Examples Of Power In Animal Farm By George Orwell

“Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” states Lord Acton. This quote is portrayed in the real world as when one’s power increases, they feel more entitled to act in an egocentric way. When they have the power, they feel less constrained to act morally and their moral senses diminish. In the novel, Animal Farm, by George Orwell, this is illustrated as the animals’ desire for freedom and equality is corrupted by the consolidation of political power amongst the pigs. The pigs' use of propaganda, fear, and their abuse of power allows their corrupt authority to prosper. The pigs spread misinformation, propaganda and lies to remain in control of power. To begin, the animals being illiterate and uneducated allowed the

[...] Milk and apples … contain substances absolutely necessary to the well-being of a pig [...] It is for your sake that we drink that

Secondly, Napoleon takes advantage of the fact that minor changes go almost unnoticed and changes the commandment. “Whatever goes upon four legs or has wings, is a friend and whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy” (31). The pigs turned this commandment into “Four legs good, two legs better” (49). The changes to the commandments are made since the pigs start walking on two which illustrates how they change only things that benefit them. Additionally, Pigs become in complete control and are the new aristocracy. “ Somehow it seemed though the farm had grown richer without making the animals themselves any richer except, of course, for the pigs and dogs” (121). The pigs do not partake in any physical labour however, they abuse their power so they become the sole animals to be profiting from the exploitation of the other animals on the farm. Indeed, the animals cannot tell the difference between man and pig as they begin walking on two legs, etc. “The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to which was which” (131). This illustrates how corrupt the pigs had become after receiving power. They adopted the same behaviours as the humans that were known as the enemy. The pigs abuse power to bend the commandments and profit from the other animals'