Animal Farm Leadership Analysis

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power. There are many different types of leadership and they all react differently to power. A leadership style like authoritarian usually has the leader forcing others to do certain things, for example most corporate bosses tell you to do your task or you 'll be fired. Giving power to an authoritative leader usually goes wrong, they think they can get away with things and that no one can question them. This leadership style usually leads to giving very few people power, which leads to corruption. Another type of leadership style is a democratic leader. Two books that have very prominent leadership themes are “Animal Farm” by George Orwell and “Lord of

Animal Farm shows one direct leadership throughout the book but Lord of the Flies shows a constant power change between the characters in the book, which leads to different styles of leadership which were both beneficial and harmful for their survival. Although these books both are distinct from each other, they contain the same theme of leadership and how leader use their power.

Animal Farm has only one type of leadership style throughout the novel, which is an authoritarian leadership style. The character Napoleon is the authoritarian leader and leads the farm after the rebellion due to being one of the smartest but also one of the main advocators for the Rebellion. Many authoritarian leaders set a goal and have everyone work towards accomplishing the goal their way, no matter the cost. “This work was strictly voluntary, but any animal who absented himself from it would gave his rations reduced in half.” (Orwell 40). We see Napoleon halving rations for the animals who do not work extra time on the windmill. Napoleon is forcing animals to work harder or to face starvation as the rations are already so small. He is forcing them to face starvation and exhaustion to achieve the goal of building a windmill. Authoritarian leaders often run propaganda and hide certain things from the

All this power started to corrupt Napoleon and amplify his greediness. This made him become a dictator and he started to abuse his power. “Milk and apples (this has been proved by science, comrades) contain substances absolutely necessary to the well-being of a pig.”(Orwell 23) . Napoleon convinces the animals in the farm to give him and the pigs more milk and food. He convinces them by making up scientific facts that using your brain is more exhausting than physically working all day. Since he is the smartest and one of the only ones who knows how to read, he can get away with making up facts. Once he got away with getting extra food, he decided to assert his power in harmful ways. Napoleon started to change the seven amendments of Animal Farm, which were sworn not to be changed, and started to rewrite the past. “‘It says, “No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets.” (Orwell 45). Napoleon started to change these amendments to live an easier and more lavish life for himself. He changed the amendments, so it would benefit himself and no one else, as well as to try and change the past by rewriting the amendments and putting false thoughts into animals heads, to support his himself. Finally, after doing so many immoral and selfish deeds with his power, he starts to kill animals. He changes an amendment about animals not killing animals and kills anyone who has done the slightest misdoing.