How Does Power Cause Corruption In Animal Farm

Animal Farm was written by George Orwell. It was first published in 1946. The setting of the novel is during an unspecified time period at an imaginary farm in England. Animal Farm is a good novel in which several themes are explored, such as the danger of a naïve working class, the idea that power causes corruption, and issues of classes, the main one being that power causes corruption.

Throughout the novel there are class issues. The class distinctions never end; the animals are ruled by humans, and then by the pigs Napoleon and Snowball. Basically the animals are controlled everyday throughout their lives. The pigs' abrupt gain of power ultimately causes their corruption. The animals are very naïve to the changes that destroy their freedom on the farm.

Article Summary: To summarise, Mr. Soule's criticisms were that he was expecting Orwell's novel to be keen and

cleansing. Instead, the book puzzled and saddened him. He thought it was dull, and that the allegory turned out to be a “creaking machine for saying things in a clumsy way” and that things could have been said more directly. Soule also states that to Orwell's credit, he did give his characters (the farm animals) vivid personalities, and that the readers can recognize the animals in themselves. But despite this, they seem to perform mechanically, almost robotically.
Soule says that part of the trouble lies in the fact that the story is too similar to actual historical events, but not quite close enough. The characters Old Major, who prophesied the revolution, must be Karl Marx. Snowball and Napoleon are Trotsky and Lenin, respectively. Snowball's identification as Trotsky is correct, but the reader begins to wonder about the fact that Napoleon does not want to build the windmill, which is a symbol of industrialization. But the windmill was Lenin's program. It becomes more puzzling when Snowball is chased out by Napoleon because it was Stalin who branded him a traitor, not Lenin. Soule criticizes the fact that not all of the novel is accurate with the actual events of the Russian revolution. Orwell is a good writer, but he doesn't compare to other satire writers, like Jonathan Swift
He states that the reader is probably disturbed by the lack of clarity by the unknown intentions of the author. Orwell is convinced that the animals had a good reason to revolt, and for a short time, their living conditions improved. But the animals are betrayed by their leaders, and in the end, the leaders become exactly like the men who ruled the farm in the first place. There isn't really a doubt that George Orwell thought that this is what happened in Russia. But does he think that things would have been better under Snowball's rule? Or maybe total anarchy would be preferable, or perhaps that it was a mistake to try to industrialize the farm? But alas, the trouble of the book is that the satire deals with stereotypes, and not the actual problems of a country that Orwell is not familiar with.
My opinion of the major assertions made in the article: I disagree, and think that the criticisms are too harsh. I agree that while the book is not perfect, the story is accurate enough to have made its point. The reader knows what Orwell is saying about the dangers of Communism.
The author's style: While most books try to have the most sophisticated diction and sentence structure as possible, George Orwell's Animal Farm is relatively easy to understand. Orwell was suspicious of sophisticated language and intellectuals, and that is reflected in his book. The simple diction works with the themes of Animal Farm in that his simple, clean cut, direct language gets straight to the point instead of blurring things like the pigs in the book did. Orwell's diction gives evidence of plainness. The syntax in Animal Farm is simple and drops hints of the things that are to come. The sentence “So the animals trooped down to the hayfield to begin the harvest, and when they came back in the evening it was noticed that the milk had disappeared.” gives the readers a hint that larger scales of miscarriages of justice and deception are about to take place. The sentence structure in Animal Farm are also very simple, echoing the naivety of the animals. Animal Farm is made up of mainly simple sentences.
The passage I analyzed: 'But at this moment the three cows, who had seemed uneasy for some time past, set up a loud lowing. They had not been milked for twenty-four hours, and their udders were almost bursting. After a little thought, the pigs sent for buckets and milked the cows fairly successfully, their trotters being well adapted to this task. Soon there were five buckets of frothing creamy milk at which many of the animals looked with considerable interest. “What is going to happen to all that milk?” said someone. Jones used sometimes to mix some of it in our mash,” said one of the hens. “Never mind the milk, comrades!” cried Napoleon, placing himself in front of the buckets. “That will be attended to. The harvest is more important. Comrade Snowball will lead the way. I shall follow in a few minutes. Forward, comrades! The hay is waiting.” So the animals trooped down to the hayfield to begin the harvest, and when they came back in the evening it was noticed that the milk had disappeared.' This passage describes the event of the pigs lying about what is going to happen to the milk in easy to understand language. The tone shifts here – it goes from an innocent tone to a more ominous tone, as it highlights the pigs' subtle deception of the animals.
Explication of the novel's main theme: One one hand, the theme of the novel is that communism is bad. But on the other hand, if you delve deeper into the novel, you notice other underlying themes, such as excessive power causes corruption. In Animal Farm, the pigs gain power because as they are supposedly the smartest ones. And smart they are – constantly using their intelligence to gain the admiration and trust of the animals, and then slowly taking away their freedoms, one by one. The worst part is that the animals don't even realise that they're giving the pigs power. The pigs essentially have free reign to do whatever they wish, which they immediately take advantage of. Napoleon, specifically, justifies it by saying that it's for the betterment of the farm. An example of this is when Napoleon takes the milk and the apples, explaining that the pigs need just a little bit more nourishment than the others, just as they are a little bit more equal. Eventually, this escalates to when the pigs rewrite and corrupt the seven commandments written on the barn wall, which they use to expand their power over the animals. The pigs also use fear to cement their absolute power: Napoleon raises nine guard dogs in order to frighten the animals into doing whatever he wishes for them to do.
As the story moves on, Napoleon changes each commandment to suit his need, starting with the first one, “Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy.” and changing it to “Four legs are good, but two legs are better.” and ending with the very last commandment: “All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.”
In conclusion, Animal Farm is a novel which explores several themes of communism, the naïve working class, and how absolute power corrupts.

It teaches us through simple diction that stupidity and naivety and blindly trusting your leaders is a bad idea. Sophistication is something that power hungry tyrants can hide behind in order to take control, yet intelligence is the key to not being taken in by them.

While the story of the pigs' take over in Animal Farm may not be a perfect analogy/allegory for the Russian revolution, it only served to emphasize the way that absolute power corrupts. It's told from the perspective from the animals as a whole, which gives Orwell a chance to show us how blind loyalty is a bad idea. In other words, the animals don't know that it's bad, but we

do.
I agree with Mr. Soule that Animal Farm isn't very complicated, but I disagree, because it doesn't have to be historically accurate to make a fair point.