Scapegoat In George Orwell's Animal Farm

All societies will endure times of great trouble where people suffer, and in that suffering, discontent will give birth to voices offering a solution. While some, holding the most genuine motives, will whole heartedly rise to the challenge, others will seem parallel in these actions, but will refuse to take responsibility for any attributions made to the system, doing so in a reckless prosecution towards power. Before establishing a solution, one must find a scapegoat, a targeted group of people, to condemn. This is followed by aggressive name calling, crude insulting, and attacks on the personal rights of citizens. If name calling doesn’t work, a violent revolution will materialize, in which there will be a bloody outcome with many fatalities.

After hearing Old major’s theories of animalism, pigs Napoleon and Snowball rose to power in hopes of rescuing the animals from Mr. Jones’s repetitive irresponsible choices. Similarly, in Russia, Lenin brought the idea of communism to the common Russian citizens with the help of Joseph Stalin and Leon Trotsky. Just as planned, both groups rose to power and recognition, with the help of songs, chants, and statues commemorating the ideas of fallen relics, all of which support patriotism. “Beasts of England” was frequently sung by the animals roaming Animal Farm, while “Anthem of the Soviet Republic” was well known by the Russians. Next, the selfishness takes over as Napoleon exiles Snowball, ultimately using him as his scapegoat. This occurs just as it did in the Russian revolution years ago, when Stalin realized he could never be more popular than Trotsky, he simply eliminated his competition. Plans to build a windmill, originally composed by Snowball, were now claimed by Napoleon to be his own. Stalin’s 5-year-plan to brainwash Russian citizens into a vat of mechanized slaves failed miserably due to the low quality and supply of products sold at state owned stores. Anyone willing to think for themselves were forced to either state their opinion and pay by death, or hide their voice, both of which are horrible

Unfortunately, Germany became the victim of a rising tyrant known as Adolf Hitler. Notably, Hitler's holocaust was definitely one for the books. In the 1930's, the worldwide economic depression hit Germany especially hard, and millions of people were out of work. Most Germans lacked confidence in their weak government, which provided an opportunity for the rise of a new leader. Adolf Hitler had an impeccable speech making ability and a keen sense of what people wanted to hear. He had a huge army of Nazis who were against the German government. The desperate Germans had no other choice than to vote for him. Now that Hitler had been elected, he began to target a specific group; Jews. Hitler used his personal opinion to speak for the people of Germany, recklessly persecuting the Jewish race of all evil that had come, when really he himself was the evil. After the scapegoating had taken place, and the problem had not yet been resolved, violence seemed to be the only option left. Hitler killed around 6 million Jews with his Nazis army. Next, the Swastika was created in order to legitimize and spread the new ideology; that the Jews were the enemy. Accordingly, a series of laws were passed, called the Nuremberg Laws, promoting ideas of genocide against the Jewish race. These laws were meant to formalize the new system and to show the value and effectiveness of the new regime.