Social justice is a topic known all to well in today's society. Such issues as social heirarchial structure and unjust representatives of citizens of nations are issues in need of attention by those in power. Corruption, lies and greed by those in power however stand in the way of this form of justice from occurring, leaving many with little or no social status open to prejudice on race, religious and sexual grounds.
Outlined by William Shakespeare in Measure for Measure and George Orwell in Animal Farm is the ease in which power can corrupt.
A utopian society is created once a farmer is overthrown from his position in charge of all the animals on "Manor Farm". A set of rules to govern the citizens of the revolutionary society was decided upon and these were to be the fairest and least controversial rules for the citizens of "Animal Farm" to abide by:
"The Commandments were written on the tarred wall in great white letters that could be read thirty yards away. They ran thus:
THE SEVEN COMMANDMENTS
1. Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy
2. Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a freind
3. No animal shall wear clothes
4. No animal shall sleep in a bed
5. No animal shall drink alcohol
6. No animal shall kill any other animal
7. All animals are equal.
It was very neatly written, and except that "friend" was written "freind" and one of the "S's" was the wrong way round, the spelling was correct all the way through. Snowball read it aloud for the benefit of the others. All the animals nodded in complete agreement, and the cleverer ones at once began to learn the Commandments by heart."
As months passed on Animal Farm, the pigs, who thought they were the dominant force in the running of the animal farm, became more and more in control. Animal Farm, had now become the fairest it would ever be.
Word of what had happened to Manor Farm had spread across all of Ireland and England. Animals all over the country were following in their paths led by pigs Napoleon and Snowball. However, as this was happening, Animal Farm was heading to ruin as the pigs became selfish and ignorant. They would now consider themselves above the laws and commandments they had set, as they believed they had set the way for the new society. To a greater extent, leaders Snowball and Napoleon would control and decide the fate of the farm, setting rations, "In January food fell short.
The animals were on an emotional high for the next few days. They set up rules, including the seven commandments, and decided to make Snowball and Napoleon (pigs) the leaders. The animals had meetings every Sunday to discuss and vote on what should happen, and the work schedule for the following week. Every single time an idea was brought up Snowball and Napoleon would disagree. This went on for a year. Finally, at one of the meetings Napoleon and 9 dogs jumped Snowball, and chased him off of the farm. From then on the farm became a dictatorship, not a republic as the animals had dreamed of before the rebellion. Napoleon lied to the animals a lot, but none of them were smart enough to realize it. He planted false memories in the animals heads, and manipulated them. He stole food from them and blamed it on Snowball. Then he started to go against the seven commandments, but none of the animals could remember the seven com...
Squealer knew many of the animals could not read, so he was constantly changing the commandments to justify wrongdoings. When the pigs began sleeping in the farmhouse, Squealer changed the commandments from “no animal shall sleep in a bed” to “no animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets.” Squealer made the animals rethink their understanding by saying, “‘You did not suppose, surely, that there was ever a ruling against beds? A bed merely means a place to sleep in...The rule was against sheets, which are a human invention’” (Orwell 80). In order to make it seem like the pigs were doing no wrong, Squealer changed the commandment so they would not be in trouble with the other animals. One night, Napoleon had drank way too much and a few nights later, the animals heard a loud crash and rushed out to see what had happened. They came to find Squealer sprawled out of the ground with a bucket of white paint. A few days later, Muriel, the goat, realized that one again the animals had wrongly remembered a commandment. She was reading them over to herself again when she saw it. She realized that, “They had thought the Fifth Commandment was ‘No animal shall drink alcohol,’ but there were two words they had forgotten. Actually the Commandment read: ‘No animal shall drink alcohol to excess” (Orwell 113). Squealer had changed The Commandments once more without most of
The novel, Animal Farm, by George Orwell expresses the idea of self-government through the animals. The animals play the role of humans. Because the animals decide that they want to run the farm by themselves, they make up a way of living called Animalism. The Seven Commandments (Animal Farm's Constitution) under which they live are based on these major principles of Animalism. As time passes, the Seven Commandments undergoes subtle changes as the pigs rewrite it to suit their own agenda. The Seven Commandments may be said to be the key to understanding Animal Farm.
From the death of Old Major, Snowball, Napoleon, and Squealer replaced him. At first things started off pretty well; the harvest was very good the first year and the reading and writing system had helped some, but had limited success on others. In time, the leaders of animal farm started to have mixed feelings. Snowball and Napoleon were in constant disagreement. An important meeting that was held ended with an astonishing outcome. One decision that was made was concerning the windmill project and the most important decision made was who would be the head animal. Snowball and Napoleon each gave their input on what needs to be done around the farm. “Snowball stood up and, though occasionally interrupted by bleating from the sheep, set forth his reasons for advocating the building of the windmill. Then Napoleon stood up to reply. He said ver quietly that the windmill was a nonsense and that he advised nobody to vote for it” (57).
