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How does george orwell use the character of napoleon to explore ideas about power and control in animal farm
Characters of animal farm by george orwell
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“All animals are equal but some are more equal than others.” In the book Animal Farm by George Orwell, Orwell portrays the characters as examples of political positions in the Russian Revolution. Napoleon, a pig who became the dictator of the farm, represents Joseph Stalin, the second leader of the Soviet Union. Squealer, who is also a pig, acts as the Russian media or as Stalin’s voice. Boxer, a horse who is very faithful to Napoleon, portrays a capitalist and a person who does business with the State. Out of all the characters, Napoleon did the most harm. Napoleon had a lust for power and getting his own way. When Old Major, the original leader of the barn died, Napoleon and Snowball took control over Manor Farm which they renamed Animal Farm. After that battle, Napoleon used propaganda and brought terror over the farm. Claiming that extra milk was necessary for a pig’s nutrition, he steals the cows milk. Because Snowball challenged Napoleon’s leadership, Napoleon strategized and succeeded at …show more content…
The big and very strong horse was an example of a capitalist who does business with the Soviet State. He was very strong and proved his worth at the Battle of the Cowshed upon running Mr. Jones off the farm. Boxer was completely devoted to the animal cause. His two favorite mantras were “I will work harder” and “Comrade Napoleon is always right.” He reminds himself consistently of these while working. All of the characters on Animal Farm, for example Squealer the political propagandist and Boxer the capitalist, were working under the dictatorship of Napoleon. In the end, Napoleon did the most harm by twisting the seven commandments around to fit his desires, and by not actually helping on the farm and by lying to his most faithful worker. The worst thing Napoleon did was change the seven commandments to only one which read “All animals are equal, but some are more equal than
Abraham Lincoln once said, “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.” ("Abraham Lincoln Quote"). Lord Acton also said, “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” (“Lord Acton Quotes”). Both of the quotes show that power is not always a good thing, and can sometimes make good people, do bad things. Animal Farm by George Orwell is a novella about animals rebelling against humans on a farm in England. The novella has been said to be directly related to the Russian Revolution of the early 20th century. Immediately after the animals gained power, the pigs took over as the leaders of the animals. The pigs became corrupt with the power, and may have made conditions worse than they were with humans
The saying “history repeats itself” is used quite often, but how many times have you actually seen it happen? The book Animal Farm portrays the idea of history repeating itself. The character Benjamin and the pigs in the story show history repeating itself throughout the book. In addition to these characters within the book, North Korea displays history's repetition outside the book.
The story of Animal Farm is not just one of a bunch of farm animals getting along and enjoying each other. Rather, the tale gives us insight into who is the real villain during the Russian Revolution, as the farm animals represent certain groups George Orwell, in Animal Farm, reveals the villain as a good character in the beginning of the novel, but as we get deeper into the story we figure out that the good animal has been the greedy, self-centered, and cruel villain the whole time. Orwell exposes the injustices that occurred under the rule of Joseph Stalin, through the act of Napoleon becoming a dictator who is lying to the animals and switching the rules for the farm.
One of the main characters of Animal Farm is the heartless and merciless leader Napoleon. Napoleon is a leader that prefers to have things his way and not cooperate with others, in other words really obnoxious. For example “He declared himself against the windmill from the start. One day, however, he arrived unexpectedly to examine the plan. He walked heavily round the sled, looked closely at every detail of the plans and snuffed at them once or twice, then stood for a little while contemplating them out of the corner of his eye; then suddenly lifted his leg, urinated over the plans and walked out without uttering a word.”(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.
Napoleon, the leader of the Animal Farm, was a tyrannous pig. Napoleon was always the second in command behind Snowball until he chased him out and became the leader. Soon after that he became a cruel leader that killed his animals and lied to them. Napoleon was an evil dictator that ruled with lies and corruption.
Often times in a communist society, a leader’s use of language can lead to abuse of power. In George Orwell’s Animal Farm, the farm leaders, the pigs, use unknown language, invoke scare tactics, and create specific laws, thereby enabling them to control other animals, to suit their greedy desires, and to perform actions outside their realm of power. Because of the pigs’ use of broad language, implementation of scare tactics, and creation and manipulation of laws, they are able to get away with avoiding laws and convincing other animals into believing untrue stories and lies that are beneficial to the pigs.
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.
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.
As soon as Old Major had died Napoleon took his place as the leader of
Pigs walking on two feet, horses and sheep talking. This is how George Orwell satirizes human nature in his classic novel Animal Farm. Animal Farm is an allegory of the Russian Revolution of 1917. The title of the book is also the setting for the action in the novel. The animals in the story decide to have a revolution and take control of the farm from the humans. Soon the story shows us how certain groups move from the original ideals of the revolution to a situation where there is domination by one group and submission by all the others. The major idea in this story is the political corruption of what was once a pure political ideal. Orwell uses satire to ridicule human traits in his characters such as Napoleon and Squealer. There are several different characters in the novel utilizing animals as symbols of people in real life during the Russian Revolution. Napoleon is the leader of the pigs that ultimately come to dominate the farm. The characteristics that we associate with pigs , lazy, greedy, and pushy are meant to symbolize the characteristics that the leaders of the Russian Revolution exhibited. Napoleon is admired by all of the animals because he is their leader. All of the animals believe that their leader wants to fulfill all of their needs. They also are convinced that Napoleon’s decisions are made the best interest of the animals. Napoleon’s piglike qualities are shown throughout the story. He exhibited greediness when he sold the dying horse, Boxer to a slaughterhouse for money so that he and the other pigs could purchase whiskey. Orwell ridicules human nature through Napoleon in the sense that he is trying to show how the greedy and power hungry eventually end in corruption.
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.’
The novel, ‘Animal Farm’ is about how the animals will take over the farm from the owner Mr. Jones. This is done by a revolution that is similar to the Russian Revolution. Towards the start of the novel, Napoleon and the other pigs treated the animals fairly and in a good way, until the expulsion of Snowball, where the animals were treated worse than the way that the humans had treated the animals. To a large extent, the pigs were treating the animals worse than when the humans had control of the farm
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.
The satire Animal Farm by George Orwell expresses the idea of self-government through the animals. The animals play the role of humans, in this way using most, if not all, of the human characteristics.
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