Corruption In George Orwell's Animal Farm

Lord Acton – a British Historian from the 19th Century once said, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely”. His maxim is seen in many cases and is also shown in Orwell’s Animal Farm as power is strength and authority, which is any form of influence, the ability to sway, and control. When an individual is given too much power, a dictatorship is formed – where all decisions are made by one authority. Thus, it is to say that power always causes corruption.

In the satire, Old Major, the most respected animal on the farm, had rallied many of the animals on the farm to start a rebellion against Farmer Jones – the owner of the farm. And because Old Major was so respected, he essentially had all the power. But, history has proven that dictatorships don’t always work as all the power easily leads to corruption, which then leads to a communist-style government. The power Old Major had led his comrades into taking actions for his desires, leading to the future tragedies on the farm.

Further on in the novel, with the death

Both pigs were in constant debate as Snowball proposed an ambitious plan to build a windmill as it would supply “the farm with electrical power.” (23), increasing general comfort and production, although production would decrease until then . While Napoleon argued that “the great need of the moment was to increase food production, and that if they wasted time on the windmill, they would all starve to death.” (24) The debate would finally come to an end when Napoleon “uttered a high-pitched whimper of a kind no one had ever heard him utter before.” (25) Which signaled an attack on Snowball, causing him to run in fear and out of the farm. Thus Napoleon was made the sole leader of Animal Farm. Using his knowledge and support from the pigs and dogs, Napoleon had absolute power over everyone, ruling Animal Farm with an “Iron