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Ignorance And Corruption In George Orwell's Animal Farm

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The Russian Revolution was a political and social revolt. To the Russian citizens, it was a gander of hope and innovation towards a civilization of parity, but the extent of this revolution was nothing more than a horrendous nightmare full of totalitarianism, genocide, and corruption. Animal Farm is an allegory to the revolution, its characters are parallels to people from the revolution, like Joseph Stalin, and Czar Nicholas II. Orwell’s analogies to the revolution are easily interpreted, and indisputably well put together. While reading Animal Farm, an audience can learn to view partisanship, and corruption as individuals and societies. In the preface of Animal farm Russel Baker says, “Orwell left us a lesson about the human contribution …show more content…

Napoleon is able to stay on top and keep his power by keeping the animals uneducated. When the animals did have the chance to gain an education some of them just didn’t care enough to try. A corrupt leader will keep their citizens uneducated, and as the philosopher Plato has said, “Ignorance is the root and stem of all evil.” In chapter three it says that none of the animals with a few exceptions, knew any letters after the letter A, and the stupider animals didn’t even remember the commandments by heart (Orwell 33). The ignorance to not even bother to learn how to read or write, or remember the law, allows Napoleon to manipulate the animals further in the story when he makes changes to the commandments. The Napoleon-trained dogs are also a clear prognostic to his corruption. They’re the equivalent of the secret police, in this allegory, they’re the equivalent of the KGB. In chapter nine, Napoleon has chased out Snowball, and has abolished the Sunday meeting, and enforced new rules onto the animals, this arouses confusion, and just when the pigs where going to argue Napoleon's dogs let out frightening growls, which shut the pigs up (Orwell 54). Napoleon uses his dogs to assert his authority and incite fear and stop any further questioning. If the animals together were strong enough to overthrow a human, and scare off a group of them in The Battle Of The Cowshed, why couldn’t they overthrow Napoleon? Because they feared him, the animal's disquietude and ignorance allowed such horrendous things to happen. Since the animals weren’t as educated as the pigs or the dogs, they could never gain an argument big enough to speak out and counteract

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Actually the [Fifth] Commandment read: ‘No animal shall drink alcohol to excess'" (Doc A). This evidence helps show how Napoleon is able to stay in charge because it shows how the pigs change the seven commandments to get what they want. By doing this, the pigs can keep changing the animals' ideology to control them however they want for their own advantage.

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During this scene, the animals are spying on the pigs. The bible verse Philippians 2:3 has a connection to this because it says to do nothing out of selfish ambition and to value others above yourself, while the pigs are being selfish with the house and hogging all the food for

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“The pigs’ ear were bleeding, the dogs had tasted blood” This quote from Animal Farm truly shows how much power Napoleon possesses on all of the other unintelligent animals. Napoleon generates a lot of fear on the animals and Squealer uses propaganda on the animals that are too stupid to think for themselves. If the animals were all educated: Napoleon would not be in power, because they would all be fighting for power, would not have been easily manipulated, and They would not be fooled by the change of the seven commandments, however some may think otherwise because Napoleon generates fear through the dogs. The animals would all be fighting for power.

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Throughout the book, Napoleon is seen breaking a variety of rules that contradict his previous beliefs, one of which being the 7 commandments. The 7 commandments were a set of ‘rules’ made in the second chapter of the book, to show what animal farm stands for. When the pigs moved into the farm house in chapter 6, the fourth commandment, “No animal shall sleep in a bed” (Orwell, page 24) was broken. When the Animals start questioning Napoleon because they feel as though he has broken one of the seven commandments, Squealer swiftly changes it without their knowledge to make it slightly different but still justifiable in the circumstances. This demonstrates Napoleon's eventual corruption because he believes he can get away with anything by using

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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.

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One way he does this by using the pups to bark and growl at the animals. This helps Napoleon stay in power because if the animals are scared, they know that they should not to mess Napoleon. This helps Napoleon because it makes the animals afraid to argue and talk to him about leading all of the animals and staying in control. Another reason how Napoleon stays in power is my scaring the animals by telling them, “Jones would come back!” (Doc C, Chapter 3)

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Ignorance allows people to be oppressed in many ways without them realizing it. it allows things to slip right past their minds as they make their choices they bury them further into oppression. The animal's behavior in the novel allows them to be oppressed by the pigs who were smarter and able to outwit the Dumber of the animals. the animals followed the pigs despite abuse and neglect such as lying and stealing from them not only as individuals but also as a whole. Yet, they still held the pigs to the highest of power and with the utmost respect.

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The ensuing rebellion under the leadership of the pigs Napoleon and Snowball leads to the animals taking over the farm. Vowing to eliminate the terrible inequities of the farmyard, the renamed Animal Farm is organised to benefit all who walk on four legs. But as time passes, the ideals of the rebellion are corrupt, then forgotten. This is all due to the lust for power that the pigs Napoleon and Snowball have that made them all selfish and corrupted. Animal farm in context to The Russian Revolution in terms of corrupting influence of power : Orwell 's goal was to portray the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the early years of the Soviet Union that resulted in a more oppressive and deadly government than the one it overthrew.

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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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Such was what men devoted to communism, like George Orwell, author of the book Animal Farm, might have beheld when facing the despotism in Russia under the charade of communism, and such was the sight of the animals of Animal Farm, when the pigs march out of the farmhouse on two feet, triumphant, as dominators, as humans. Though late in the narrative, multiple factors clearly make this the turning point. It is because of the animal 's protests, the indifference of the pigs, and the sharp contrast the author draws between the mood before and after this scene that this is the turning point where the reader is simultaneously enraged and disappointed. For the first time, the animals want to protest against the pigs ' actions.

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Animal Farm Essay How are allegories relevant when discussing societies issues of human nature? George Orwell’s novel Animal Farm explores this question through the characters in his book. The Novel was based around people and events of the Russian revolution that occurred during 19… and revealing many truths of human nature and existence throughout the novel. George Orwell portrays his characters as animals with human traits and allows readers to infer what he is revealing about human nature through these characters.

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Early on, Orwell begins with a speech from Old Major. He states that humans are evil and that animals are comrades. “Man is the only creature that consumes without producing... Yet he is the lord of all animals. He sets them to work, he gives back to them the bare minimum that will prevent them from starving, and the rest he keeps for himself”(Orwell, 1946).

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Orwell’s important message Animal farm is a novel written by Eric Arthur Blair, or George Orwell as he called himself when publishing his works. The book is a clear allegory of the events leading up to the Russian revolution in 1917, and during Stalin’s regime. Orwell himself stated that every line of serious work he had written since 1936, was written against totalitarianism (Orwell, 3). In no way is Animal Farm an exception. George Orwell wrote Animal Farm to warn the English people about the dangers of Totalitarian regimes, more specifically a newly present danger - communism.

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George Orwell lived during a very tumultuous time, serving in the Indian Imperial Police, and seeing both World Wars and the Spanish Civil War. While surrounded by this near-constant state of strife, Orwell used writing as a way to comment on political situations and to pass on an understanding to his readers. In his novella, Animal Farm, Orwell uses the allegory of a farm to comment on the failures of Stalinism in the Soviet Union. As a man whose strong political convictions were shaped by his surroundings, it is no surprise that Orwell finds his purpose for writing in political commentary. Orwell’s purpose for writing is so severely political that he states that every novel he wrote after 1936 was written “directly or indirectly against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism” (268).

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