Manipulation Through Leaders In George Orwell's 'Animal Farm'

Ethan Ellis

ELA 10

Mr. Delgado

Period 7

Manipulation through leaders

Propaganda can be described as someone’s attempts to make someone agree with them through many different tactics. This idea is significant because in Animal Farm the pigs try to manipulate the other animals by telling them a false version of the past to get them on their side. For example, towards the end of the story, the sheep instead of repeating “four legs good, two legs bad” start repeating “four legs good, two legs better. These concepts are emphasized through “Animal Farm” by George Orwell.

Throughout the story, Orwell refers to propaganda through persuasive speech and changing details. The author points out when the pigs change the 7 original commandments to 1 commandment simplifying the idea of animalism to “All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others”(Orwell 134). The evidence is reinforcing the idea of the pigs changing details to make them have more power over the other animals. An examination of this evidence reveals that the pigs think they are better than the other animals, so they do what they can to give them the most

The author points out (Orwell 132-134) that the pigs come out of the farmhouse in a line all walking on their hind legs while the sheep are chanting “four legs good, two legs better”. The evidence is reinforcing the idea of the pigs using their skill in language to further help them exploit and put a “better future” in the sheep minds so the sheep now think that two legs are better than four when at the beginning of the story two legs were the bad guys. The point is important because the pigs manipulate the sheep so instead of the sheep saying “four legs good, two legs bad” like they used to, they are now saying “four legs good, two legs better” to carefully gain control over the animals and slowly turn more into