Power, Pigs And Politics In Animal Farm, By George Orwell

In the book Animal Farm, by George Orwell one of the main characters Napoleon liks to get what he wants. Napoleon is a pig who represents Joseph Stalin, who was the dictator of Russia. He likes to lie to the other animals, and is only concerned with himself. Napoleon manipulates the other animals to get what he wants.In the contents of this book Napoleon shows himself to act in a very devilish, tricky, and dictatorial manner.

Published in England on August 17th 1945 and written by Eric Arthur Blair (also known as George Orwell) between 1943 and 1944, Animal Farm is a novella that takes place and has the same ideologies of the Russian Revolution on an imaginary farm. Major characters such as Napoleon and Boxer the Horse play important roles concerning freedom and equality. Napoleon, considered by most to be the leader of Animal Farm is manipulative and selfish; does not care about others, and does not like to be bothered when it comes to gaining full control. Boxer the Horse, on the other hand, is the strongest yet most gullible of all the animals. He believes everything Napoleon tells him and never questions whether he is losing his freedom or not. This novella argues how a farm, just like a country, can transform for the worst with leaders who do not know how to govern it. Just like Karl Marx once said “The ruling ideas of each age have ever been the ideas of its ruling class.”

George Orwell’s Animal Farm is reflective of Russia during Joseph Stalin’s tyrannical ruling. The story’s antagonist Napoleon leads the Rebellion with Snowball. Once Napoleon overthrows Snowball, he deceives and manipulates the other animals with promise of a life free of restraint and human influence. After gaining their trust, Napoleon capitalizes on the animals’ vulnerabilities and uses his power to better the circumstances of the pigs rather than all animals. Although he initially presents himself as a democratic head, his leadership tactics are that of a dictator. Through examining the syntax and diction characteristic of Orwell’s writing, one can gain a better understanding of the novel’s sociopolitical theme.

“Remember that all things are lawful to me” (Tranquillus). These words by Gaius Caesar Germanicus, more commonly known as Caligula, epitomize the corruption caused by absolute power. Under his rule, the Roman treasury was emptied, people suffered from seemingly random acts of brutality, and Rome was ruled by an emperor who thought of himself as a god. Similarly, in the novel Animal Farm, the Manor Farm is taken over by its four-legged inhabitants. Their equal government is soon taken over by a power-hungry leader, a young boar named Napoleon. George Orwell’s fictional dictator Napoleon in the allegorical novel Animal Farm and the lavish life of the Roman Emperor Caligula both prove that power always causes corruption.

Language is a powerful tool, some abuse it to obtain power and some use it to inspire movements and bring change. I believe that language is more powerful if you use it to control a population via lying, manipulation, and fear. There have been many instances of individuals and groups using fear and language for control.

The Russian government is one of constant ideological change, from the October Revolutionist Lenin to the extreme values of Josef Stalin. It can be argued that power always corrupts, as seen in the character Napoleon from Animal Farm by George Orwell and Vladimir Putin with their characteristics of corruption, centralizing government to suit their own needs, and the use of fear to keep their power.

When thinking about pigs, you generally associate them with being dirty, repulsive and gluttonous. Well, that's Napoleon. In the novel, Animal Farm, by George Orwell Napoleon is a pig on Manor Farm who slowly exerts power over others and begins his reign as a dictator. Napoleon takes over and renames the farm Animal Farm while being completely deceptive and unfair. Napoleon is a prime example of how absolute power corrupts absolutely because he is unjust and doesn't care for the wellbeing of any of the other animals on the farm but himself.

Johnny was pounding at my door! He was begging me to go outside to play hide and go seek. He wouldn’t take no for an answer, so I quickly ran out the door before he broke it down. Johnny decided all the rules before we started. When Johnny was found first, he quickly came up with an excuse for him not to be it. Johnny, the fastest kid in fifth grade now decides it is hide and go seek tag. Now Johnny wasn’t it in the first round. In the text Animal Farm by George Orwell animals don’t like how they are being treated, so they begin a rebellion. The rebellion resulted in a two pigs running the farm, Snowball and Napoleon, although Napoleon was so control hungry that he had to disagree with Snowball on everything! Snowball was eventually kicked out of the farm by Napoleon, so now Napoleon is makes all the decisions and changes rules of the farm just so that he can do whatever he wants. The theme of Animal Farm by George Orwell is that absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Napoleon was an exquisite character in the book: Animal Farm. He overpowered all the animals, and they followed. He was acknowledged as the leader, and the creator as their “Animal Farm”. No humans, no using human-made items, and never lay where a human has laid. Napoleon’s rules were simple. However he grew to the point where he wasn’t even following them, and was changing them as life went on. Animal farm included many instances where Napoleon was commanding as a dictatorship rather than a democracy.

