The Pig's Roles In Animal Farm, By George Orwell

Arne Tiselius once said, “We live in a world where unfortunately the distinction between true and false appears to become increasingly blurred by manipulation of facts, by exploitation of uncritical minds, and by the pollution of the language.” Animal Farm by George Orwell is a satirical parallel to the Russian revolution, in which a small group of pigs use their heightened intellect to deceive the intellectually inferior. In doing this, they obtained and maintained positions of power after the successful revolution of Animal Farm. However, to keep these authoritative places in management of the farm, the insidious actions of the pigs, changing the commandments, undermining the system, and taking advantage of their “comrades” , developed the

They will often change the rules for their benefit- to win the game. The pigs do this to the seven commandments as they begin to realize the use of beds, alcohol, and walking on two legs were the very pleasures they had banned after the rebellion. After the pigs “moved into the farmhouse and took up residence there” (79), the animals of the farm recalled a commandment, “4. No animal shall sleep in a bed” (43) , against this passed directly after the rebellion. However, once they reached the commandments on the wall, they now read, “4. No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets” (79). Later on, the commandments banning murder of another animal, and later still of alcohol were adjusted once more to fit the pigs’ needs. The animals were “reassured” by Squealer and his fellow pigs that, rather than the commandments being changed, no one remembered them correctly. Each time the pigs would lie to deceive the others about what the true laws of the land were. This act escalates to a change in the moral foundation of the farm. As one of the final resolutions, one single word is changed in the farm’s maxim to become, “Four legs good, two legs better!” (132). This time, the animals know what had been the pigs’ intentions all along, but by then, it was too

This system was so effective, the first harvest was “the biggest harvest the farm had ever seen” (46). Things had been this way for a long time, but unfortunately, the pigs began to undermine the system they had worked so hard to create. First they began to take apples and milk without the others knowing. This was a terrible thing to do, because “nobody stole” (47) on the farm. By the time they ordered for all apples to be brought to them, the other animals started to notice. When asked, Squealer would convince the animals that they were eating the apples and drinking the milk for them. To make sure no one would continue to bring it up, he also threatened that the animals “would see Jones come back” (52) if the pigs did not eat the apples and drink the milk. Later on, Napoleon decided that there would be a need for trade with humans, to obtain “certain materials which were urgently necessary” (76). The animals once again became uneasy at the idea, because the system they had set up had never required trade with humans, and one of the main principles of Animalism was to never “touch money, or engage in trade” (31). These were only the beginning actions of what would eventually be the downfall of the prosperity of Animal