Throughout the book Animal Farm, by George Orwell, the protagonist Napoleon emerges as an active political member in a utopian communist society after the animal revolution with the intention of benefiting society as a whole. Napoleon eventually turns into a ruthless dictator without any political opposition. Napoleon’s Transition from political activist, to unitary political figure, to ruthless dictator brings a whole new meaning to the statement, “power corrupts”. Napoleon Starts out as a moral and honest member in the Animal society by trying to benefit society as a whole. “These three (Napoleon, Snowball, and Squealer) had elaborated old Major’s teachings into a complete system of thought, to which they gave the name of Animalism. Several …show more content…
“When they had finished their confession, the dogs promptly tore their throats out, and in a terrible voice Napoleon demanded whether any other animal had anything to confess. The three hens who had been the ringleaders in the attempted rebellion over the eggs now came forward and stated that snowball had appeared to them in a dream and incited them to disobey Napoleon’s orders. They, too, were slaughtered” (pg 93). Napoleon like other authoritarian dictators throughout history is executing all of his political rivals in order to prevent a revolution or uprising to occur and further cementing his regime in the Animal Farm society. In this passage as he is directly violating one of the laws that Animal Farm created (No animal shall ever kill any other animal). This law was created by the Animal Farm society in order to prevent chaos and corruptness in the Animal Farm government, which in turn means that the abolishment of this law causes corruptness to reach a new height. “the winter was as cold as the last one had been, and food was even shorter. Once again all rations were reduced, except those of the pigs and the dogs. A too rigid equality in rations, Squealer explained, would have been contrary to the principles of Animalism” (115). Napoleon’s regime has reduced rations on all of the citizens of Animal Farm except for the pigs and the dogs thus further amplifying the fact that everyone who isn’t a pig or a dog is a second class citizen who can’t vote, can’t sleep in the barn, and can’t eat as much. As Napoleon reached its most powerful state, it also reached its most corrupt state having inequality as a common recurring theme in the Animal Farm society and enemies of the state being publicly
Power is a privilege that can be abused. In the book “Animal Farm” a pig named napoleon had the privilege given to him from the very prestigious and distinguished leader named Old Major. Power is given to the pigs to lead all the animals in the farm that they overruled their leader. Napoleon was nice at first but the animals soon realize what is yet to come. He stays in power a long time by using animalism, fear by jones and the dogs and propaganda to his advantage.
This evil “...fierce-looking Berkshire boar… with a reputation for getting his own way”(25), abolishes his competition, Snowball, by running him off with viscously educated guard dogs. Instead of letting the people decide who the leader will be, Napoleon gets frightened of his competition and chases him off proving to be the cruel leader he is. Another cruel tactic that Napoleon uses to take control of Animal Farm is the way he kills the animals that confess to contradicting his rule. For example, when four pigs admit to Napoleon that they had been secretly in touch with Snowball, he has “the dogs promptly tear their throats out”(83). Napoleon’s cruelness doesn’t allow anyone to show him up as a leader. One other way in which Napoleon’s cruel nature allows him to take over is amending the commandments to make them in favor of pigs. At first the 7th commandment states, “All animals are equal”(33), but Napoleon secretly changes it to, “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others”(123). Knowing the ignorance of the other animals, Napoleon takes full advantage knowing that no one would notice what the commandment previously said. This evil boar’s cruel villainous nature allows him to take complete control over a
In the beginning, Napoleon seemed that he wanted to help out the animals in this revolution when it first started. The first thing that stood out to me that Napoleon did wrong was that he started to make trade with humans when he wasn’t suppose to. The next thing that Napoleon did wrong was that he made the pigs and himself superior from the other animals when everyone is suppose to be equal. Once he had accomplish that, he just turned himself in a complete human being. With these changes made, it made the farm go worst than it was before the revolution. Whenever you want to be a leader of something, you’re expected to make your group better. Many of the animals were believing that Napoleon was going to make their farm the best. When Napoleon first wanted to become leader, was he really trying to do of what he had said or was he just faking it so he could have more power than the other
Power corrupts. George Orwell expresses in his novel, Animal Farm, that it does not matter who is in control. Government is always going to be corrupt. Orwell illustrates this with the gradual transformation of the pigs. Following the death of Old Major, the pigs immediately assume leadership. However, the pigs’ gluttonous obsession with power causes them to be indistinguishable from men. Orwell emphasizes the impact of absolute power in the pigs’ rise as totalitarian dictators.
