The relationship surrounding Snowball and Napoleon in George Orwell's Animal Farm tends to be on rocky grounds. Snowball, a clever pig, tends to be loyal, brave, and outgoing. These are just a few excellent qualities of a leader. Napoleon, a boar, on the other hand, is quite frankly rude, wretched, and full of greed. Both have had their share of leadership on the farm, yet both have had their share of conflict as well.
Snowball, Animal Farm's first and foremost leader, is and always should be well respected. He bravely fought at the battle of Cowshed, the first conflict between man and animal. He took wounds, he took control, and he spoke for the well being of the Animals. He conceived the great windmill that would supply the Animal Farm with electric power. All this for the prosperity of his fellow animal… until Napoleon stepped in.
Napoleon was a leader who led with an iron fist. A fist he used to secretly abuse his fellow animal. He began by raising several ferocious dogs to aid him in enforcing his rules, laws, and expectations. Using them, he abruptly ended Snowballs reign by using the dogs to exile him from the farm. Shortly after, he halted the construction of the windmill. More often than not he would cleverly work his way around the seven commandments by altering them to his pleasure. For example, 'Now animal shall drink alcohol to excess.'; Or 'No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets.'; Napoleon grounded the rations of each and every animal. The farm slowly fell into a dark abyss with every wretched move Napoleon made.
What's worse, Napoleon came to constantly use Snowball to shift the blame on every small mishap on the farm. For example, when the windmill was first destroyed by the tornado, Napoleon blamed it on Snowball. Also, Snowball was blame for destroying farm property, mixing foods with weeds, and secretly conspiring with human, which was strictly prohibited by animal law. However, the accusations were never proven true, as Snowball was never heard from again since his expulsion.
Snowball the mirror image of Leon Trotsky, in all except appearance is the most promising leader of Animal Farm. Like Trotsky, Snowball is a kind ruler who is best interested in the prosperity and happiness of his ?comrades?. Snowball brought literacy and equality to Animal Farm through his teachings, and the writing of the Seven Commandments. Another way in which Snowball is similar to Trotsky is his role in the Battle of the Cowshed, where he organized the farms defenses and was the key to victory. Much like when Leon Trotsky organized the Red Army. Both Snowball and Trotsky were excellent public speakers and could win a crowds favor easily. ?Snowball was a more vivacious pig than Napoleon, quicker in speech and more inventive, but was not considered to have the same ...
Napoleon does not possess honesty which is an important trait in a leader. Napoleon said he wants to make all the animal’s lives better. The windmill had the potential of benefiting the animals. Napoleon claimed the windmill plans were his to begin with, but the animals did not know that it was really Snowball because they are unintelligent and gullible. Squealer actually went to the animals to explain that “Napoleon had never in reality been opposed to the windmill. On the contrary, it was he who had advocated it in the beginning…” (57) and Snowball had just “stolen” the plans from among Napoleon’s papers. The animals built the first windmill three times because it was destroyed so many times. Once Napoleon saw how the windmill could
Appearing for a brief time in Animal Farm, Snowball represents Trotsky, the Marxist revolutionary and Lenin’s right hand man. After the death of Lenin, Trotsky was eligible to succeed Lenin and was “the favorite candidate because he was best known” (English). Able to execute brilliant speeches, Trotsky proved to be an undoubtedly promising candidate that, Unlike Stalin, showed concern for the future of the Soviet Union and longed to spread the Revolution to other nations. Likewise, Snowball’s intentions are pure and for the benefit of the working class. Both Trotsky and Snowball demonstrate great determination to further the prosperity of
Snowball thought of the idea of building a windmill that would make the animals' work easier, but Napoleon was against it.
Squealer and Napoleon had immediately turned to the conclusion that Snowball was the cause for this disaster and Snowball had quickly become the scapegoat between all of the animals problems, Snowball quickly became despised by the animals and they’d never wanted him back on the farm. Napoleon used this tactic of manipulation to have the animals believe that Napoleon was kind-hearted and all who raised a threat against him were despicable. During the animal's first revolutionary battle Snowball had been rewarded with “Animal Hero First Class” one of the most honorary badges given for bravery in battle, but after a while Napoleon quickly took advantage of the animals poor memory and began to manipulate the past. “ ‘Snowball was in league with Jones from the very start!
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
Napoleon used “Four legs good, two legs bad.”-chapter 2, as a passage as distorted its meaning causing him to become corrupt. Old major also talked about how animals are being oppressed and humans are taking advantage of them. In chapter 5, Napoleon found himself wanting more power, which emphases his slow growth in greed for more power. Snowball was the only another Boar that would take over the farm. Within this chapter Napoleon begins to corrupt himself even further by chasing Snowball out of the
At the beginning of the story, there were two leaders, Snowball and Napoleon, who were sharing power. Snowball was good with words, honest, good at arguing, was inventive, and believed in technology. He stayed in touch with the animals, and wanted to make things better for them. Napoleon, on the other hand, was bad with words, dishonest, hated arguing, and was not inventive. He wanted to be above all the animals; he didn't care about making things better. He only believed in serving himself. In order for Napoleon to be above all the animals, he had to get Snowball out of the way. Napoleon did that by getting his dogs to scare him away so Snowball would never come back to the farm. Napoleon was now in total control of the farm and the animals. Napoleon and the pigs started acting like humans - they would drink, wear clothes, sleep in beds, fight, and walk. They did everything that they had once said was wrong.
