The Power of Sound
"He who wants to persuade should put his trust not in the right argument, but in the right word. The power of sound has always been greater than the power of sense."
—Joseph Conrad
This power of sound has aided in the successful controlling of many peoples throughout history, however, the communist takeover in Russia revolutionized it. Propaganda became increasingly important as Stalin’s regime did not become what the public had expected and people grew frustrated. One such person who did not approve of the new Soviet Union and its new brand of socialism was George Orwell. As a socialist himself, the perverted image of socialism that the Soviets projected and the reluctance of other countries to criticize it disgusted him. Soon, Orwell decided to criticize it himself, including the propaganda. In Animal Farm, Orwell uses Squealer’s quick mouth to show how powerful an effect propaganda can have on an unthinking society.
Orwell depicts one such powerfully effective propaganda technique through Squealer’s duplicitous storytelling: revisionist history. As Napoleon began to go against the original commandments and reserve luxuries for the pigs, it became necessary to cover up his actions, which went against the very idea of Animalism. “’Are you certain that this is not something you have dreamed, comrades?... Is it written down anywhere?’ And since it was certainly true that nothing of the kind existed in writing, the animals were satisfied that they had been mistaken” (Orwell 77). When Napoleon decided to engage in trade amongst the humans, many animals recalled the resolutions passed against such human contact, which planted a seed of doubt. Not allowing the seed to germinate, Squealer quickly assured them th...
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...nt about Napoleon’s clearly biased policies. The idea of other options and other leaders never occurs to any of the animals, due to their unquestioning loyalty, a remnant of the glory days in the past. Orwell’s representation of the black-white fallacy tactic gives another example of the mindless following that he disapproves of.
Throughout Animal Farm, George Orwell stresses the importance of thinking for oneself and always questioning the authority, especially in the face of the myriads of propaganda tactics that are constantly used. In this modern day and age, propaganda techniques continue to flourish amongst the governments of the world, ensuring that one must always be on their guard against tactics such as revisionist history, black-white fallacy, and scapegoating. Only those who do not fear to question can ever be truly free to think their own thoughts.
In the middle of the 1930s, Adolf Hitler began his rise to power in Germany, initiating the start of the Second World War and spread fear across Western Europe. During this time period, George Orwell began writing his novella, Animal Farm, which has been said to represent the events of the communist revolution; yet according to an analysis of the new historic lens, no book, no matter the style, can escape the hindrance of social context; proving that the air surrounding the war, impacted the literature written in this time. While it may not be about World War Two, Animal Farm, like all other writings was impacted by its surroundings. An analysis of George Orwell’s Animal Farm reveals that his work, being written in the 1940s, was greatly influenced by the events surrounding World War Two, which took place across all of Europe.
The role of propaganda is seen in both Animal Farm and the Russian Revolution through the similarities and differences. Manipulation of propaganda is the same between the two characters known as Squealer and Joseph Stalin. The purpose of propaganda is to identify each character and their characteristic traits which influence how they display propaganda are viewed as differences. To begin with, “Squealer has a way of manipulating and using language that would convince the animals and make them listen.” (Connection to Animal Farm 1).
The cynical act of deceiving the less clever is, in fact, the gracious act of conveying a “truth” to the same latter group. This ideal is constantly formulated by a central government for the sole purpose of maintaining the classes at the status quo. In George Orwell’s Animal Farm, an allegorical satirical novel, the subject of Orwell’s satire is the byproduct of a revolution with Communist roots symbolized by a rebellion on a farm by the inhabited creatures. Two pigs from the animals, Snowball and Napoleon, self-establish themselves over the rest of their animals due to their superior intelligence. Being symbols of actual leaders, Snowball being Leon Trotsky while Napoleon being Joseph Stalin, history tells the reader what will occur. Therefore, after Napoleon ultimately usurps Snowball’s power by driving him out, Napoleon ultimately commences, like Stalin, the deterioration of the lives of the masses. Similar to Stalin utilizing propaganda, Napoleon uses another pig, Squealer, eloquent in speech to address the rest of the animals and convey the “party line”. The ability of Squealer to twist the actual meaning of Napoleon’s actions are through misinforming and employing pathos on the rest; but the lack of intelligence and memory from the animals also contributes to the distortion of facts.
