Abuse Of Power In Animal Farm By George Orwell

Can you imagine what life would be like living under the rule of a dictator pig? The animals in Animal Farm by George Orwell unfortunately experience this first hand. In the novel, the farm animals rebel against their owner and drive him out, and thus Manor Farm is renamed Animal Farm and the animals begin to govern themselves. They all agree that the smartest animal should be considered the leader, therefore Snowball and Napoleon, both pigs, are put in charge. However, as the story goes along, Napoleon exiles Snowball and becomes corrupted with power, and despite claiming that everyone is equal, Napoleon lives in luxury while the rest suffer under his rule. In reality, the animals should be the ones blamed for allowing Napoleon to rule over them.

First of all, Napoleon inflicts fear in the animals. He is able to cut all of the hens’ rations when they rebelled, and publicly execute fellow animals free-of-charge. To clarify, an excerpt from the book states: “…there was a pile of corpses lying before Napoleon’s feet and the air was heavy with the smell of blood” (p. 84). If the animals attempt to rebel, Napoleon can easily retaliate with his guard dogs, and if he decides not to kill them, he can abuse and neglect them afterwards. Secondly, a few animals are smart enough to react, but do nothing. Characters such as Benjamin, Clover, and Muriel are shown reading multiple times throughout the story. For instance, Benjamin yells, “Fools! Do you not see what is written on the side of that van?” (p. 122). The smarter animals are obviously capable of coming up with a plan, yet do nothing due to their fear of Napoleon and his reckless behavior. To conclude, because Napoleon rules Animal Farm with an iron fist, the smarter animals are unable to rebel, as they are too passive and