Napoleon is an extremely deceitful character in numerous ways. For example, Napoleon tricks the animals into thinking concepts that are not true. “Throughout the whole period of his seeming friendship with Pilkington, Napoleon had really been in a secret agreement with Frederick,” (31). This shows that Napoleon lied to the animals about which farm he was going to sell wood to. Furthermore, this also illustrates that the animals might not trust Napoleon if he continues to lie to them. Additionally, Napoleon is an untruthful menace who will do nothing to help the farm or the animals. “Day and night we are watching over your welfare. It is for YOUR sake that we drink that milk and eat those apples,” (12). This shows that Napoleon is trying to
Napoleon, the leader, is very authoritative and selfish. Napoleon is a tyrant. It is very likely Napoleon is conspiring to take over Animal Farm so that he can take advantage of the situation of having many animals at his disposal. He is the one that initiated the violation of established resolutions, and concealed it by altering the resolutions. What satisfies his pleasure the most is what takes precedence over everything-the animals, honesty, commandments, etc. He gives himself the credit for every good thing, without any recognition to the other animals, such as the building of the windmill, which he announces the mill will be named Napoleon Mill, and the victory of the windmill. Snowball, who was chased of the farm by Napoleon's personal bodyguards, portrayed by dogs, is being used as a scapegoat, "Whenever anything went wrong, it became usual to attribute it to Snowball." Napoleon, with the help of his dogs, slaughters anyone who is said to be disloyal. ". . .the tale of confessions and executions went on, until there was a pile of corpses lying before Napoleon's feet and the air was heavy with the smell of blood, which had been unknown there since the expulsion of Jones." To top it off, Napoleon outlaws Beasts of England, which had served as one of the only remaining ties between Animal Farm and Old Major. The animals think that killing is against one of the commandments, but when Muriel reads the writing on the barn wall to Clover, interestingly, the words are, "No animal shall kill any other animal without cause.
Napoleon uses dogs to intimidate the animals so they won’t disrespect him, and uses Squealer to make speeches to hide his wrongdoings and deceive the animals into thinking he is doing things for the benefit of everybody. In animal farm by George Orwell demonstrates by using animals demonstrates how power can make people abuse their power to make others respect and fear them. Leaders use their superior knowledge and instill fear to deceive citizens, and abuse power.
“All animals are equal but some are more equal than others.” In the book Animal Farm by George Orwell, Orwell portrays the characters as examples of political positions in the Russian Revolution. Napoleon, a pig who became the dictator of the farm, represents Joseph Stalin, the second leader of the Soviet Union. Squealer, who is also a pig, acts as the Russian media or as Stalin’s voice. Boxer, a horse who is very faithful to Napoleon, portrays a capitalist and a person who does business with the State. Out of all the characters, Napoleon did the most harm.
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.
