Animal Farm In the book, Animal Farm written by George Orwell, the animals raise up in rebellion against their human masters in hope for a better life. However, the quote by Lord Acton, a British historian, describes it best: "Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely." This is basically what happens. The pigs realize their intellectual superiority, and use it to their advantage. When this happens, they began to take advantage of the entire society of animals. The pigs of the story sacrifice the good of the whole just for the benefit and pleasure of their selves. To begin with, the story starts when the animals in Manor Farm stage a rebellion against the humans after a rousing speech from Major, a very respected boar in the farm. They chase their human master, Mr. Jones, away and begin to run the farm themselves. At first, all goes well. With Mr. Jones gone, the animals believe they now own the farm collectively, and that they are all equal. The Seven Commandments are soon set up to act as the governing laws for the animals. Among the commandments are "no animal shall kill another animal", "all animals are equal" and "whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy". It is soon decided that the pigs are the most intelligent, and shall be the "brainworkers". Among the pigs, two leaders emerge - Snowball and Napoleon. Problems arise when Snowball and Napoleon disagree on the plan to build a windmill on the farm. Snowball, a talented speaker, easily gains the support of most of the animals. But, unfortunately for him, Napoleon plays dirty and Snowball is chased away from the farm. From here, everything in the farm starts to change. Public debates are abolished and the animals have to take orders from Napoleon. All the animals, except the pigs and dogs, are made to extremely strenuous labor. Their food ration decreases while the pigs grow fatter. Despite this, they are still convinced that life is much better than before when in fact the living condition that they were suffering now were worse than when Mr. Jones had been running the farm. Everything that goes wrong in the farm is blamed on Snowball. He becomes the invisible enemy whose threat is constantly present. For example, when the windmill falls down for the first time, Napoleon, using his cunning, blames it out Snowball, making the animals hate him all the worse.
George Orwell (1903-1950 ), whose real name was Eric Arthur Blair, was born in 1903 in Motihari, Bengal, India. His father, Richard Walmesley Blair was a civil servant for the British colonial government. In 1904 he moved with his mother and sister to England and was educated at Eton. He began to write at an early age, and was even published in college periodicals, but he did not enjoy school.
“The pen is mightier than the sword”, a popular saying, and one that is unequivocally true. Although physical force and power can manipulate someone into acting a certain way, it is not as effective as intelligence. Intelligent people can use the force of their words to extents that physical strength does not extend. Furthermore, intelligent people can use things like propaganda, lies, and deceit to get whatever they want. This is clearly proven by the actions of the pigs in the Animal Farm. Because of their high levels of intelligence compared to the other animals of the farm, the pigs are able to manipulate everyone else to achieve their own personal means through the use of propaganda, lies, and deceit. Propaganda can be seen clearly in the role of the pig Squealer, although it is prevalent throughout the story. In this case, propaganda is used by the pigs to tell the other animals exactly what they want to hear, and to cover up any sort of mistakes on the parts of the pigs. Lies are used to further the personal agendas of the pigs, as well as damage the name of Snowball in the eyes of the animals. Propaganda is used as a defensive measure on the part of the pigs, whereas lies are used as an offensive maneuver by the pigs to strengthen their positions. Deceit is used by the pigs to placate the animals, a maneuver that can be seen as neither offensive nor defensive. Deceit is most prevalent in the maxim of “All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others”
A wise boar, Old Major, expresses a dream of a world where animals live with no human oppression to the rest of the animals in Manor Farm. However, only three days after his speech, he dies, leaving three younger pigs to take over his place and lead the other animals toward Major’s dream. They create the Seven Commandments of Animalism, which set values against acting human-like, and paint them on the wall of the barn. One night, the animals succeed in rebelling against Mr. Jones, the owner of the farm. Initially, farming goes well after the rebellion. However, one of the power-hungry pigs, Napoleon, begins to run a totalitarian dictatorship with an eloquent pig, Squealer, by his side. He also trains puppies, whom he takes from their parents, into vicious guard dogs and uses them to enforce his plans. One by one, the Seven Commandments are broken and altered by Napoleon, who gradually acts more and more human-like. Finally, only one rule remains on the barn wall, “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others” (Orwell 133). Napoleon and the other pigs eventually walk upright, wear clothing, indulge in alcohol, and even sleep on beds (all of which were originally forbidden in the Seven Commandments), while the other animals work all day with little food. By the end of the book, the other farm animals can no longer tell the difference between the pigs and humans when other human farmers are invited over for dinner. “The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which” (Orwell 139).
