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Power Corruption In George Orwell's Animal Farm

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Georg Orwell released the satirical novel Animal Farm in 1945. This story follows the animals on Manor Farm as they overthrow the abusive human farmers and take control of the farm. Then the intelligent pigs gain power and under the leadership of Napoleon they become gradually more corrupt until they are indistinguishable from the humans they had once despised. This story acted as an allegory for the Russian Revolution in which the Bolsheviks revolted against the tsarist government and instituted communism, which eventually lead to Joseph Stalin gaining power. In Animal Farm Orwell portrays the overarching theme of “power corrupts” through Napoleon’s use of fear, propaganda, and lies to maintain power while making allegorical connections to …show more content…

One instance of lying is when Squealer was trying to explain that they will begin engaging in trade and says, “He assured them that the resolution against engaging in trade and using money had never been passed, or even suggested. It was pure imagination, probably traceable in the beginning to lies circulated by Snowball.” (page 64) This is a blatant lie as two of the Ten Commandments set at the beginning of the story were that animals can’t engage in trade or use money. After this rule became inconvenient to the pigs they changed it without asking or informing the other animals. Then they lied and convicted the animals that it never existed by diverting blame to Snowball who they would believe deceived the animals. Other examples lies are those told about Snowball after he fled the farm, such as when Squealer asked, “Did we not see for ourselves how he attempted — fortunately without success — to get us defeated and destroyed at the Battle of the Cowshed?” (page 79-80). Snowball had, in reality, fought valiantly at the Battle of the Cowshed and was a key part of the animals’ success. Throughout Animal Farm Napoleon continuously defamed Snowball while elevating his own image. By ruining Snowball’s reputation and erasing, or taking credit for, his contributions to the farm Napoleon controls the narrative in way that makes him seem like a hero and makes his former political rival into a evil traitor. This

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Snowball!" (Orwell 49). In other words, the accusatory tone makes Napoleon's words more serious and enhance his and Snowball's rivalry, the quote always makes someone realize that even though someone might seem loyal, there is a chance they are not. In historical terms, Napoleon's and Snowball's counterparts, Stalin and Trotsky never got along to the point where Stalin forced him into exile. Later in the novel, it is revealed that Snowball had been working with the enemy just as Trotsky did.

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Squealer and Napoleon do everything they can to convince the others that Snowball is the villain and the problem when in reality it's Napoleon. They try to create a different version of history

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“Power does not corrupt. Fear corrupts... perhaps the fear of a loss of power.” – John Steinbeck. According to John Steinbeck it’s not absolute power that corrupts people, its fear of losing that power. When people gain power that he may do as he/she would like, then forthwith he/she starts contemplating about how he/she may preserve this load of power, and if he/she contemplating about how to preserve this power then he anticipates losing it

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Later in the book, the readers find out that it was actually Napoleon’s plan to build the windmill, and Napoleon arguing against the idea was just a manoeuvre to get rid of Snowball. In this illustration, Napoleon misleads all of the animals with his words that clearly showed that he opposed Snowball’s plan, and this led some of the animals to no longer trust Napoleon. Napoleon suspected that some animals had betrayed him, and gathered them together. Napoleon asked the ones he suspected to come to the front, and “without any further prompting, they

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1323 Words | 6 Pages

At the beginning of the novel, it can be observed that Napoleon and Snowball work together closely and collaboratively discuss ideas for the farm. As Napoleon becomes more influential and powerful, he gradually begins to recognise Snowball as a dangerous rival. Their disagreements culminate with a dispute over whether to develop a windmill on the farm. Snowball argues it is essential to the progress of the farm, whilst Napoleon believes it is a waste of time and resources. Fed up with Snowball’s unwavering competition and hindrance, Napoleon employs the scare tactic of the dogs to chase Snowball off the farm.

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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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Snowball works at teaching the animals to read, and Napoleon takes a group of young puppies to educate them in the principles of Animalism. When Mr. Jones reappears to take back his farm, the animals defeat him again, which is called as the Battle of the Cowshed. In one of the Sunday meetings, Snowball makes an idea to build a windmill, but Napoleon doesn't like the plan. At the end, they decided to build it. In another Sunday meeting, Napoleon announces that there would be voluntary work on Sunday afternoon but whoever doesn’t work, their rations will be reduced by half.

