How Does Orwell Use Violence In Animal Farm

Eric Arthur Blair, better known by his pen name George Orwell, was a popular English novelist, essayist, journalist, and critic. He grew up in England, working and living in India while it was under British rule. His work is marked by awareness of social injustice, opposition to totalitarianism, and outspoken support of democratic socialism. Much of this stems from his experiences fighting in wars, specifically his time as assistant district superintendent in the Indian Imperial Police where he realised how the Burmese were ruled by the British against their will. Witnessing this caused Orwell to quit the army and turn to writing as a career. He used his writing to express his fears about a future threatened by war and fascism. In his novels,

It parallels the Russian Revolution with the pigs eventually taking the humans place as dictators. In Animal Farm, Orwell criticizes the ways that dictators use violence and terror to frighten their populaces into submission. Violence is one of the problems from which the animals wish to free themselves when they prepare for the Rebellion. Not only does Jones overwork the animals and steal the products of their labor, but he can whip or slaughter them at his discretion. Once the pigs gain control of the animals, they, like Jones, discover how useful violence and terror can be. They use this knowledge to their full advantage. One pig named Snowball desires a democracy with voting and planning for the future, but another pig named Napoleon is hungry for power and violence. Snowball begins drawing plans for a windmill, which will provide electricity and thereby give the animals more leisure time, but Napoleon vehemently opposes such a plan on the grounds that building the windmill will allow them less time for producing food. On the Sunday that the pigs offer the windmill to the animals for a vote, Napoleon summons a pack of ferocious dogs, who chase Snowball off the farm forever. Napoleon's lust for power slowly increases throughout the novel to the point where he becomes a totalitarian dictator, forcing ‘confessions’ from innocent animals and having the dogs he raised kill them in

Many types of governments make use of propaganda, not only totalitarian ones. Propaganda serves the positive task of uniting the people, sometimes at the cost of misleading them. Orwell takes a firm stance on the harmfulness of propaganda in Animal Farm while acknowledging its value for rallying a mistreated and disillusioned populace. In chapter nine, Orwell demonstrates the positive value of propaganda. By this point, the animals are so downtrodden that they are desperate for something in which to believe. The falsely optimistic statistics, the songs, and especially the Spontaneous Demonstrations give the animals something to live for. For the majority of Animal Farm, however, Orwell skewers propaganda and exposes its nature as deception. Squealer represents a totalitarian government propaganda machine. Eloquent to a fault, he can make the animals believe almost anything. This fact is especially clear in Squealer’s interactions with Clover and Muriel. Each time Clover suspects that the Seven Commandments have been changed, Squealer manages to convince her that she is wrong. In addition to being a source of manipulation, propaganda is an agent of fear and terror. Orwell demonstrates this quite clearly with Napoleon’s vilification of Snowball and his