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) Jones the farmer was the animal’s “leader” on Manor farm until the revolution came and Napoleon the pig took control, he renamed the farm “Animal Farm”, he gets help ruling Animal Farm with another pig; Squealer. The animals did not like being ruled by humans so they started a revolution and kicked all of the humans out. Napoleon wanted to change the farm and make it a better place but he abused the power that was given to him, and formed a dictatorship. There is also a pig named Snowball that wanted to rule …show more content…
The animals made seven commandments that were; “1. Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy. 2. Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend. 3. No animal shall wear clothes. 4. No animal shall sleep in a bed. 5. No animal shall drink alcohol. 6. No animal shall kill any other animal. 7. All animals are equal” (Doc A excerpt 1, Animal Farm Chapters 2-3). Snowball narrowed the commandments down to“four legs good, two legs bad”, which means that all of the animals are equal and friends, and all of the humans are enemies to the animals. Overtime Napoleon changes these commandments, for example he changed it to “four legs good, two legs better!”(Doc. A excerpt 3, Animal Farm Chapter 10), instead of “four legs good, two legs bad”. He also renamed the farm, Manor Farm; the original name. In the beginning all of the animals wanted to be free from the humans, but the the pigs slowly started morphing to human ways. Eventually they changed the seventh commandment to “ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL BUT SOME ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS”(Doc A excerpt 3, Animal Farm Chapter 10), instead of the original “All animals are equal.”(Doc A excerpt 1, Animal Farm Chapters 2-3). The pigs made it seem like they were always right and that they were making things better than when Jones was the owner of the farm, even though they were just making it worse. The leaders came up with the saying, “Napoleon is always right”, to make the animals …show more content…
Propaganda is the manipulation of facts and feelings to influence public opinion. Napoleon used propaganda to make him seem like the best leader. After Snowball left the farm, Napoleon made it seem like he was working for Jones. He would blame all of the accidents that happened on the farm on Snowball. He says that Snowball is a “criminal” and that in the Battle of Cowshed he did not fight against the humans, but with them. The animals did not remember this, they thought that Snowball fought brave against the humans. Napoleon uses this to make him seem like he is going to be a better leader than Snowball would have been if he did not leave the farm. Napoleon also has the animals call him “Our leader comrade Napoleon”, to make him seem like a good
4. No animal shall sleep in a bed. 5. No animal shall drink alcohol. 6.
This commandment reflects the Torah’s view that animals
Lastly, in the end, the animals don’t do anything once the pigs start doing human like things. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it, a lesson we must learn to insure we are not led blindly into a worse situation than we had before. I’m just going to say it, the animals on Animal Farm were oblivious and very near-sighted. When the Seven Commandments were changed, the animals sensed something had changed in them, but couldn’t remember exactly so they let it slide. Now this may have been reasonable had it been once, but it happened multiple times.
This, he said, contained the essential principle of Animalism.”. Throughout the book the commandments are changed to fit the pigs lifestyle. Animalism was supposed to be used to keep one animal from having more, or less power than the others. One of the commandments states that “5. No animal shall drink alcohol.”.
In George Orwell's Animal Farm, Napoleon, a pig leader that represents Stalin from the Russian Revolution plays a big role in the book as the pig leaders are a superior group among the population of Animal Farm. In the story Napoleon is representing Stalin in Animal Farm as the main leader after Mr.Jones is ran out of the farm and Old Major died, resembling how Stalin took over rising to power in Russia. Napoleon started as a seemingly good leader but that soon changed… Napoleon, just like Stalin started to have problems with citizens of their own community and tried to hurt people and take things away. Both leaders can be shown using their superiority and power to their advantage to get everything they wanted and felt was necessary.
The political satire Animal Farm by George Orwell is a reference to the Soviet Union’s corruption. The quote in the book Animal Farm stated "There was nothing there now except a single Commandment. It ran: ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS” (Orwell 134). The lesson learned from this quote is that communism is not what it was meant to be. This means that communism looks good at first but always ends up being the complete opposite of the communist idea.
