Animal Farm Text Response Essay

Animal Farm - Text Response

What prevented the animals from achieving their dream of the ideal society

Animal farm can be considered a mere fairy story, yet, on another level it is an allegory for the Russian Revolution, criticising the corruption of politics and communism. The animals dream of the ideal society, yet are prevented from achieving it for a vast array of reasons. However, it is necessary to distinguish the pigs from the other animals. The pigs did attain their ideal society - controlling the farm and obtaining human luxuries such as money and alcohol - but the other animals were not capable of reaching their utopian ideals. The animals’ ideal society consists of treating others fairly and every individual contributing to the

Though Napoleon was the one prompting him, without Squealer’s talents, brainwashing the animals would have been difficult. When the pigs breach the rules, Squealer justifies that it was done in order to protect the farm and establishes the pigs as the disadvantaged party. For instance, when the pigs take extra food, Squealer argues that the pigs “actually dislike milk and apples [the foods the pigs had taken]” and are they only eat them since they “contain substances absolutely necessary to the well-being of a pig”. Using a mixture of truth and lies, with evidence and emotive words Squealer ends by stating that it is “for the sake of” the other animals that pigs eat the milk and apples. In addition, the subtle changing of the seven original commandments to manipulate the animals and sustain the pigs’ privileges exhibits the power of language. Moreover, the Battle of Cowshed is completely rewritten with Napoleon as the hero and Snowball the traitor, the other animals believe this, and other propaganda since the pigs are the only ones with a high level of literacy and ability to remember and confirm facts with the exception of Benjamin who does not involve himself in these matters. Propaganda is related to Napoleon’s reign of fear because of the constant threats regarding Mr Jones’ return and Snowball’s murderous

Propaganda is used when Squealer threatens the animals that if hey left to their own devices - without Napoleon to guide them - Jones will return. In order to exert his influence, Napoleon resorted to violence and broke a major rule of Animalism by killing the other animals. Four pigs who had opposed Napoleon’s dictatorship and the hens who defied orders and hid their eggs were dragged “squealing with pain and terror” to Napoleon and confessed to false crimes. Without leniency, the pigs and hens were slaughtered. Referring to the aforementioned event, “they [the animals] had come to a time when no one dared speak his mind, when fierce, growling dogs roamed everywhere, and when you had to watch your comrades torn to pieces after confessing to shocking crimes.” This shows the murders were fruitful and years of training the puppies to build a force which would silence opposition had