Ignorance In George Orwell's Animal Farm

In the novella, Animal Farm, George Orwell positions readers, through the use of allegory to view political ignorance as a major contributing factor in the establishment of a dictatorship. Orwell conveyed this message to readers by utilizing these three elements of fiction allegorically: Character, plot, and theme. Character - in the characters, their personality, actions and certain ideas they represent, plot - in the key events of the novel that present greater secondary moral and political messages, and theme - in the underlying meaning of the text conveyed by Orwell's ideas and values.
Through allegory, Orwell develops characters who represent ideas such as the strong, hardworking but ignorant, Boxer. Orwell uses this character to parallel the

hard-working class that always do what they are told and never think for themselves. This is evident when Orwell constructs Boxer’s simplistic personal maxims of “I will work harder” and “Napoleon is always right” to emphasise why Boxer’s ignorance leads to him being manipulated and used by the pigs. The former clearly displays the horse’s hardworking nature and that he always gives everything he has. The latter shows that Boxer believes whatever Napoleon says and never thinks for himself. The language is simple and reflects Boxer’s naivete. Orwell also used the sheep as naïve and ignorant animals who were swayed by Napoleon’s propaganda and, like Boxer, never thought for themselves. This is evident when Napoleon instructed the Sheep to interrupt Snowball’s speech, “It was noticed that they were especially liable to break into ‘Four legs good, two legs bad’ at crucial moments in Snowball’s speeches.” This proves that Napoleon used the sheep to make the other animals lose focus during Snowball’s speeches. It allows the attention to be diverted away from the actual issues which Snowball is speaking about and provide a loud and unthinking support for Napoleon. This shows how these certain characters are politically ignorant and how this is a major contributing factor in the establishment of Napoleon’s dictatorship.
Orwell constructs and builds on the theme of control and manipulation through animals’ ignorance resulting in dictatorship, by conveying his ideas and values allegorically.

Orwell uses the pigs as the ones with power on the farm right from the beginning of the revolution as he writes, “The work of teaching and organising the others fell naturally upon the pigs, who were generally recognised as being the cleverest of the animals.” This shows that because the pigs were the ones who were literate, it instantly gave them full control and were able to manipulate and control the animals through their naivete and ignorance. This control allows the pigs to benefit themselves. Orwell further develops this idea as he writes, “It is for your sake that we drink that milk and eat those apples. Do you know what would happen if we pigs failed in our duty? Jones would come back.” This is a great example of the animals being manipulated to benefit the pigs. They first told the animals that they were the ones who needed the apples and the milk, followed by the threat of Jones returning. The threat shows how ignorant the animals were and how easy it was to get them to do what the pigs wanted and therefore establish a

dictatorship.

Orwell constructs the plot of Animal Farm in an allegorical way, allowing him to present the corruption of an ideology into dictatorship through the example of Animalism and the 7 Commandments. This idea develops through the novella when the author writes, “And so the tale of confession and executions went on, until there was a pile of corpses lying before Napoleon’s feet and the air was heavy with the smell of blood, which had been unknown there since the expulsion of Jones.” This quotation shows the corruption of the ideology of Animalism and The 7 Commandments. It shows how no animal had been killed by another animal since the time of Jones. It also shows how the commandment ‘No animal should kill another animal’, has been ignored and corrupted. Due to the naivete of the animals, they do not realise what has happened after the commandment has been modified. They are too ignorant to see that Napoleon’s control is leading to dictatorship. Orwell builds on this as he writes, “There was nothing but a single commandment. It ran: All animals are equal. But some animals are more equal than others.” There were originally seven commandments, but now there is one. This shows the development of the corruption of the ideology. This commandment is present because it means nothing that the pigs do is wrong and are able to gain absolute power, which in fact is the definition of dictatorship. These key parts of the plot of Animal Farm were intentionally constructed by Orwell to emphasise how political ignorance is a major contributing factor in the establishment of a dictatorship.
Orwell has developed characters who represent certain ideas, the theme by conveying his ideas and values, and the plot and how key events present a greater secondary political and moral message which is presented throughout Animal Farm. These three elements of fiction are presented to further develop the idea that George Orwell positions readers, through the use of allegory to view political ignorance as a major contributing factor in the establishment of a dictatorship.