Orwell deals with the problem of rhetoric in ’Animal Farm’ by demonstrating how language can cause corruption. There are many characters in his book ‘Animal Farm’ that use rhetoric to convince and manipulate, however, the most talented persuasive speaker is Squealer. Squealer’s ability to use rhetoric is unrivalled, this is the reason Napoleon rises to power. Squealer uses the power in language to distort the truth in his speeches. When Napoleon wanted a problem fixed he would simply ask Squealer to talk to the animals and the animals would believe and be on board with whatever he said. Squealer uses many persuasive techniques such as rhetorical questions, inclusive language and exaggeration, but most of all he uses rhetoric. Rhetoric, throughout the book is seen as a bigger enemy than Napoleon or Mr. Jones could have ever been. It shows that there is no good that can come of lying, confusing or distorting true meaning. Orwell does a thorough job at demonstrating how much of a problem rhetoric really is.
hour's sleep in order to hear what he had to say". Old Major was a
Animal Farm portrays many facets of the Communist revolution in Russia; however the book and the movie are both set on a farm in England in the 1950‘s. The book starts with Old Major, the founder of animalism, explaining how the animal rebellion would be coming soon and everyone should be preparing for the revolution. According to the book he died of old age but in the movie he was hit by a bullet from Mr. Jones’s shotgun causing Old Major to fall out of the hay loft and break his neck. Later Napoleon and Snowball come to prepare the animals for the coming revolution. Jones was a drunk and his workers did not always feed the animals regularly so one night Jones to the men out for drinks and they did not return for three days, and when he did return he still did not feed the animals. The animals took it upon themselves to break into the food storage and feed themselves and they were happy until Jones heard the noise they were making and went in there to see what was going on and when he tried to stop them they all attack him at once and chased him and his men of the property and then it was all theirs. Snowball started right away showing them the ways of animalism and stating that they were rules to live by. Snowball wrote The Seven Commandments of Animalism which are as follows: whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy, whatever goes upon four legs or has wings is a friend, no animal shall wear clothes, no animal shal...
In the novel Animal Farm by George Orwell, the pig Napoleon uses specific tactics to gain power and control over the animal farm. Some of these techniques include controlling information through education, scapegoating, use of fear, swaying public opinion and blind obedience.
Animal Farm is a story of how the animals revolted because of the way they were treated by Mr. Jones, the farmer. They felt that the farmers made all the profit, reaped all the rewards but didn't do any of the work. So they formed a government called Animalism. In Animalism, there are no owners, no rich, but no poor, workers got a better life, and all animals are equal. They had even established laws called the Seven Commandments, which were intended to give basic rights to animals and protect them from oppression. The goals of the government were also established. The goals said that everyone was equal, there would be more food and sleep for all, there was to be respect for all animals, and they would build a windmill to make life better for all. By the end of the book, all this no longer existed. The animals were getting less sleep, less food, and less respect. The windmill became a source of money for the leaders, not for all the animals. The seven commandments were gradually changed to suit the pigs and then there was only one Commandment left. "'Are the Seven Commandments the same as they used to be, Benjamin?' There was nothing now except for a single Commandment. It ran: All animals are equal but some are more equal than others" That single commandment made the pigs more powerful. Animalism no longer existed.
back. I dream of a land without pigs, a land full of animals worthy of
Animal Farm was written by George Orwell and published in 1946. This story is about the Manor Farm in England, around the time of the Russian revolution. The animals on this farm started their own revolution because they were so irritated with the way they were being treated.
According to Stephen Covey an "Effective leader is one who is putting first things first. Effective management is discipline, carrying it out.” In addition, according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, effective means “producing positive effects”, and a leader is “one who heads an organization.” In Animal Farm, by George Orwell, Napoleon is the character who portrays these traits along with the trait of practicing utilitarianism. Therefore, Napoleon is an effective leader who increases the economy of Animal Farm and practices utilitarianism, the greatest good for the greatest number.
The fiction book that I am doing my book report is on the novel, Animal Farm. This book was written by George Orwell in 1946. The setting of my book took place in a farm called “Manor Farm” during the Russian Revolution ear. The characters are basically farm animals. Some of these animals’ names are Old Major, Snowball, and Napoleon. They are all pigs from the farm.
It is worse to suffer in ignorance than to know how awful the situation is and to endure it. In the novel Animal Farm written George Orwell the animal suffer from the situation of Napoleon leading, Orwell sates "things never had been, nor ever could be much better or much worse—hunger, hardship, and disappointment being, so he said, the unalterable law of life" (pg87 Orwell). This tells the reader that animals are suffering from the corrupted leader. Boxer, Clover, Sheep, and Benjamin suffer the most because they see the problem, they know Napoleon is not doing the right thing but they do not face the problem because either they are scared of Napoleon or they just do not want to involved in that situation.
There is a substantial amount of conflicts that occur in this satirical story. Often these conflicts are between the pigs and the rest of the animals. Only a minute portion of the animals didn’t really have some sort of conflict with Snowball, Napoleon, Squealer, or the rest of the dominating pigs. Overall, Snowball was a better leader than Napoleon, yet the animals reacted differently to Napoleon than to Snowball.
The original dream of Animalism was not to just have animals successfully run a farm, but to live by certain rules. Rules such as, all animals are equal, no animal shall kill another, and no animals shall drink, wear clothes, sleep in a bed, or do anything else that has to do with humans. This dream was a failure, because Napoleon disobeyed all of these rules throughout the story of Animal Farm. The dream of Animalism failed because of Napoleon’s selfish nature, and inability to abide by rules that he found inconvenient.