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Fear In George Orwell's Animal Farm

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Throughout history, different leaders have used fear as a method of gaining control and power. During the Russian Revolution, specifically the Soviet Union, Stalin starved people, and created his own Secret Police. A current event, with similar abuse of fear, was Trump banning Muslim countries from entering the United States. In the book “Animal Farm”, by George Orwell, the farm turned into a monarchy powered by fear. Fear is a strong emotion used by leaders all over the historical timeline as a primary method of control. Napoleon’s nefarious usage of fear as an emotion gained him control and power over the animals. He used their terror of Mr. Jones, Snowball, and losing their farm, to get them to obey him and do what he wanted. The looming …show more content…

After the nine enormous guard dogs of Napoleon’s chased Snowball off the farm, the “animals crept back into the barn, silent and terrified” (Orwell 48). Napoleon trained the dogs to growl and snap at any animal that fell out of line, starting with the expulsion of Snowball. The animals immediately learned to fear the dogs, and there was order on the farm. Orwell connected events in the story to many events in the Russian Revolution, such as when Stalin gave his secret police force no rules, and too much power, allowing them to “[become] a direct instrument of Stalin for use against the country” (Library of Congress). These police were the most powerful men other than Stalin himself during the Stalinist time period, and inflicted terror everywhere they went. The citizens were scared into turning each other in, and doing everything Stalin or the police wanted. History is repeating itself in that “Trump signed an executive order blocking citizens of six predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States” (Thrush). This act has caused Muslim’s in both the US and the banned countries to fear Trump and what might happen to them. He is using this fear to keep them out of the country, abusing power to control them. Fear can be used as a powerful method of

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