How Did Napoleon Lose His Power In Animal Farm

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A leader has incredible power, but with it he can choose to build up the community as a whole or to keep all the power to himself. Many leaders choose to keep all the power to themselves, but they still need a follower who believes every word the leader says. In George Orwell’s, Animal Farm, the animals decide to rebel against Farmer Jones, as they did not like the way they were treated. Life on the farm seemed promising after the rebellion, until Napoleon got greedy. Napoleon ran off any threats to his power and took away the other animals rights slowly, using his trusted followers, until he treated the other animals worse than Mr. Jones. The animals on Animal Farm lost their freedom and equality, but they could have stopped their freedom …show more content…

Squealer and the dogs never questioned Napoleon’s ways, and blindly followed Napoleon with a full trust in Napoleon’s ways. Meanwhile, as Napoleon was getting other animals to confess, the dogs were punishing by death whoever did not confess. For example, “... when they had finished their confession the dogs promptly tore their throats out, and in a terrible voice Napoleon demanded whether any other animal had anything to confess” (Orwell 84). The dogs took away the animals freedom to live, with no proof that they even did what they confessed. Then as a result of the first killings, the dogs scared the other animals into confessing to things they did not do which takes away the freedom to make choices. Likewise, at the end of chapter three, Squealer was trying to convince the others that Napoleon supported the windmill, and Napoleon not wanting a windmill was all an act to get Snowball out. The animals had questions about the things Squealer said, but Squealer and the dogs made it so they had no more questions, In particular, “The animals were not certain what the word meant, but Squealer spoke so persuasively, and the three dogs who happened to be with him growled so threateningly that they accepted this explanation without further questions” (Orwell 58). All of this was taking away the freedom to ask questions as they were stopped by fear inflicted by the dogs, so they don’t question Napoleon. Also the other animals lose their freedom to understand what is really happening by using big words, which the other animals don’t understand. This all leads to their freedoms slowly disappearing. If the animals were able to understand what was happening, they might have fought against Napoleon and would not have lost all their freedom and equality in the end. Additionally, at the end of chapter eight, a huge event happened and only one of the animals could realize that Squealer was