The saying “history repeats itself” is used quite often, but how many times have you actually seen it happen? The book Animal Farm portrays the idea of history repeating itself. The character Benjamin and the pigs in the story show history repeating itself throughout the book. In addition to these characters within the book, North Korea displays history's repetition outside the book.
Although George Orwell’s Animal Farm was created in order to mimic individuals as well as occurrences that took place during the Russian Revolution period, it is still possible to gain a comprehensive understanding of the text without a past knowledge of history through the exploitation of human nature’s imperfections. Following the publishment of his novel, Orwell confirmed that his goal in writing this fable was to expose the wrongdoing of the Soviet Union as well as the treachery of the true ideas of the Revolution. Nonetheless, there have been several other examples of events such as the French Revolution that can effortlessly be contrasted against components of the allegory. However, we need not to dig no deeper than to the fundamental faults in human nature to witness the catastrophic consequences that attributes such as hierarchy, propaganda and betrayal have on today’s society.
Orwell uses words to demonstrate that language can be deceptive, powerful, and manipulative. A farm is brought up, where the social order has been corrupt by the superior class of the pigs. The major difference between the pigs and other animals is that pigs can fluently use language and other animals cannot. Orwell introduces the plot of the pigs’ politics being corrupt due to greed and intense pride of their species. The pigs seek to make use of other animals’ underdeveloped linguistic skills and ignorance. Horses, goats, sheep and other animals have been assigned enormous amount of work by the pigs to cultivate the farm and build a windmill. The pigs call themselves brain workers and do not take part in work that involves physical movement. They easily convince other animals into thinking that this is the reason why Jones is not coming back. In this deceiving manner of using words, the pigs have ascended to the leading class of this “society” while the other animals resulted in belonging to the “working class”. Also, the book constantly mentions how powerful language can be. Napoleon’s unique diction that carries an intimidating and admonishing effect causes the animals to have an unconditional belief in him. Orwell purposely exemplifies a society within a fable to effectively note these three aspects of deception, power, and manipulation and to emphasize that one’s mastery of language is crucial in order not to be tricked and manipulated by the words of the elite class who were given proper education.
Napoleon imbues the animals with his subjective ideologies and indoctrinates them in order to cloud their thoughts and dominate their lives. Napoleon persuades the animals to act in accordance with his ideas and to surrender to his will by constantly bombarding them with persuasive messages of propaganda. Such devious efforts are highlighted by the cows in their statement, “’Thanks to the leadership of Comrade Napoleon, how excellent this water tastes!’” (page 62). In the cows’ words it is clear that Napoleon strives to control the animals by using the influence of reciprocation as conveyed through propaganda. The cows’ testimonial gives the animals the impression that Napoleon is working to help them and in turn the animals feel an obligation to surrender to Napoleon’s will in order to reciprocate the favor. Thus, Napoleon uses propaganda to apply the rule of reciprocity and gain control of the animals. Additionally, Napoleon wields charisma as a tool for indoctrinating the animals a...
This paper will compare and contrast of two great pieces of literature by George Orwell, Animal Farm and “Politics and the English Language”. I will analyze Orwell’s use of political rhetoric and its role in controlling the masses, even while he advocates for the English language to abandon these phrases.
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 paramount theme of Lies and Deceit.
The uneducated are often unaware of how people take advantage of them when under the power of a leader using propaganda. Propaganda is an opinionated advertisement used to control and appeal to people's judgement and emotions, and gets them to do what they want (Stults). Not all persuasion is propaganda, and not all propaganda is bad (Stults). George Orwell writes Animal Farm as an allegorical fable associated with Lenin’s lead over the revolution that established the Communist control of Russia. After the animals of Animal Farm are successful with the Rebellion against Jones, they to lose sight of how the pigs are slowly influencing them. Like the use of propaganda in Russia, the pigs on Animal Farm are able to manipulate the other animals using simplicity and repetition, distortion and bad logic, and fear.
