Animal Farm by George Orwell

981 Words2 Pages

According to the oxford Canadian dictionary the word revolution means “the forcible overthrow of a government or social order, in favor of a new system.” In the fiction novel Animal Farm, George Orwell retells the history of Soviet Communism but where the characters are disguised as animals. Corruption of power is the cause of most revolutions. This is evident through how humans start revolutions to reclaim justice, how their ego makes them want more power, and how excessive power cannot be controlled. Through history humans start revolutions to reclaim justice. In the novel, Old Major a twelve year old prize-winning boar, gathers all the comrades to tell them about the dream he had and to give certain advice and wisdom that he gained through his life. “What then must we do? Why, work night and day, body and soul, for the overthrow of the human race! That is my message to you, comrades: Rebellion!” (Orwell 5). Old Major gives the comrades hope for a better tomorrow and sparks their fires to start a revolution. Old Major is not happy with the current treatment of the animals. He has a vision of what the future may hold and the justice that could be achieved after a revolution. The two pigs Napoleon and Snowball take the lead after Old Major’s death and start preparing for the revolution. “Several nights a week after Mr. Jones was asleep, they held secret meetings in the barn and expounded the principles of Animalism to the others” (Orwell 10). Snowball and Napoleon started preparing for the revolution, hoping for justice to take its course as a result of the rebellion. They had a perfect vision of what their situation could be like after the revolution. They knew they needed power to begin their plans and they hoped for the justic... ... middle of paper ... ...d to in formal style as “our Leader, Comrade Napoleon”, the pigs liked to invent for him such titles as Father of All Animals”(Orwell 62). The Comrades became brainwashed and started seeing Napoleon, who is just another animal like them, as a Father. On the wall beside the seven commandments the animals even wrote him a poem. Excessive power and dictatorship makes it easier to influence the public and to make them believe information that may not necessarily be true. To conclude, excessive power by one individual cannot be controlled, human’s ego pushes a person to want more power and most revolutions are started to reclaim justice are the evidence on how power corruption is the cause for most rebellions. Through history, there have been many examples of power corruptions that lead to different consequences. Revolutions are the consequences of power corruption.

Open Document