Power Corrupted In George Orwell's Animal Farm

Power, in the context of Lord Acton’s quote “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power tends to corrupt absolutely”, defines a reigning authority figure given over a subject (people, animals, etc.). The meaning of this quote relates to the actions of the pigs following the animal’s dethroning of Jones and Manor Farm. The pigs were known to have a higher intelligence status, therefore granting them power over Animal Farm. The pigs relished in their power, gradually getting absolutely corrupted by this newfound authority.

He says "A bird's wing, comrades, is an organ of propulsion and not of manipulation. It should therefore be regarded as a leg." Snowball is considered to be the most intelligent of the pigs. It is evident that this is true when he plans to build a windmill to supply electricty on the farm. "He was closeted there for hours at a time."

Though the accusations are false they found a way to manipulate the other animals into believing it was true. It was easy for the pigs to change the other animals view and opinions on Snowball because of their knowledge. The pigs use lies to turn the other animals against Snowball: “Comrades, here and now I pronounce the death sentence upon Snowball […] everyone began thinking out ways of catching Snowball if he should ever come back” (47-48). Squealer convinces the animals that Snowball is such a threat that they are willing to kill a leader they once looked up to and sought guidance from. They manipulated the minds of the uneducated animals so much that when anything went wrong on the farm their first instinct was to blame Snowball for it.

One of the many awful things he did was he proclaimed that whoever killed, snowball would be rewarded. He would also kill any animals he believed were working with Snowball, breaking the commandment that said no animal shall kill another animal. He also formed one single commandment after breaking all of the other ones, which was “ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS” ( 194). This shows that the pigs finally established dominance over the animals, and no longer believed that all animals were equal. Another action that showed that Napoleon was taking dominance over the other animals was when he took away some of the dreams that at the beginning was once promised to them, such as “The luxuries of which Snowball had once taught the animals to dream, the stalls with electric light and Hot and cold water, and the three-day week, were no longer talked about. He said, lay in working hard and living frugally” ( 185). This shows that the animals were promised great things, but this all changed when Napoleon's desire for power clouded all of his previous beliefs. Lastly, the pigs and Napoleon appeared one day walking in their hind legs and showing qualities of humans until one day in the eyes of the animals they become so human like, it was impossible to tell between humans and pigs. The animals

This was not the beginning of the Rule of Napoleon; it was supposed to be “All animals are equal;” however, it was changed to “All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.” Napoleon’s ultimate demise was shown through some small actions in the beginning. Power twisted Napoleon’s conscience and his morals created a monster from which many feared.

Jones, unquestionably did not want him back, so they, a touch bit reluctantly, accepted Squealer's sly explanation, however distrustful he seemed. Secondly, the pigs are determined to take out any animal that stands in their way, even if it means defying the commandments that they themselves created. As we have seen, this has happened to not only Snowball, but others as well. “When they had finished their confession, the dogs promptly tore their throats out, and in a terrible voice Napoleon demanded whether any other animal had anything to confess” (56). In this quote, Napoleon forces innocent animals to confess partaking in the sinful deeds accompanied by Snowball.

Power corrupts those who possess it. George Orwell wrote the book Animal Farm in 1945. The book is about animals on a farm that are tired of being taken and stolen from. The animals rebel against Mr. Jones, their farmer and raise their own ‘animal farm’. Power corrupts those who possess it because, everyone has to follow them, they don’t get told no, and they forget what it’s like to work.

In the novel animal farm George Orwell brings up the idea that the person or animal in the position of power will be corrupted whether they were corrupt or not in the begining.The idea that corruption is the direct result from greed, intelligence, the control, limited consequences that comes with power and if they were corrupt already. Summarise more

Another way Snowball establishes order directly and earns respect from his fellow animals is when he “busied himself with organizing the other animals into what he called Animal Committees” (Orwell 49). Those committee’s organized the animals into different production work forces, along with “instituting classes in reading and writing” (Orwell 49). This shows that Snowball put these committee’s into work to help the animals feel like they were needed and apart of the success of the farm, and since Snowball gave the other animals their success, he is seen as a generous and instructive leader who the animals trust. Along with being a direct and approachable leader, Snowball is also a very wise pig. In very little time he “had taught [himself] to read and write from an old spelling book;” and out of the pigs, “it was Snowball who was the best at writing” (Orwell 42).

The body, mind, and soul of an individual are capable of becoming corrupted by power. Power makes one feel as if that person was a God, which is a sign of the corruption in that individual. According to Lord Actin, "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely," states that power can make an individual vulnerable to corruption. The second portion of Lord Actin?s quote discusses absolute power corrupting absolutely which implies that absolute power can corrupt an individual as well as the individual?s surroundings. This idea of corruption can be located in fictional novels such as Animal Farm by George Orwell. Animal Farm is a story about animals dictated by a former animal comrade. The dictator in the novel, Napoleon,

Snowball would have been just as Ruthless of a leader as Napoleon when put in a state of power and leadership is that having power over the whole farm the Pigs had access to luxuries that they could stop the other Animals from Having. As the pigs become the leaders of the farm they start to gain access to Luxuries like access to beds and sleeping in the farmhouse, to cover this up squealer says that it is ok for animals to sleep in beds as long as they do not have sheets as they are a human invention. All leaders always gain luxuries over the other people they control, this leads them to becoming corrupt by hiding these luxuries from their fellow species as you see the pigs greedily do in animal farm and then covering it with excuses from a

Snowball, an ardent believer of Animalism, is “a more vivacious pig than Napoleon, quicker is speech and more inventive, but was not considered to have the same depth of character. (Orwell, George)” Snowball is a young pig that is inventive, innovative and beyond intelligent. Snowball is parallel to Leon Trotsky. The leader of the pigs puts his heart and soul into advancing Animal Farm’s infrastructure and government.

Power is an interesting thing. One gets to much of it, and their intentions can be destroyed because of the endless ideas going through the mind. In the novel Animal Farm written by George OrwellOld Major convinces the animals of Manor Farm to rebel against their farm’s owner. After Old Major's death, the pigs take control of the farm animals, to disastrous results.

Corruption, it is a nasty word that isn’t only the effect of absolute power but it is a way to maintain power. In the book Animal Farm by: George Orwell(Elric Blair) one of the themes is that absolute power corrupts absolutely, and he uses the character Napoleon to show this. Napoleon is a pig in the book who represents Joseph Stalin from the Russian revolution. Who took over power from the previous leader Snowball(Leon Trotsky) and then began to tear apart the society.

Absolute power has been represented through dictatorship, which has been proven ineffective because power leads to corruption as seen throughout history. In the novel Animal Farm by George Orwell and the play “Julius Caesar” by William Shakespeare, the rulers who had all the power for themselves ended up being corrupted. In Orwell’s novel, the animals began to rebel against their tyrannical owner in order to gain freedom, but the pigs ended up obtaining more than the others and the rest of the animals ended up with worse conditions than they originally had. Likewise, in Shakespeare’s play, Caesar was shown as a leader who had obtained too much power. The Roman senators saw Caesar’s power as a threat, so they took action against him and executed him. In contrast, not all leaders end up abusing their power since some become a leader for the greater good of the people.