Orwell chose to use the vehicle of propaganda, through Squealer, the pig, to get the theme across to the readers. ‘Beasts of England’ was a chant taught to the animals, by what some could say the starter of the rebellion, Old Major. The chant talked about how the animals deserved better and needed to rebel against Man. When in power, Napoleon did not allow the chant but instead used a poem of his own, ‘Comrade Napoleon’. One part of the poem read, “Oh, how my soul is on Fire when I gaze at thy Calm and commanding eye, Like the sun in the sky, Comrade Napoleon!” (Orwell 94). This quote is part of the propaganda vehicle because it was a tool used by Napoleon, to make the less intelligent animals of the farm, believe that he was a great leader. Propaganda is defined as an idea that is exaggerated (“Propaganda”). The poem is considered propaganda because it exaggerates the societal outlook on Napoleon in the novella. The animals do not hate Napoleon, but they also do not adore and praise him. Another time in the novella when Orwell used Squealer and propaganda as a tool to get the theme across
“Orwell is desperate for us to get the point, not a point,” says William C. Foster in How to Read Literature Like a Professor (98). When he wrote the book, one of his main aims was to enlighten his readers about the reality of life in the Soviet Union under Stalin. In Animal Farm, Orwell demonstrates what can happen when leaders become greedy, corrupt, and apathetic to the suffering of their people. Absolute power and dictatorships are particularly dangerous, as they can often abused for one’s personal gain.
In George Orwell’s Animal Farm, Squealer and Napoleon have been making subtle changes to the farm left and right, which sneak right under all of the animal’s noses. The analysed section occurs following Squealer repainting the commandment, “No Animal shall sleep in a bed,” by adding on “with sheets”, and thus causing slight confusion amongst the animals of the farm. This was quickly put to rest through Squealer’s multiple forms of his self-proclaimed superiority, either physically or verbally. Orwell’s placement of the passage gives Squealer the perfect touch for delivering a message to the animals. Along with creating superiority, and thus credibility, for Squealer and Napoleon, Orwell creates images of luxury and happiness to the “new” law, and
The Use of Language in Animal Farm Animal Farm by George Orwell is an allegory in which animals are personified to represent the struggles and conflicts of the Russian Revolution. The main point emphasizes in the novel is that language is a powerful tool, which can be used to manipulate and control people in order to bring about change, whether big or small. In the story the pigs govern everything that happens, whether it is something as miner as eating a meal, or something as major and important as fighting a strategic battle. Napoleon, the foreman, or leader of the pigs is the most powerful of them all. Napoleon and his “side kick”, Squealer, abused the powers of language to manipulate the animals of the farm into thinking that the farm was a beautiful society flourishing with life and freedom, when in fact, it was quite the opposite.
In George Orwell’s Animal Farm, a main theme is that power corrupts those who possess it. A definition of corruption is,“dishonest or fraudulent conduct by those in power, typically involving bribery.” Orwell develops this idea through the character Napoleon in various ways. Looking back in the book, the animal’s rebellion quickly turned political and revolved around, “Leader, Comrade Napoleon (Orwell 81)”. The power Napoleon possed was executed through lies and selfishness, aided by the lack of intellectual ability in the other animals. The corruption of Napoleon’s power is displayed when he favors himself, along with the other pigs, and eventually the dogs, who all get better rations of food compared to the other animals. Another main demonstration of how power corrupts Napoleon is how he separates himself from the other animals on the farm, displaying his feelings if superiority to the other animals. A ceremonial nature develops towards Napoleon. The last way power corrupts Napoleon is how he acts recklessly; killing other animals and lying about