The Theme Of Corruption In George Orwell's Animal Farm

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Composers create dystopian texts to comment on social issues that revolve around us today. Animal Farm is a famous novel written by George Orwell, first published on the 17th of August in 1995. In the novel, Orwell explores the events leading up to the Russian Revolution of 1917, and then onto the Stalinist era of the Soviet Union. Orwell uses a variety of social issues to comment on this idea, and two of the many social issues he uses are social issues of dictatorship and the way power can corrupt, basically social issues of the time period through the following historical events. A social issue explored in Animal Farm, in relation to the Soviet Union during the Russian Revolution, is the idea of corruption. The pigs in Animal Farm turn …show more content…

This character represents Joseph Stalin, who was the dictator during the Russian Revolution. In chapter V, Squealer states, “No one believes more firmly than comrade Napoleon that all animals are equal. He would be only too happy to let you make your decisions for yourselves. But sometimes you might make the wrong decisions, comrades, and then where should we be?” This statement uses a rhetorical question which serves the purpose of persuading and manipulating the animals into genuinely believing that they are all equal and that Napoleon is a communist that only has good intentions for all everyone around him, not just himself. The quote shows the deliberate misguidance under the dictatorship of both Stalin and Napoleon himself. As a result, the rhetorical question creates an illusion in which manipulates the animals in such ways that it gets to the point where their voices, opinions, and beliefs, are no longer their own. This is a method used to stop them from making decisions in relation to the governing of Animal Farm. Napoleon and Stalin were both portrayed harsh, cruel, and oppressive leaders, who ruined many lives through methods of manipulation, tyranny and deception. Under these autocratic regimes, it was common that people lived in fear and poverty. This is portrayed in Animal Farm through characters such as Benjamin the donkey, and Boxer the cart horse. Benjamin is a