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They often disagreed on many issues involving the farm until Napoleon expelled Snowball from the farm. However even after the expulsion of Snowball, with the use of persuasive language the pigs still find a way to blame him for any misfortune the farm may encounter. To begin, the pigs blame Snowball for destroying the windmill in which the animals worked soo long to build. “Comrades," he said quietly, ‘do you know who is responsible for this? Do you know the enemy who has come in the night and overthrown our windmill?

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Animal farm is a book written by George Orwell. The book is a reflection of the events of the Russian Revolution and Joseph Stalin’s rise to power. Joseph Stalin is represented by Napoleon and the story follows the events that lead up to Napoleon’s rule over Animal Farm. During the novel, Napoleon uses both psychological and physical fear to control the animals. This is proved by Napoleon using Jones and Snowball as a Physiological fear, to prevent rebellion.

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Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely” (Lord Acton) This quote is telling us that when people get into roles of absolute power they tend to become corrupt, as a result of that power. This quote can be applied to Napoleon from the book Animal Farm by George Orwell, because at the beginning of the novel Old Major’s words inspired Napoleon. As a result, he believed that humans were evil for forcing animals to work for them and that animals should be able to live freely, not under anyone’s control; however, as the story progresses his belief changed and the animals did not get to live their utopian dream. At the start Napoleon and the other pigs strongly believed that all animals were equal and had the right to live in a place that took care of their well being.

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Napoleon in the novel is not a wise character. However, he occupies the leader’s position since he is intimidating and authoritative. In contrast, Snowball who is portrayed as the intelligent character, somehow gets expelled from the farm, because he was not as manipulative as Napoleon. To begin with, Orwell uses propaganda as one way of illustrating the theme of power. Napoleon and Squealer both utilize propaganda to brainwash and motivate the animals into following their orders, such as when Snowball teaches the sheep into chanting the slogan, “Four legs good, two legs bad!”(Orwell, page 34).

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1170 Words | 5 Pages

Back in history, many leaders are overthrown and killed because corruption of power. Due to the fact, power was not distributed properly to the people they often feel uncomfortable and leads to rebellion. Yet, power corruptions are common these days, it is proven that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely by history and in modern days. In George Orwell’s Animal Farm, Lord Acton’s statement, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” applies to much of the rulers in Animal Farm that show dictatorship and violence.

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1354 Words | 6 Pages

“Animal Farm” by George Orwell, is a story to show how absolute power corrupts, just as Stalin’s power did during the Russian Revolution in 1917. In the allegory “Animal Farm” each character represents a political figure from the days around the Russian Revolution. For example, Joseph Stalin is represented by a pig named Napoleon, Squealer, another pig, represents Stalin’s propaganda department, and the dogs represent the Secret Police (KBG). Using the nine dogs that Napoleon raises (intimidation), Squealer (propaganda), and manipulation, Orwell illustrates how Napoleon was able to gain and maintain control of the farm. The nine dogs that stay by Napoleon at all times are useful for Napoleon to gain and maintain control of the farm because they scare the other animals, intimidating them so that they do not disobey Napoleon.

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804 Words | 4 Pages

George Orwell’s novel, Animal Farm, was a great example of political satire and allegory. One of the main ideas in this novel was how each event paralleled events from the Russian Revolution. The novel was written to criticize tyrannical rule and particularly Joseph Stalin's corrupt rule in Russia. The characters, settings, and plot described the social disturbance during this period and proved how the good nature of communism could be turned into something atrocious from an idea as simple as greed.

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Stalin, the leader of the Communist army in Russia and the most powerful man in the past uses violence to the ones that go against him. He has a style of dictatorship where many people suffer. Gunshots going across, people dying out, outcry, burst in tears with bruises all over the body, killing in harsh condition all occurs during Russian Revolution. The historical background of George Orwell’s Animal Farm is also the Russian Revolution. In the book, Napoleon uses dictatorship to order other animals, uses accuration, and give harsh punishment who block his way.

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