People play an enormous component in our lives and the choices we make. In George Orwell's “ Animal Farm” there are several people that show leadership and guidance. The Leaders of Animal Farm start off with good intentions, but as the story goes on it becomes obvious the leaders have grown power-hungry and have become the 'superior' animals, showing that equality does not exist. This source of power has been used by leaders at the expense of their followers for their own personal gain, like Napoleon, whose first sign of corruption occurred early in the book when he seemed to be the main leader of them all.

In George Orwell's Animal Farm, Orwell shows his readers that whoever acquires power will soon become corrupt and unfit to be a fair leader. At the start of the novella, the animals are under the power of Mr. Jones, until they revolt against him and the farmers and capture the farm. All of the animals are happy, and they make commandments. The animals follow the pigs, but they turn out to be unfair leaders. Though the intentions of the pigs seemed fair, they were just seeking for power. If the pigs had not deliberately created a false ideology that was attractive and appealing to the animals, they would not have followed the enforcement of the pigs.

In the book Animal Farm, Napoleon represents Joseph Stalin, who is a prominent figure that leads the animals with the strategy of socialism in one country. Throughout the book, Napoleon’s true self becomes evident and shows his hypocritical ways and crave for power. This reflects Joseph Stalin’s dictatorship of the workers and oppressive attitude. George Orwell accurately develops Napoleon in Animal Farm to depict Stalin’s use of power through fear and alliances, his vision of socialism within one country, and the hypocritical actions done by Stalin during his reign.

Tyranny has always been present in human history from Joseph Stalin to Adolf Hitler they have all taken advantage of the public and used them to their own advantage and personal needs. In the story Animal Farm by George Orwell this tyrannical, totalitarian, and corrupt form of government is seen. In the story the tired animals organize a rebellion against their owner and drive him out. They create their own government, with the pigs assuming control. But the corrupt pigs take advantage of this power entrusted to them, and oppress the animal for their own benefit. Even though the pigs abused the power they had, The naive and gullible animals themselves were the ones responsible for the pigs’ quick rise to power and control because the animals were tricked into supporting the pigs evil plans, they were too braindead to organize and execute a rebellion even after they realized the pigs were up to no good, and they were so foolish that they even supported the expulsion of snowball, the only good pig that worked for the good of the other animals.

The pigs’ deception is so effective because they built their reputation of being intelligent within the farm and thus the animals accept what they say as true. The pigs’ reputation is present from the beginning of Animal Farm when Major tries to encourage the other animals to rebel. Major is “so highly regarded on the farm that everyone was quite ready to lose an hour’s sleep in order to hear what he had to say” (Orwell 4). This quote shows how important Major is and how influential he is on the farm. Thus, one can assume that his reputation in a way represents the other pigs for he is the most prominent member of the pigs. His reputation of being wise and benevolent is the reason the animals revere him so. Then when he dies the work of organizing the animals falls upon the pigs. “The work of teaching and organizing the others fell upon the pigs, who were generally recognized as being the cleverest animals” (Orwell 15). This quote show that the other animals who are collectively less educated than the pigs are heavily relying on the pigs’ reputation to figure out in their mind who they are. By generalizing the pigs as intelligent the animals fall into the trap that many people do. A real example of this is how people sometimes generalize Muslims as terrorist. When one generalizes, they can either open themselves up or ignorantly close themselves to the other aspects of the person, place, or thing. In Animal Farm, the animals open themselves up and end causing themselves to

Imagine sitting with your parents that are watching the news. On the news there is a man on trial for the things he's done in his corporation. You soon realize the man is the head of his business and has been using underhanded tactics to gain more money. It is also revealed the man wasn't always like this and has only started using these tactics when his corporation began to expand. This is one example of the theme corruption comes with power. In the story Animal Farm by George Orwell which follows the events of an animal rebellion on a farm that gains power at one point, but eventually begins to become corrupt and reverted back to it's old ways due to their leader Napoleon. In the story Napoleon is shown gaining a larger stance in the rebellion only to take away animal’s rights and amendments initially created to help the farm stay on the path of rebellion against humans. In the story the theme corruption comes with power is revealed.