The satire present here is that the altering of the ten commandments effectively portray how the absurd the concept is. There is no way that animals could become, “more equal” than others. In the beginning of the novel, Old Major expressed that the animals shall overcome their oppressors, but the pigs become the oppressors. Through their chants and the ten commandments, the citizens are brainwashed to believe that everything is just and fair because when the commandments and chants were first written or said, everyone was in agreement, and believed it was fair. The pigs start to alter the propaganda, and the animals still believe that it is fair, when in reality it is not.
When first reading George Orwell’s Animal Farm, one might assume it to be a simple narrative about Farm Animals. However, through closer analysis, you begin to see the allegorical connections and satire of the work. By drawing parallels to certain major events and individuals from the Russian Revolution, Orwell is able to provide a political commentary about the harsh conditions caused by the Revolution. In George Orwell 's Animal Farm, he uses Napoleon, Snowball, and Mr. Jones to show the allegorical connections, as well as its satirical motives.
Furthermore, Napoleon gives the other animals the impression he was the sole leader of the rebellion on Animal farm and makes Snowball -a leader who wanted what was best for the animals- seem like an enemy who was in cahoots with Farmer Jones since long before the animals took over the farm. Napoleon and Squealer (another “fat cat” pig.) always put the blame on Snowball whenever something went wrong in the farm to avoid having the blame fall on them. Napoleon is an exemplary example of just how selfish and hypocritical people can be in furthering their own aims because he continued to subtly but purposely change the seven rules put in place as the pillars of animalism. For example, Napoleon and the other pigs move into Farmer Jones’s house and sleep in his bed after commanding “No animal shall sleep in a bed”, so he changes the commandment to read “no animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets”.
But as the months go on, the pigs change them to their benefit, giving them more power and luxury. The quote, “when the terror caused by the executions had died down, some of the animals remembered that the Sixth Commandment decreed ‘No animal shall kill any other animal’... Muriel read the commandment for her. It ran: ‘No animal shall kill any other animal without cause’,”(Orwell 98) shows that the pigs obviously change the commandment before the other animals got a chance to read it. This happens more times as the book goes on, and shows the pigs abusing their power by changing the commandments to fit their actions and desires.
He left after the revolution of the animals that Old Major begin. When he died, they begin the rebellion. When the farm was now for the animals, the pigs took the control of it. Napoleon begin to be in competition with Snowball, because he had a lot of idea, others liked him and he was the pig that decided the most.
The pig leaders in Animal Farm represent the Russian Revolutionary leaders who controlled the Soviet Union. Napoleon, who takes charge after the death of Old Major, symbolizes Joseph Stalin. Stalin was the leader of the Soviet Union in the mid 1920s, his goal was to strengthen the Union under communist ideals. Napoleon inherits similarities from Stalin, for example, the way Napoleon changes the rules and polices of the farm, his secretive meetings and actions, and lastly his manipulation of the animals. “You do not imagine, I hope that we pigs are doing this in a spirit of selfishness and privilege…
The book Animal Farm, by George Orwell is an allegory to the Russian Revolution. There are direct correspondence within the characters and the situations. The animals in Animal Farm are contrasted to the people in the Russian Revolution. As well as the people, almost all of the events in the Russian Revolution were related to the events that happened in the book.
In Animal Farm, many animals are not treated as fairly as others. Some animals have more privileges than others and are condescending to those below them. In the end of Animal Farm, the Seven Commandments are gone because the rules no longer apply to the pigs and animals on the farm of the upper class because they give themselves the right to have more freedom. On page 134, the narrator reads, "There was nothing there now except a single Commandment. It ran: All Animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.”
The second example is when the animals came up with the Seven Commandments to maintain order within their society. Lastly, the third example is when the pigs did not actually work, but directed and supervised the others.