Napoleon In George Orwell's Animal Farm

In the satiric novel entitled Animal Farm by George Orwell the character Napoleon represents a group of corrupted leaders who gradually lose sight of what they were working for. The group of pigs, including Napoleon himself, rebelled and fought for freedom against Farmer Jones. However, the utopia that they fought for was forgotten, and the pigs manipulate the other animals. As a result, Animal Farm ends up exactly where it had originally started. Napoleon is deceitful, corrupt, and cunning, and if Napoleon and the other pigs had never appointed themselves the ultimate leaders, Animal Farm would have never failed, and would have been much more successful.

Napoleon is a master of deceit and lying his way through situations to get what he wants.

He uses his skill in deceit all throughout Animal Farm to trick the animals. “‘Do not imagine, comrades, that leadership is a pleasure! On the contrary, it is a deep and heavy responsibility. No one believes more than Comrade Napoleon that all animals are equal. He would be only happy to let you make your decisions for yourselves. But sometimes you might make the wrong decisions, comrades, and then where would we be?’” (18). Despite the fact that these are Squealer’s words, they are, in reality, deformed by Napoleon’s thoughts. Napoleon and the other pigs believe the animals are so dumb they can’t make their own decisions and know to follow Napoleon, but they also know the animals may be just smart enough to figure out that what Napoleon is doing and how he is running Animal Farm might not be for the greater good. In addition, it is stated “Like all of Napoleon’s speeches, it was short and to the point. He too, he said, was happy that the period of misunderstanding was at and end. For a long time there had been rumors - circulated, he had reason to think, by some malignant enemy - that there was something subversive and even revolutionary in the outlook of him and his colleagues,” (44?). Everything Napoleon claimed to be false had once been true, but he is claiming otherwise to avoid starting up trouble with his new allies, the humans. All of the animals’ work and all of Napoleon’s work was thrown away once Napoleon said this. Conclusion.
Napoleon has mastered many skills while being leader of Animal Farm, including manipulation.

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

ordered by Napoleon to be seeded for the growing of barley, but the animals did not know the barley would be taken to the brew house and made to beer for the pigs. Conclusion.