George Orwell’s novel Animal Farm takes place on a farm in England. Napoleon is the main character in this book and his character is a symbol for greed. Napoleon is a large Berkshire boar who receives great power when he arranges for the expulsion of Snowball. Napoleon changes in a negative way as the plot progresses. At first, Napoleon wants to better his life and the lives of all the other animals, but that soon changes. Power tends to corrupt some people, such as Napoleon who uses his power to change rules, control others, and shows favoritism.
Napoleon uses power to change rules. The animals design The Seven Commandments of Animalism as rules which apply to all equally. Napoleon arranges to change The Seven Commandments to justify his wrong doing. After series of changes, only one commandment remains: “All animals are created equal, but some are more equal than others.” By having the power to make changes, he can make everything suit himself. At first there was the idea of a Utopia, heaven on Earth, but Napoleon changes that too. The Utopia changes to a dictatorship under Napoleon’s influence.
Napoleon has the power to control others. He first gains the animals’ trust to become their leader and then plots to physically control them. He secretly trains guard dogs and makes them his secret police. Napoleon’s main concern is no longer all of the animals. Dogs kill three pigs for making confessions. These killings instill a mass fear among the other animals. Squealer assists Napoleon by speaking convincingly on his behalf and making him seem more “king-like”. Squealer aids Napoleon in his quest for absolute control or power. The animals are most afraid at the sight of Napoleon carrying a whip.
Napoleon shows favoritism. His main concern is not all of the animals. Napoleon wants only to improve the worth of his and the other pigs’ lives. There is a caste system with two groups: the workers and the rulers. In this new system, the pigs are in the ruling class, and the other animals are the workers. The rulers were the pigs because they are better; therefore the workers are the other farm animals. Napoleon uses the barley crop to make whisky for himself and the pigs. The pigs wear clothes, learn to read, sleep in beds, eat on fancy dishes, wear ribbons on Sunday, and had to do less work.
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”.
..., wearing clothes, drinking alcohol, and engaging in trade. He even resorts to tyrannizing and killing his own kind. When Napoleon distorts the constitution he uses trickery and propaganda to persuade the other animals of its importance, and when this fails he uses fear. In the end, the animals become weak and Napoleon dominates them with his strength using fear and trickery as his tools.
In order to secure a life of luxury for he and his fellow pigs, Napoleon, along with Squealer as his spokesman, uses language that intimidates, language that distorts the truth, and language that appeals to the emotions of the others to manipulate the gullible animals of Animal Farm. Napoleon's life of luxury included the milk, human beds, alcohol, money, a par education, and the surrounding of his fellow pigs to emotionally and physically stabilize him. However it tampered with a more crucial goal, which was the goal for the equivalent animals lesser than him to prosper equally with him as well. His abuse of his absolute power by ordering his guard dogs to drive his adversary out of competition, and his tactics to silence the animals from rebelling again made his leadership corrupt, and the entire existence of the post-rebellion corrupt as well.
Under the pigs supervision, animals change the name of the farm to “Animal Farm” and adopt “Animalism” along with “Seven Commandments of Animalism” which are painted on the wall. At first Rebellion seemed to be a success, they harvest and even try to build a windmill, but then the animals realize that as they received less and less food, pigs got fatter and fatter. Napoleon’s leadership becomes a dictatorship. Pigs break the Seven Commandments by their will. For example, one night pigs become drunk and the Commandment, "No animals shall drink alcohol" is changed to, "No animal shall drink
Orwell deals with the problem of rhetoric in ’Animal Farm’ by demonstrating how language can cause corruption. There are many characters in his book ‘Animal Farm’ that use rhetoric to convince and manipulate, however, the most talented persuasive speaker is Squealer. Squealer’s ability to use rhetoric is unrivalled, this is the reason Napoleon rises to power. Squealer uses the power in language to distort the truth in his speeches. When Napoleon wanted a problem fixed he would simply ask Squealer to talk to the animals and the animals would believe and be on board with whatever he said. Squealer uses many persuasive techniques such as rhetorical questions, inclusive language and exaggeration, but most of all he uses rhetoric. Rhetoric, throughout the book is seen as a bigger enemy than Napoleon or Mr. Jones could have ever been. It shows that there is no good that can come of lying, confusing or distorting true meaning. Orwell does a thorough job at demonstrating how much of a problem rhetoric really is.
