Napoleon alters the animal's memories of Snowball by putting the blame of many unfortunate events on Snowball and accusing him of being a spy. He later convinces the other animals that Snowball was an enemy all
He claims that in demand to support and defend Animal Farm and toughen the certainty of Old Major’s dream of a life without humans, mixt up rebellions in other farms throughout England. Napoleon always disagrees with Snowball’s ideas because he doesn’t want him to lead Animal Farm.
Perhaps the most significant one of all was Napoleon throwing out the second most powerful animal on the farm, simply because he was a threat to his own reign. The animals were so engrossed by Napoleon that they fully supported the termination of Snowball, solely for the reasons given to them via Napoleon. “Napoleon produced his schemes of his own, but said quietly that snowball would come to nothing.” (54). At such an early point after the pigs power was established, Napoleon had already started to create a divide between Snowball and himself. When he told the other animals how horrible for the farm Snowball supposedly is, the farm would start to trust him more and therefore depend on his more.While gaining the animals trust more, he simultaneously gained more power for himself, for with Snowball gone all the power he had would now be his. “He had seemed to oppose the windmill, simply as a maneuver to get rid of Snowball…Now that Snowball was out of the way, the plan could go forward without his interference.”(58). Napoleon is willing to do anything to gain and maintain his own power, regardless of how it is done and who will be effected by it. As shown by this windmill incident, Napoleon will use any instance to further manipulate the other animals, just to gain even one more sliver of much desired
Our propaganda poster displays laws or beliefs that occurred in the novel “Animal Farm” in our vision of how they would be portrayed. Both pathos and ethos rhetorical devices are used to inform, persuade, and convince the animals of the farm of what is considered right. The two types of propaganda used include name-calling and the application of fear. The poster includes three scenes or images depicted from the book; an animal hoof stepping on a human hand that held a whip, Napoleon, and one of the guard dogs killing a pig that is intended to be Snowball.
This quote shows again Snowball's strong passion for the farm as he spends hours working on plans for innovations and improvements. Napoleon cannot accept that Snowball is the cleverest out of them both and this is proved to us again when Snowball makes Animal Comittees to teach the animals to read and write as Napoleon claimis that the education of the young is far more important than that of the older animals. He says this clearly because he is jealous of Snowball and wants power and glory all the time. Orwell describes Napoleon as "large" and "fierce-looking". From this description we picture him to be extremely intimidating and he uses this throughout the novel to control the other animals.
‘Animal Farm’ is a novel based on the Russian Revolution, about a group of animals wanting to rebel against man. Snowball a smart, fair and strong leader gets ruled over by Napoleon, an unfair and selfish leader. This was the first error in the rebellion. Snowball would have defiantly made a better leader than Napoleon. The reasons for this are that he educated the animals, had future economic plans and knew how to keep a fair and smart community.
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.
Shortly after the Revolution, Snowball comes up with the plan to construct a windmill to make the lives of the inhabitants of Animal Farm easier. Napoleon hides in the shadows per se until the puppies that he has taken and trained are old enough to act as a police force. Once they are old enough, Napoleon has the dogs drive Snowball off the farm. He then takes credit for the idea of the windmill and proceeds to claim that he, not Snowball, won the award at the Battle of Cowshed. Napoleon then informs the animals that Snowball was an enemy and was a threat to Animal Farm. The animals are swayed by his propaganda and are fearful of his police dogs; this is what keeps him in power.
The struggle for political dominance between two leaders, Napoleon and Snowball,has led to various conflicts and violence . George Orwell’s Animal Farm is a novel that reflects the Russian Revolution and the leadership of Stalin. The pigs in the novel represent the communist leadership while the other animals symbolize the different groups of citizens during these events. The two main characters, Napoleon and Snowball, engage in a struggle for political dominance over the farm. Napoleon and Snowball are two leaders with different personalities, goals, and strategies. The two use various propaganda techniques to achieve their individual goals.
Napoleon has wanted power over the farm for awhile and will do anything to keep it. He takes Jessie and Bluebells newborn puppies and trains them for the main aspect of his fear campaign. He teaches them to do what is right for the farm and to only think about the Animal Farm’s future. He uses the puppies to eliminate his nemesis. Snowball comes up with the idea for a windmill on the farm, Napoleon opposes it and uses his trained dogs to chase Snowball off the farm. With Snowball gone, Napoleon declares himself the ruler of the farm. “They dashed straight for Snowball… he slipped through the fence and was seen no more. (Orwell, pg. 53 chap. 5).”
Obviously, it was a great idea convincing the other animals about the windmill. However, Napoleon is here convincing the animals of Snowball causing farm troubles. For example, he told the animals that Snowball is a traitor because he was working for Foxwood Farm and he also said he proof of the secret documentation of Snowball working for Foxwood. However, Snowball is the animalism because he wanted the animals to be treated equally and have their freedom just like Old major had a dream about. On the other hand, Napoleon didn’t care for the animals he just wanted power so he had seven secret police dogs to scare away Snowball from the farm and also to kill any animal that didn’t obey his
The story of Animal Farm’s dystopian governmental control is that the propaganda ,amplified through Squealer, exercised enormous influence and power over the animals. One piece of evidence that points to this is, “Napoleon is always right” (Orwell 48). This was the maxim of Boxer which was the embodiment of the working class and shows how well rooted this belief is and how the government is easily manipulating its animals. Another good example is, “All animals
George Orwell includes a strong message in his novel Animal Farm that is easily recognizable. Orwell’s Animal Farm focuses on two primary problems that were not only prominent in his WWII society, but also posed as reoccurring issues in all societies past and present. Orwell’s novel delivers a strong political message about class structure and oppression from the patriarchal society through an allegory of a farm that closely resembles the Soviet Union.
After the first couple chapters, we see that the animals have taken over the farm and are running it very efficiently also, we see that Napoleon and Snowball are butting heads on every situation on how the farm should run and it builds conflict. So, Napoleons way of solving this is to chase Snowball out and make up stories about Snowball and he blames him for everything that goes wrong. After doing this, the other animals start to really respect Napoleon and they start to give him full control of the farm, but little do they know, he is only manipulating them and that this is only the rise of the
That reason is probably why Napoleon chased Snowball away. After Snowball is gone Napoleon precedes to change the memories of Snowball in the eyes of the other animals, but Snowball really did want to help the farm. Snowball shows he is smart enough to solve different types of problems, Napoleon is just smarter. One example of Snowball’s intelligence is, “ ‘A bird's wing, comrades,’ he said, ‘is an organ of propulsion and not of manipulation’ (12).” This shows Snowball can think up amazing answers and thoughts.
Napoleon gives the animals someone to blame when things go wrong and that would be snowball. Napoleon gives the animals something to admire which would be himself. When anything good happened, Napoleon would most likely make it seem that it was all because of him. When a person gains control over something, they will end up wanting more and more control which was exactly what happened to Napoleon. Benjamin, who was smart and represented Orwell, saw this all along.