Although, it is not for certain, had Snowball taken control of Animal Farm as leader and Napoleon been exiled, the consequences would have been identical. Snowball would have had absolute power which would be destructive to society. In addition, the majority of the animals were uneducated. Thus, creating a situation where animals were easily manipulated. The uneducated animals were unaware of the policies of the government, resulting in corruption taking over the vision of a better society. Furthermore, all intelligent leaders used propaganda techniques to effectively persuade others. Any leader in Animal Farm would be corrupted because the citizens do not care, nor know about politics. As Kofi Annan said “Knowledge is power.”
He was unselfish, was a great planner and a resolver, and he was friendly, smart and sociable. Snowball was proven to be a great planner and resolver when he took over the planning for the farm and led them to the best year of harvest that they had ever had, even with Jones as a leader. Overall, Snowball was a good leader, but he did have some faults in his leadership style too. His style of leading was poor in the way that he was a quitter in the way that he didn’t come back to the farm to help the other animals from Napoleon's dictating leadership. Also in the ways that he was a lier in the way he promised that he/they would never be like the humans, and he shot the gun as a remembrance of the Battle of Cowshed and gave brass metals, and how he did put the pigs in front of all the other animals on the farm. Snowball was ultimately exiled due to Napoleon and his power struggle. They didn’t see eye to eye on much at all, so Napoleon had him kicked off the farm for good since he isn't okay with his teachings and ideas. Napoleon becomes a dictator of the farm when Snowball is
Snowball is a “vivacious pig… quicker in speech and more inventive, but was not considered to have the same depth of character” (Orwell, 13). Snowball is a brilliant speaker who “won over the majority by his brilliant speeches” (43). Snowball is lively and friendly, and truly believes that all animals are equal. He believes in Animalism, where all animals shared equal labor and the fruits of their labor. He believes in the seven commandments and later creates committees for animals to learn in. Snowball has the idea of building a windmill that “so much labour would be saved that the animals would only need to work three days a week” (46). Snowball is the visionary of Old Major’s beliefs, and striving to make the farm a better place for the animals. Snowball acknowledges that power can be a corrupting influence, b...
Later in the novel, Squealer claims that Napoleon is a suitable leader for animal farm, and explains that Snowball is a traitor. Squealer supports this idea by comparing Snowball to Napoleon. The animals were confused on why Snowball was chased off the farm. One of the animal...
Snowball and Napoleon held a great deal of contrast between the way they each ruled over “Animal Farm/Manor Farm.” The only thing he did lack, was the ability of pursuasion to the other animals. Snowball had all the right ideas, all to better the whole farm. Napoleon, on the other hand, had a knack for stealing other animals’ ideas, then telling the rest it was his and getting credit for it. His ideas only seemed to benefit the pigs and not the animals. It was this, that led to the crumbling of the farm. Napoleons obsession with becoming the ruler is what got Snowball nearly killed by the dogs...in a plot made by Napoleon. Which then produced a whole new rebellion not of the animals to the humans, but of the animals to the pigs. So for these reasons, Snowball showed better qualities for leadership than Napoleon because he wasn’t selfish and thought about the future of “Animal Farm.” First, the dominated farm animals viewed Napoleon and Snowball differently at different times throughout the book. The way the animals reacted to each leader brought upon new problems of the farm. The animals respected Snowball, and believed that his teachings were all true and had a good cause. Although Snowball and Napoleon had superior qualities leadership, it was clearly Snowball who had the better qualities for running a farm. Under Snowballs’ rule, the animals were generally content with what was going on and were all for it if it was to better the farm. It was obvious that Napoleon had the better half of getting his own way on the farm. However, the animals had some problems with Napoleon but they didn’t know haw to express their feelings and show him that they didn’t like the way he ran things. It was the animals’ ignorance that helped keep Napoleon in rule for as long as it was. The responses were so different between the animals that it must have been a drastic change between Snowball and Napoleon.
Also, basically all the animals on Animal Farm were pretty dumb, they could not read or write. After Old Major’s death, just three days after presenting his vision to the animals, Snowball and Napoleon quickly become the leaders in planning for the Rebellion because they were the only animals that were smart enough. Besides from Napoleon and Snowball all the animals did many stupid things on the farm. The characters in Animal Farm said a lot of stupid things throughout the whole story, “ ‘He is dead, said Boxer sorrowfully. ‘I had no intention of doing that. I forgot that I was wearing iron shoes’ ” (822).
The other animals were divided equally in supporting either Snowball or Napoleon. By spreading the rumor that Snowball was a traitor, Napoleon was able to drive Snowball from the farm and become the leader of Animal Farm with no one to oppose him. Napoleon, with the help of Squealer, turned all the animals against Snowball. Squealer, who was a masterful manipulator, played an important part in convincing the animals that Snowball was an enemy. Naming Snowball as a “traitor”, Squealer played on the animals’ fear of humans and told them that Snowball had been a spy for the humans.