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Examples Of Illiteracy In Animal Farm By George Orwell

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‘Literacy is a bridge from misery to hope’- Kofi Annan. Indeed it is. The ability to read is something that many lack and therefore face despair in everyday situations. However, Annan;s words apply to fictional worlds as well. In the novella Animal Farm by George Orwell the animals are illiterate and have to struggle with the consequences. Due to this, they have trouble deciphering what is true and what is false. Their crude leader, Napoleon takes advantage of this by manipulating their memory of events, by verifying his claims with writing, and by --------------------------. In Animal Farm the animals who are under the rule of Napoleon are manipulated due to their illiteracy. Napoleon, being the devious pig he is takes advantage of this by manipulating their memory of events. There are many instances …show more content…

Due to the fact that many of the animals are unable to read or write, they are forced to memorize the Commandments. For example, on page ninety-one, Orwell states, “It ran: No animal shall kill any other animal without cause.” Somehow or other the last two words had slipped out the animals’ memory. But now they saw that it had not been violated; for clearly there was good reason for killing traitors who leagued themselves without Snowball”, (Orwell 91). As proven in the text, Napoleon uses the fact that the animals cannot read to do what h e desires. Since the animals can only rely on their memory, which is already so fallible it makes it quite easy for Napoleon to turn his homicidal acts, which are clearly against the original Sixth Commandment (No animal shall kill any other animal) into something acceptable. Moreover, the animals cannot verify Napoleon’s claims with a legitimate source other than the pigs, who are in league with him or the other animals who

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Ignorance played a vital role in the ruin of Animal Farm. The original ideals of the animal revolution were equality, freedom, and a good life. Napoleon, however, betrayed those ideals almost immediately by harnessing the ignorance of the

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In the novel, the pigs capable of reading and writing wrote down Seven Commandments to be followed by all animals to set a standard of equal expectations. But the power grew among the pigs, especially between Snowball and Napoleon as they influence the animals even more. The two began to have controversies over the construction of the windmill. As tension grew, Napoleon released his dogs to chase Snowball away from the farm by force to gain complete control of the farm (Animal Farm, Ch.5). It then became very noticeable that Napoleon had grown in greed and began to use corrupted force against those who opposed him to remain in power, proving to be no better than Mr.

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The pigs lie to the other animals about the food shortage too, along with the outside world. They tell the other animals that food production is up 400% from when Jones ran the farm and this makes all the animals content and none of them question it. The pigs use lying and hypocrisy to make the animals do what they want. If the other animals on the farm knew that the pigs were lying to them about the food supply they would probably rebel and question Napoleon’s leadership. He lies to the animals so that they don’t rebel and so they are content with working under Napoleon’s

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In order to make animals agree to his bidding, Napoleon even begins bringing fear to the animals to keep them silent. “The four pigs who had protested when Napoleon abolished the Meetings raised their voices timidly, but they were promptly silenced by a tremendous growling from the dogs.” (Orwell 63) By bringing his frightening dogs to the public, all animals are forced to agree to whatever Napoleon decrees which soon begins taking away their freedom to speak freely.

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And to the benefit of Napoleon, all the pigs can read. So this creates the

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The dogs could do anything they wanted to do to the animals as long as they were given permission from Napoleon. John Locke said when you try to take anyone's rights you're at a state of war with them and the dogs took away the right to speak freely and the animals were scared to talk about it with each other for the fear of being hurt by the dogs. The dogs wouldn’t let the animals have some of their rights and they were scared and Napoleon could do whatever he wanted to do to the animals. One example of this is Napoleon started ordering the dogs to kill animals. Third, Napoleon was a horrible leader that only cared about his own prosperity and did anything to get to the top.

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Furthermore, Napoleon gives the other animals the impression he was the sole leader of the rebellion on Animal farm and makes Snowball -a leader who wanted what was best for the animals- seem like an enemy who was in cahoots with Farmer Jones since long before the animals took over the farm. Napoleon and Squealer (another “fat cat” pig.) always put the blame on Snowball whenever something went wrong in the farm to avoid having the blame fall on them. Napoleon is an exemplary example of just how selfish and hypocritical people can be in furthering their own aims because he continued to subtly but purposely change the seven rules put in place as the pillars of animalism. For example, Napoleon and the other pigs move into Farmer Jones’s house and sleep in his bed after commanding “No animal shall sleep in a bed”, so he changes the commandment to read “no animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets”.

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Napoleon knew the alphabet faster than any other animal on the farm, and was able to use that against them. . Because he was so wise he could change the writing on the rules to fit his boundaries, while the other animals would not know. “Clover learned the alphabet but could not put the words together, Boxer could not get beyond the letter D.” (Orwell 28) The other animals struggled, and that led the perfect opportunity for Napoleon.

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For the first few years of his rule, Napoleon had no understanding of agriculture. There were often periods of starvation amongst the animals. In this quote we understand the animals are not meant to be portrayed as idiotic because they truly are led to believe in their ruling to be still taking care of them. While Napoleon does not know how to properly manage a farm, he seeks to receive the praise of one who has.

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Throughout history there have been dictators who have corrupted their countries, brainwashed their people, and have been responsible for the deaths of many. In Animal Farm, George Orwell wrote about animals on a farm who were able to speak and suffer through very similar things that humans have suffered through within their country, and under the rule of a modern day dictator. The animals in the novel were fighting for their freedom from the rule of Mr. Jones, a poor leader who often forgot to feed the animals and take care of them daily. Napoleon, a pig, ran out his competition and took power during a time of instability. And suddenly Animal Farm was turned into an allegorical novel. The allegory was for Stalin, the dictator that was responsible

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He twisted the truth and didn’t keep his promises. In Chapter 8 of Animal Farm, George Orwell wrote, “They had thought that Fifth commandment was ‘No animal shall drink alcohol’, but there were two words they had forgotten. Actually the commandment read: ‘No animal shall drink alcohol to excess’” (Text 1). In Animal Farm, Napoleon changed the rules so that he would be able to do what he wants.

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These messages include the importance of an informed and educated public, the prevalence of deception and propaganda, and the concept of absolute power corrupting absolutely. A theme conveyed through Animal Farm that is still relevant today is the importance of an informed, educated public. Following Napoleon’s executions of the traitors, the animals begin to question whether this act went against their established commandments. They thought the Sixth Commandment read: “No animal shall kill any other animal.”

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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.”

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