Napoleon Stay In Power Analysis

Essay 2

How Does Napoleon Stay in Power?

Amid the power void at Manor Farm following shortly after the expulsion of Mr. Jones, it is filled by a brutal and tyrannical pig named Napoleon. After several years, the farm starts to flounder under Napoleon after the discharge of Snowball who acts as a counterbalance to Napoleon. Throughout this period of time animals start to question Napoleon's authority over them. This is the main plot of the novel "Animal Farm" by George Orwell. How does a tyrannical leader such as Napoleon stay in power during such hard times? Napoleon manages to stay in control of the animals by using these three key methods scapegoating, brutality, and revisionism.

Napoleon's scapegoating of a former animal on the farm helps

Napoleon marches the animals outside where they confess to actions they had not done “when they had finished their confession, the dogs promptly tore their throats out, and in a terrible voice, Napoleon demanded whether any other animal had anything to confess…. And so the tale of confessions and executions went on until there was a pile of corpses lying before Napoleon’s feet and the air was heavy with the smell of blood, which had been unknown there since the expulsion of Jones. When it was all over, the remaining animals, except for the pigs and dogs, crept away in a body. They were shaken and miserable” (Doc B). Napoleon use of these planned killings of the animals automatically puts fear into others that had thought of opposing him. This allows Napoleon to stay in control of the farm and the animals with his brutal actions. During a hard time on the farm Napoleon decided to take the hens eggs to sell “when the hens heard this, they raised a terrible outcry…. They were just getting their clutches ready for the spring sitting, and they protested that to take the eggs away now was murder…. The hens made a determined effort to thwart Napoleon’s wishes. Their method was to fly up to the rafters and there lay their eggs, which smashed to pieces on the floor. Napoleon acted swiftly and ruthlessly. He ordered the hens’ rations to be stopped and decreed that any animal giving so much as a grain of corn to a hen should be punished by death. The dogs saw to it that these orders were carried out. For five days the hens held out, then they capitulated and went back to their nesting boxes. Nine hens had died in the meantime” (Doc B). When the hens decide to do a peaceful protest, Napoleon cut off their supply of food because they were the first to oppose him. This immediately sets an example for the other animals showing they can not