Napoleon’s method of victimizing the animals with his physiological attacks allows for his control over Animal Farm and its animal population. Napoleon initially bombards the animals with propaganda and thus conditions and enslaves them to his subjective ideals. Afterward, Napoleon’s implement of expert power overwhelms the animals and subjugates them to him. Finally, the animals are controlled by Napoleon as they are besieged with his coercive powers. Overall,
Throughout the story, the first signal that illustrates the corruption in pigs started right after the animals chased away Mr. Jones. When the animals milked the cows and discussed about what to do with all the milk, Napoleon cried “Never mind the milk, comrades…placing himself in front of the buckets” (p18) and then all buckets of milk disappeared. This is foreshadowing that later Napoleon may become the kind of leader who keeps everything good for himself and does not care about others, and this actually happened later. Several days later, someone found out that all the milk was mixed in pigs’ mash everyday as well as the apples and pointed that pigs broke the rule of “All animals are equal” (p17).
From the very beginning, Napoleon started breaking the commandment that stated all animals are equal. He had all the milk and apples set aside for the pigs. He put forth the idea that the pigs depended on these things for survival, and that it was in the interest of the entire farm that they be set aside for them. The others were convinced by Squealer’s arguments that
When they went to double check their recent findings, they found that it had been changed to, "No animal shall kill another animal without cause,"(65). This is not the first time Napoleon has done this either. He has also changed two other commandments in order to fulfill his and the other superior pigs needs. He is quite sly with his ways and tries his best in order to not be caught. This is easier to do because he has gotten rid of the only animal that has ever disobeyed, second-guessed, or challenged him, Snowball. Above all else, Napoleon is manipulative. He knew that,"...Boxer and Clover...had great difficulty in thinking anything out for themselves…," so they," accepted the pigs as their teachers,"(14). With this previous knowledge, Napoleon could teach them practically anything, and that will become their sense of reality. They will flaunt their new knowledge around the farm, which is very helpful to the pigs. It will help spread their messages faster, as everyone looked up to Boxer and wanted to be like him. Clover is a mother, so they trusted her and her words as if she was their mother. He manipulates the entire farm by just two box-cart horses and his ‘teachings’. Napoleon is a cruel, dishonest, and manipulative leader, or how some may call it, a
ANIMAL FARM About 80 per-cent of all the animals on Animal Farm completely followed the seven commandments. The other 20 per-cent of the animals would rarely follow all the rules and they were often treated like a piece of dirt. All the animals on Animal Farm were treated differently according to their social status, where in today’s society everyone should treat everyone equally. The characters in Animal Farm had many diverse characteristics, some of the animals were powerful, stupid, and sneaky First of all, Napoleon is a huge Berkshire boar and he clearly is the most powerful of all the animals. He was able to take complete leadership of the farm because he secretly trained the dogs to attack Snowball. George Orwell writes, “ ‘Never mind the milk, comrades!’ cried Napoleon, placing himself in front of the buckets. ‘That will be attended to, the harvest is more important’ (817).&nb describe Napoleon as a leader, “ ‘long live Comrade Napoleon’ ” (846). All the animals on the farm (no matter what Napoleon did to them) would treat him as a powerful leader and whatever he said they would do. Often Orwell stirs up controversy about the rebellion, “ ‘forward in the name of the rebellion. ‘Long live Animal Farm!’ ‘Long live Comrade Napoleon!’ ‘Napoleon is always right.’
He is also a coward by nature not much of a bigmouth or a braggart, but with a reputation for having his way in the sense that he does not put himself as the spearhead, instead with enthusiasm he decides to coach a litter of puppies belonging to Jessie and Bluebell. He trains this pack for his own good thereby making them his ferocious trustworthy soldiers, which he uses as a violent means of imposing his will on others. These helped him in hiding the notion of affluent living, which he reserved exclusively for himself whilst he operated through cruelty and treachery. Napoleon who was a spiteful tyrant by nature uses cunning oratory skills to spread propaganda and favorable support for him through the help of Squealer. Squealer is used as Napoleon’s own network for spreading beliefs; Squealer in this book possesses the power to manipulate the animals with his orating capabilities with great skill.
The fiction book that I am doing my book report is on the novel, Animal Farm. This book was written by George Orwell in 1946. The setting of my book took place in a farm called “Manor Farm” during the Russian Revolution ear. The characters are basically farm animals. Some of these animals’ names are Old Major, Snowball, and Napoleon. They are all pigs from the farm.
Lord Acton, the British historian once said, “Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.” In the novel Animal Farm by George Orwell, the author gives many examples of how power is used to manipulate and produce fear. In this book the main character, Napoleon, became a master of using various tactics to gain and maintain power over the rest of the animals. Napoleon used propaganda, manipulation and fear to gain more loyalty and power throughout the farm.
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
Throughout the novel, Napoleon gets the other animals to do all the physical work with him and the other pigs taking credit and all they produce. A perfect example of this was when he takes the eggs from the hens