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Moral corruption in animal farms
Napoleon's character in animal farm
Moral corruption in animal farms
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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
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
out Snowball, Napoleon told the animals that the windmill was his idea and he just
American writer and speaker, Dorothy Allison, once said “things come apart so easily when they have been held together by lies” (Allison). One of the first lessons that kids are taught is to be honest and always tell the truth. Being honest is not always easy, but the result of lying is much worse then telling the truth. In Animal Farm, George Orwell demonstrates how lies and deceit will ruin society if everyone always believes what the leader says, people lie to themself, and if laws are changed to benefit the group in power.
When Snowball says “A vote for me is a vote for the three day week” he uses propaganda to convince the other animals to side with him. The type of propaganda he uses in this promise is bandwagon. Obviously, everyone on the farm wants to work less so by promising a three day week Snowball appeals to the animals greatly. No one wants to be left out of working less, so after Snowball makes his speech the majority of animals side with him.
I am going to skip the obvious conflict between the animals and the farmer and move on to Napoleon and Snowball. Though the characters are animals, the conflict is still man-vs.-man. They both want to rule and the one with the least amount of a conscience wins. Napoleon is willing to do anything to succeed while Snowball shows signs of morals. Napoleon steals the windmill idea and tries to kill Snowball. Snowball escapes and never returns which tells me he was a very smart and knew he would not win and survive against Napoleon and his army of dogs.
”(Page 33, chapter5) Thus, this proves that Napoleon is an obnoxious pig because just because he was against Snowball’s windmill idea he urinated all over his work so he could get his way. Comprehension 3. If there had been one more chapter in Animal Farm, I think it would go as follows: Weeks pass by and the animals still could not get over the fact of what they had witnessed looking through the window. They felt betrayed and exhausted and had lost hope for Animal Farm.
Throughout the novel, the most prominent way that Napoleon gained power was through controlling the education that the animals received. In the beginning of the novel, Snowball believes in educating all of the animals on Animal Farm, young and old, by trying to organize committees and instituting classes devoted to reading and writing (page 39). However, Napoleon openly states that educating the young is more important that the old. When Jessie and Bluebell have puppies, Napoleon takes them away and secludes them from the rest of Animal Farm to teach them on his own (41). Throughout the novel, after Snowball's removal, education becomes less and less important, and pigs and dogs are the only animals really being taught anything. This comes in handy for Napoleon as he begins to make "adjustments" to the rules that Animal Farm is based upon, such as drinking alcohol, sleeping in beds, and walking on two legs. The fact that the animals can't do math is an advantage as well when Squealer starts reeling off facts and figures about rations and death rates and other nonsense (105).
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.
to my comrades about how we could make the farm better for us to live
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). Napoleon is quite demanding none of the animal’s even question his authority because they know that he has more control than any other animal. Throughout the novel Orwell has many quotes that 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.’ Those were his very last words, comrades’ ” (849). Squealer’s letting everyone know that no matter what happens to Animal Farm, just remember that Napoleon was an outstanding leader most of the time. Napoleon was an outstanding leader and contributor to Animal Farm without his power the farm would have collapsed earlier.
And example of this is “By seeming friendly to with Pilkington, he had forced Frederick to raise his price by twelve pounds. But the superior quality of Napoleon’s mind, said Squealer, was shown in the fact that he trusted nobody, not even Frederick. Frederick had wanted to pay for the timber with something called a cheque, which it seems, was a piece of paper with a promise to pay written upon it. But Napoleon was too clever for him,” (31). This is just one example of Napoleon’s cunning ways to get what he wants, and this was not directed towards the animals. This also illustrates that if Napoleon can be this sly and cunning such a simple situation, his effect is much bigger and greater when he is involved in a complicated and larger situation. Stated in the story, “Someone said it was the smell of barley. The animals sniffed the air hungrily and wondered whether a warm mash was being prepared for their supper… no warm mash appeared, and on the following Sunday it was announced that from now onward, all barley would be reserved for the pigs...And the news soon leaked out that every pig was now receiving a ration of a pint of beer daily, with half a gallon for Napoleon himself…” (36). Although this example is not very significant, it easily shows Napoleon’s potential to menacingly manipulate the animals. In another time in the story, the patch of land reserved for retired animals is
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.
From the death of Old Major, Snowball, Napoleon, and Squealer replaced him. At first things started off pretty well; the harvest was very good the first year and the reading and writing system had helped some, but had limited success on others. In time, the leaders of animal farm started to have mixed feelings. Snowball and Napoleon were in constant disagreement. An important meeting that was held ended with an astonishing outcome. One decision that was made was concerning the windmill project and the most important decision made was who would be the head animal. Snowball and Napoleon each gave their input on what needs to be done around the farm. “Snowball stood up and, though occasionally interrupted by bleating from the sheep, set forth his reasons for advocating the building of the windmill. Then Napoleon stood up to reply. He said ver quietly that the windmill was a nonsense and that he advised nobody to vote for it” (57).
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
Snowball, who is the original inventor of the windmill, wanted it to ease the workload off of the animal’s shoulders. However, Napoleon, uses the windmill as support from the animals, this helps him establish his dictator persona. “But of all their controversies, none was so bitter as the one that took place over the windmill” (Orwell 48). The windmill then became the center of controversy. Even though Snowball is legitimately the correct one to be trusted and what he is saying is true, the animals still support Napoleon because they are manipulated by his words. Napoleon uses Snowball as a scapegoat for the windmill’s first destruction, this causes the animals to still believe in him. This brings him to