Abuse Of Power In Animal Farm By George Orwell

The communist revolution had people with power, and they used it to their advantage. For instance, Vladimir Lenin introduced Russia to a new power of the Bolsheviks and communism. While Joseph Stalin used violent ways to maintain his rule. Similarly, the book Animal Farm by George Orwell has characters representing significant people in the rise of the Soviet Union. The most influential factor of Animal Farm was the power-hoarding behavior of characters with power.
Prior to the animal rebellion, Mr. Jones was a character that demonstrated power-hoarding behavior. Old Major realized that and persuaded the animals to rebel against Mr. Jones, “And you hens, how many eggs have you laid in this last year, and how many of those eggs ever hatched

…in return for your four confinements and all your labor in the fields, what have you ever had except your bare rations and a stall?” (Orwell 6). Old Major persuaded other animals that Mr. Jones was using animals for his benefit to make money and that the animals working hard only received the bare minimum to live. Compared to Mr. Jones’ life, the animals were the minority before the rebellion. Moving on with Old Major’s speech, he passed away and the rebellion was quickly achieved due to Mr. Jones’ power-hoarding tendencies, “...Mr. Jones, although a hard master, had been a capable farmer, but of late he had fallen on evil days. …had taken to drinking more than was good for him. …and the animals were underfed.” (Orwell 13). Due to Mr. Jones’ lack of taking responsibility for the farm, the

Squealer is known for his persuasive speeches, “... I hope that we pigs are doing this in a spirit of selfishness and privilege? Many of us dislike milk and apples… our sole object in taking these things is to preserve our health. Milk and apples (this has been proved by Science, comrades) contain substances absolutely necessary to the well-being of a pig. … the whole management and organisation of this farm depend on us. … it is your sake that we drink that milk and eat those apples….” (Orwell 25). Squealer uses both ethos and pathos to persuade the other animals to give them all the milk and apples they need. He implies the word “your” as that the pigs are selfless rather than selfish when taking the milk and apples. This shows manipulation by forcing the idea of pigs needing milk and apples for their health instead of equally distributing them. However, power-hoarding behavior is a bigger factor in Animal Farm because if the pigs did not have power in the first place, they would not be able to manipulate the animals into giving them milk and apples. Even though other animals work to maintain a healthy farm, the pigs justify taking the milk and apples with their power and health. The pigs used their power, “The pigs did not actually work, but directed and supervised the others.” (Orwell 19). With the power the pigs possessed, they used it to their advantage and made other animals