The pigs are taking advantage of the animals’ inability to comprehend what is going on to make it seem like Napoleon was planning the exile of Snowball. When Snowball and Napoleon are debating whether or not to build the windmill, Napoleon scares Snowball away and takes control. After Snowball was exiled over the argument about the windmill
Since the animals defeated Mr. Jones, “ And so, almost before they knew what was happening the Rebellion had been successfully carried through: Jones was expelled, and the Manor farm was their,” (39). What occurred here was with the the inspiration Old Major left behind after his death, pigs Napoleon and Snowball were the new leaders of the rebellion, and successfully fought Mr. Jones and his men by the animals attacking them. All the animals were ecstatic about their new found freedom, and to only have to worry about themselves, not some humans. The leaders together were very good at keeping the farm in good shape, with Snowball being very good with words, and Napoleon very good with getting his own way. The only bad thing about this pair is that they argue a lot about the decisions of the farm, and can never agree with one another. Until one day when Napoleon starts speaking ill of the co-leader Snowball, making Snowball get a bad reputation, an example is, “do you know who is responsible for this? Do you know the enemy who has come in the night and overthrown our windmill? SNOWBALL!” (82). This is clearly false for the reason that the windmill was torn apart by the wind, yet Napoleon is so manipulative and wants Snowball to
Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely is a concept widely understood after having read Orwell’s satire. It is first shown when the pigs take the milk and apples, explaining to the rest of the animals that everyone is equal, but some are just more “equal” than others. They also argue that the pigs do more thinking, and therefore need more energy to do so. It is in the latter part of the book, that the concept of
now but a single commandment. It ran: ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL, BUT SOME ARE MORE
After a while, the animals ended up rebelling, and managed to kick out Mr. Jones. During the beginning of “Animal Farm’s” reign under Snowball and Napoleon’s (main characters) lead, it brought the animals on Manor Farm together into a peaceful world. However, after this initial stance of power, Snowball and Napoleon began to fight for it. In the end, Napoleon ends up with control of the farm and Snowball is never seen again. Power is a corrupting influence in Animal Farm and both Snowball and Napoleon’s way of leading are very different.
Mr. Jones was unable to defeat the animals, therefore the animals got a boost of confidence. Now at this point Mollie runs away and Snowball begins his plans for a windmill. When Snowball’s plans are finished, Napoleon’s dog’s start to chase him off the farm. The farm just lost the best leader they could have had. They loose their chance to give input on what direction the farm should go, and Napoleon begings blaming Snowball for all the things that he did not do. Now Napoleon sets the animals to work on Sundays again and acquires Mr. Whymper as the farm’s broker. Napoleon starts to sell some of the farm’s produce. And the pigs start sleeping one hour later, and in beds. Then the windmill gets blown over and Snowball gets the blame. At this point the pigs still continue to abuse the power and stealing from the other animals.
The Seven Commandments are the basic principles of animalism worked out by the pigs and described originally as "unalterable laws" by which the animals were to live. The Seven Commandments were written on the barn wall for all animals to see and read if they could. The original Commandments are:
"With some difficulty, Snowball climbed up and set to work, with Squealer a few rungs below holding the paint-pot." (pg 24) The passage shows Snowball with Squealers help, are making the seven commandments. "Every mouthful of food was an acute positive pleasure, that it was truly their own food, produced by themselves and for themselves, not doled out to them by a grudging master." (pg 28)
The fact that apples and milk were being stolen was lost in the fear of the tyrant Jones returning. Their lack of intelligence keeps them from recognizing that the pigs are exploiting them, and they slowly begin to hand over their newly-won freedom to their new masters, the pigs. The next freedom the animals unknowingly give up is the freedom of choice. As the debates persisted, Napoleon and Snowball began disagreeing more often. While one argued about new rebellions in far off places, the other would argue about defending Animal Farm for their safety, but the animals themselves were too dumb to figure out who was telling the truth in their best interest.
Inscribed on two stone tablets, The Ten Commandments, otherwise known as the Decalogue, are many things. There are multiple interpretations of them, but whether they are rules, instructions, or principles the Ten Commandments will always be the core of God’s law. God met Moses on top of Mount Sinai to deliver what would be one of the most important “documents” of all...
Imagine a world where every person is equal: everyone has the same possessions, everyone shows respect to each other, no one kills anyone else, and no authority rises over others to give dictating commands. It sounds wonderful, doesn’t it? George Orwell’s haunting book Animal Farm shows, however, the near impossibility it is to make that idea a reality. In this fairy tale, a group of oppressed farm animals revolt against the tyrannical bonds of their evil master Farmer Jones, chase him off the farm, and attempt to make a society based on the idea listed above. But instead of having this incredible society, the pigs decide to make one instead where they are the ultimate authority.