In the novel titled Animal farm by George Orwell, a major theme would be that power has the potential to corrupt leaders, which can be seen by the character development of Napoleon. For example, in chapter 7 Napoleon breaks the commandment “no animal shall ever kill another animal” which is contradicted by the quote “[…] the tale of confessions and executions went on until there was a pile of corpses lying before Napoleon’s feet and the air was heavy with the smell of blood…” (Orwell 24). This demonstrates how Napoleon holds an immense amount of power in which he can break the rules and murder his own kind, yet still be admired and respected by everyone. At the beginning everyone had a say in what actions or paths were going to be taken to
Napoleon controlled the farm completely and knew he was superior to the rest of the animals; this caused him to make harsh decisions to keep the animals under his control. For example, he began to assign more work to the animals and treated them as slaves. They were working more hours than ever before and the work was harder than anything they had done before. Napoleon also brainwashed some of the less intelligent animals into thinking that he was their god; he made them believe that he was always right. Boxer, the most loyal worker on the farm, constantly repeated his slogans, “I will work harder’ and ‘Napoleon is always right’” (Orwell 61) even when he was being worked to death. The worst way that Napoleon abused his power was by killing innocent animals. One day, when all the animals were gathered in the barn, four pigs confessed to crimes they didn’t actually commit and were murdered ruthlessly in front of the whole farm. The animals now knew not to challenge Napoleon’s authority because staying loyal to him was the only way to stay alive. Napoleon’s clear abuse of power parallels Joseph Stalin’s reign of terror in Russia. Once Stalin achieved the leader ranking he began to treat citizens as his slaves and publically executed citizens who though otherwise than his new system. Citizens were terrified of his actions and the
George Orwell’s allegory to the Russian Revolution addresses the question if power corrupts those who possess it. “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely” is a quote by British historian, Lord Acton, which supports Orwell’s answer to the question. Lord Acton’s statement means that a person’s sense of morality lessens as his or her power increases. This is directly relevant to Animal Farm because Napoleon is quickly corrupted by power. He begins with good intentions of freeing the farm from the tight restrictions and hardships under Mr. Jones. However, as Napoleon gained more power, his morality lessened. The power became addictive and it soon consumed Napoleon. Orwell also addresses the overall problem of dictators rising
As time had went on, Napoleon started to become very eerie and gave no mercy to anybody who had associated themselves with snowball and his ways. However, it was not until the animals were persuaded, that they thought badly of snowball,“‘I do not believe that Snowball was a traitor at the beginning,’” he said finally… ‘Our Leader, Comrade Napoleon,’ announced Squealer… ‘has stated categorically — categorically, comrade — that Snowball was Jones’s agent from the very beginning — yes, and from long before the Rebellion was ever thought of.’ ‘Ah, that is different!” said Boxer. “If Comrade Napoleon says it, it must be right’”( Orwell 82). As a result of the respect that the animals had for Napoleon, it was clear that they would follow and support anything he had said. His power and strength allowed him to be seen as an utterly amazing leader, however, not everybody saw this of him. Some animals had thought that Snowball was much better of a pig and leader. This being the case, when in a meeting with the animals Napoleon had decided to kill every animal that had admitted to being on snowballs side or working for him. An example is when it states, “The four pigs waited, trembling, with guilt written on every line of their countenances. Napoleon now called upon them to confess their crimes. They were the same four pigs as had protested when Napoleon
Power has always been difficult to equally share. Humans have struggled for centuries to balance authority evenly and have created complicated systems to try to overcome the problem. The Russian Revolution is amongst many to have tried and failed to raise a fair government. George Orwell’s classic novel Animal Farm portrays this event in history into a smaller scale, making it easier to understand. Having so much power is not always a good thing. Animal Farm proves this to an almost scary extent where the characters are mainly animals, not people. In this novel, power is achieved in many different ways; corruption, physical force and knowledge. In George Orwell’s Animal Farm, power and control of the farm shifts from Mr. Jones to Snowball and
Nobel prize winning Aung San Suu Kyi once said “It is said that power corrupts, but actually it's more true that power attracts the corruptible.” In George Orwell’s Animal Farm, power is originally used to achieve a number of positive things; it unites the animals of Manor Farm, allows them to organize a Revolution, and gain their freedom from oppression. However, this positive utilization of power is short lived and turns into a disunifying and destructive force causing the utopia they fought to create to crumble. Corruption serves as the driving force for this destabilization as clearly seen in the major leaders of the novel; Mr. Jones, Napoleon, and Snowball.