Ignorance In George Orwell's Animal Farm

The pigs are even able to make murder seem necessary by simply changing the commandments. When Muriel reads the commandments, “It ran: ‘No animal shall kill any other animal without cause. Somehow or other the last two words slipped out of the animals’ memory”

This is a fundamental step in securing power. In his speech, Squealer uses the animals' fear of Jones to convince them into following Napoleon's commands. Squealer claims that Jones will return to the farm if the animals do not obey Napoleon. While the claim may be ridiculous, with no evidence, the animals are obliged to believe Squealer out of fear. “One false step, and our enemies would be upon us.

In George Orwell’s novel Animal Farm, the animals on the farm overthrow the farmers and set out to create a perfect society ,known as Animal farm, where all animals would live free of human control. At its peak all members were equal. The pigs took charge and created rules for the farm. Over time their leadership became corrupt as they changed for their advantage like the “No animal shall sleep in beds.”

Fear used in Animal Farm One of the most powerful propaganda techniques is fear since it is fundamentally irrational. By playing with people’s most profound, and irrational, fears, propagandists can sway opinions and promote action. Humans can do great or terrible things when motivated by fear. The author illustrates, through the pigs, how fear is used even today by people in power to repress those below them.

After the success of QPAC’s staging of George Orwell’ classic tale, Animal Farm , I was tempted to reflect on George Orwell’s message inside his tale of deceit and treachery. Animal Farm presents a clever fable of an animal revolution against their human superiors, resulting in the more ‘intelligent’ pigs taking advantage of the other farm animals by using manipulative propaganda. Startlingly, this fictional tale relates to the present more than we imagine. Therefore, it’s imperative that everyone understands the significance of George Orwell’s warning about the unfair manipulation of the masses using propaganda, as the danger still exists today.

This quote highlights the ultimate betrayal of the pigs, as they become indistinguishable from the humans they had once despised. This betrayal can also be shown when the novel states, “The animals were not certain what the word mean, but Squealer spoke so persuasively, and the three dogs who happened to be with him growled so threateningly, that they accepted his explanation without further questions'' (Orwell 58). This shows how the pigs’ betrayal goes against the principle of knowledge and education. The animals initially believed that they could learn and educate themselves, but the pigs’ manipulation of the animals’ ignorance shows how they are not able to learn and educate themselves, and need to rely on

Threats used by pigs are a tool to install fear in the animals, to keep them complacent. Squealer

They even caught Squealer in the act of changing them once and didn’t realize what was happening. Whenever something like this would happen, Squealer would convince them that they had remembered wrong. For example when Squealer convinces the animals that at the Battle of Cowshed, Snowball had actually almost lost the battle and Napoleon had saved them. The animals believe Squealer. The animals would

Squealer blatantly lies to the other animals through his use of propaganda, which serves the pigs' interests at the expense of the other animals. Napoleon does not believe in equality of other animals, as he exploits the animals for their work and limits their rations for the benefit of the pigs. The behavior presented by squealer highlights the fact that humans are capable of similar forms of manipulation if it may benefit them to do

Inequality, corruption, and dictatorship. Do you ever wonder how someone managed to use animals to recreate the cruel issues of society? George Orwell used pigs to represent the ruling class and working animals to represent the commoners. There are many ways that Orwell shows the issues of society in Animal Farm. One of these ways is through demonstrating the effects of propaganda and how it is used to control the common people.

Squealer threatens the animals by consistently manipulating the truth. He tells the animals whatever he has to in order to get his way. For Squealer to get the animals to do as he says, he lies to them. Orwell states, ‘“Surely, comrades, you do not want Jones back?”’ (Orwell 17 PDF).

(Orwell 122). Later, the Pigs maintain the illusion that they sent him to the hospital. “Three days later it was announced that he had died in the hospital in Willingdon, despite having received every treatment a horse could have” (Orwell 124). Despite the fact that Boxer was one of the most loyal and devoted followers of Napoleon, he was sold to feed into the Pig’s greed. And despite the fact that this was obviously what happened, by using propaganda, most of the other animals are convinced he died in the hospital.

Later in that paragraph, the text states, “Reading out the figures in a shrill, rapid voice, he proved to them in detail that they had more oats, more hay, more turnips than they had had in Jones's day, that they worked shorter hours, that their drinking water was of better quality, that they lived longer, that a larger proportion of their young ones survived infancy, and that they had more straw in their stalls and suffered less from fleas. The animals believed every word of it.” Squealer is an animal used as propaganda by the other pigs and is often the one convincing the other animals that what they were doing is good by lying to the animals and comparing this time with the time of Jones, a time in which most animals don't remember anymore. This is what Squealer does here, as well as at other times when rations are reduced, to keep the other animals compliant with this way of life. He and the other pigs continued to lie about the reasons for the reduction.

To further their own interests, the pigs manipulate the animals. For extra confirmation on the current situation, Squealer came out and told the animals “A bed merely means a place to sleep in. A pile of straw in a stall is a bed, properly regarded. A bed merely means a place to sleep in.” The argument persuaded the animals, and the topic was dismissed.

“Politics have no relation to morals.” (Niccolo Machiavelli) Throughout history, a plethora of effective leaders has demonstrated inhumanity to retain power. Animal Farm, a masterpiece of an allegory by George Orwell, depicts the means, including distortion of the truth, leaders will reach to secure their hegemony. The novella provides readers with not only a dystopia parallel to the Soviet Union, but also with manipulations of the truth that both leaders conducted in their totalitarianism.