Animal Farm By George Orwell: The Evolution Of A Tyrant

The Evolution of a Tyrant Power is defined as the capacity or ability to direct or influence the behavior of others. To have power is both a privilege and responsibility. This combination can often lead to egregious endings because power also has the potential to corrupt. According to John Dalberg-Acton, a politician and writer, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” In the book Animal Farm by George Orwell, berkshire boar Napoleon lets power consume him and eventually corrupt him. This leads him to become a malevolent tyrant. Napoleon’s transition into this tyrant progresses in four stages. The first stage of transition to tyranny is the accumulation of his power. Napoleon and the animals on the farm believed they were being treated poorly. The animals decided it was time to fight and stand up for what they desired when “[Mr. Jones] and his four men were in the store-shed with whips in their hands, lashing out

Because the animals were happy with what Napoleon had done so far, he is thanked immensely. This causes his ego to grow. When his ego begins to grow he finally realizes all that he has done and accomplished. He wants to make more decisions and changes. But most of all, he wants to take advantage of the power he has. One of the first things he does during his transition from good to evil is to concentrate his power by having Snowball chased from the farm. “[Snowball] was running as only a pig can run, but the dogs were close on his heels. Suddenly he slipped… Then he was up again, running faster than ever” (Orwell 48). Snowball was a threat to Napoleon. The other animals on the farm valued his opinions and ideas as much as Napoleon’s. Napoleon was jealous and this was what he did to change Snowball’s influence on the farm. He let his greed take over and made his first bad decision in a series of many terrible