Animal Farm Rhetorical Analysis

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Imagine speaking with a friend, when they tell you about someone else. How can you tell if it is true, or just a lie? Many people are easily persuasive and deceived, and do not know when they are being lied to. In George Orwell’s fable titled Animal Farm, many of his main characters, like Snowball and Old Major, use logical fallacies to persuade the other animals of their opinions. A logical fallacy can be defined as “arguments that sound true, but are actually flawed” (Nikolopoulou). Animal Farm is an allegory of the Russian Revolution which tells the story of how animals, including Napoleon, Snowball, Squealer, and Old Major, devise a plan to rebel against Farmer Jones. They set some basic rules to follow. Slowly, through small alterations and changes, they end up back …show more content…

Squealer uses False Dilemma to keep the other animals from speaking out. Squealer, who represents propaganda, is an intelligent pig who is persuasive and makes the other animals support his opinion. A False Dilemma, also known as Either-or, “is a conclusion that oversimplifies the argument by reducing it to only two sides or choices” (Purdue University). An example of False Dilemma might be if we say: We can either stop drinking from plastic water bottles or ruin the ocean. This would imply that there are only two choices, however, there are many more possibilities. In Animal Farm, Squealer and the pigs want more special privileges, so they threaten the animals by saying that Jones would come back if they do not receive those privileges. To blackmail the animals into letting the pigs have beds, Squealer states, “You would not have us too tired to carry out our duties. Surely none of you wish to see Jones back?” (Orwell 67). Allegedly, if the pigs do not get the special privileges, then Jones would come back. Squealer implies that there are no other

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