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George Orwell Animal Farm Symbolism
Napoleon taking advantage of his leadership role on an animal farm
The themes in Orwell's Animal farm
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Napoleon believes that pigs are that of a superior race and that all animals, no matter how powerful in strength, are inferior to their genius. He is able to establish a ruling built off of violence and deceit. Napoleon, the fascist ruler over Animal Farm, is not only an appalling leader for the animals but also presents multiple examples on how his cruelty exceeds that of Farmer Jones’. Napoleon’s actions grow worse, going from working the animals endlessly to growing victim to the lowest of human traits, and even playing judge, jury, and executioner towards the seemingly guilty. Napoleon’s ruthlessness makes Jones look like a benevolent farmer in comparison but, unfortunately, many of the animals are too naïve to notice.
“All that year the animal worked like slaves” (Orwell 59). This quote is only a mere scrape off of what Napoleon had done to the animals under his ruling. With his reigning powers he is able to control the animals and force work upon them until death; the most prominent example of this incudes the building of the windmill, a task of which is first given to reduce future work on the farm. Napoleon works the animals hard, yet he himself did little to no work as he dawdles away in the farmer’s home. Perhaps some believe this work to be a fruitful endeavor, but that is sadly far from the case. After a violent storm, the windmill is found in shambles; the work of the animals all for naught. Is this problematic for Napoleon? No, it is not. This is merely delay that does not affect him in the slightest. Instead, Napoleon puts the animals back to work, even during the worst of weather and season without break. Some died of this turmoil, Boxer the Horse being one of the victims to this cruelty. Sadly...
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... animals had been fighting…man. This may sound obscure but it is perfectly clear in the sentence “No question, now, what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which” (Orwell 141). He is the symbol of oppression, the weight that tips the balance of good and evil. Napoleon’s treacherous acts of endless work, building traits of sin, and even playing with the lives of his former comrades end the united powers of the farm. What he did will only result in rebellion, and with rebellion will come more war, more blood, and more suffering. Only this time, the good word of equality will outweigh that of a single over powered pig and his followers.
Works Cited
Orwell, George. Animal Farm. New York, Penguin Group, 1946. Print.
Throughout the book Animal Farm, by George Orwell, the protagonist Napoleon emerges as an active political member in a utopian communist society after the animal revolution with the intention of benefiting society as a whole. Napoleon eventually turns into a ruthless dictator without any political opposition. Napoleon’s Transition from political activist, to unitary political figure, to ruthless dictator brings a whole new meaning to the statement, “power corrupts”.
In George Orwell’s Animal Farm, the pigs take over Manor Farm and dominate the weaker animals by using a combination of strength, fear, and trickery. This book is an allegory to the Russian Revolution, which led to Josef Stalin’s rise to power and the beginning of his dictatorship. In the novel Farmer Jones symbolizes Czar Nicholas II and Napoleon symbolizes Josef Stalin. The animals overthrow their dictator, Farmer Jones, and eventually end up replacing him with another dictator, Napoleon the pig. Napoleon demonstrates how the other farm animals’ weakness can be dominated by strength, fear, and trickery, revealing one of George Orwell’s themes.
Absolute power leads to the corruption of government. In Animal Farm, when a group of mistreated animals rebels against their cruel farm owner, two intelligent pigs on the farm take it upon themselves to lead the animals jointly. However, due to the animals' greedy co-leader Napoleon who dominates that power, the pigs' leadership turns into a corrupt power-hungry government that causes the entire farm system to collapse. In order to secure a life of luxury for Napoleon and his fellow pigs, Napoleon (with Squealer as his spokesman)uses language that intimidates, language that distorts the truth, and language that appeals to the emotions of the animals in order to manipulate gullible animals of Animal Farm.
In George Orwell’s novel Animal Farm a fable is told of one pig who is there to conquer and stay. Napoleon is a young slightly intelligent pig who has found himself in the heart of Manor Farm looked upon by others, but in order to gain his people's’ respect, animals’ respect, he must use tactics to conquer Manor Farm some of his different tactics include using the power of trust and betrayal, manipulation of words and pasts, and fear. Through these three tactics he withholds the power of corruption, we see different examples in the novel of his valor and his ruthlessness used in order to achieve what he wants.
This is classical sign of how from equality they moved to the tyranny, Napoleon was doing everything to became as the mister Jones or in other words human and we can say that he managed to do this because we can see at the end that it was impossible to distinguish pig from human and human from pig.
Napoleon’s method of victimizing the animals with his physiological attacks allows for his control over Animal Farm and its animal population. Napoleon initially bombards the animals with propaganda and thus conditions and enslaves them to his subjective ideals. Afterward, Napoleon’s implement of expert power overwhelms the animals and subjugates them to him. Finally, the animals are controlled by Napoleon as they are besieged with his coercive powers. Overall,
Napoleon, the chief pig, eventually used force to carry out his orders in Animal Farm. His attack dogs drove Snowball away, and inspired the fear necessary to gain total control of the Farm, as these beasts left the animals “… too amazed and frightened to speak.” His foresight to train these dogs, and his use of force, slowly move Animal Farm away from its original utopian equality and more towards Napoleon’s totalitarian ideas.
Throughout the story, the first signal that illustrates the corruption in pigs started right after the animals chased away Mr. Jones. When the animals milked the cows and discussed about what to do with all the milk, Napoleon cried “Never mind the milk, comrades…placing himself in front of the buckets” (p18) and then all buckets of milk disappeared. This is foreshadowing that later Napoleon may become the kind of leader who keeps everything good for himself and does not care about others, and this actually happened later. Several days later, someone found out that all the milk was mixed in pigs’ mash everyday as well as the apples and pointed that pigs broke the rule of “All animals are equal” (p17).
Like a snake, Napoleon cheated his way through words and overthrew Snowball, only to find out he would steal his justifying ideas after he attained enough authority. Consequently, Napoleon’s corrupt power is evident when the author asserts, “Throughout the spring and summer they worked a sixty-hour week, and in August Napoleon announced that there would be work on Sunday afternoon as well. This work was strictly voluntary, but any animal who absented himself from it would have his rations reduced by half” (Orwell 29). This is captivating for it exemplifies Napoleon’s tarnished power for he was voluntarily forcing his comrades to work for food on their plate. By withholding food rations, Napoleon has control over all of the animals as food is crucial resource to survival. He promises more food, yet he abused the animals’ inability to remember as a mean of regulating distribution. Subsequently, Napoleon wasn’t barring there, “In April, Animal Farm was proclaimed a Republic, and it became necessary to elect a President. There was only one candidate, Napoleon, who was elected unanimously” (Orwell 54). How fortunate must’ve Napoleon been to inherit full authorization on Animal Farm. Once Napoleon orders the execution of the pigs and the hens, there is an immediate descent into supplementary betrayal, which leads to Boxer’s passing and
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.
From a political perspective, this intriguing satirical novella greatly uses symbolism by carefully modeling the characterization of the animals to fit its target whilst avoiding stepping on the toes of the intended personage. By modeling each character in their place, you will stumble upon Napoleon, a direct replica of the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. Napoleon is the main antagonist of George Orwell's Animal Farm. He is a large fierce-looking Berkshire boar and t...
Animal Farm is the story of an animal revolution of the residents in Manor Farm. As a fact, the pig, Old Major, decides and motivates the other animals to change their “miserable, laborious, and short” lives. They dethrone Mr. Jones, their master, and put themselves in charge of the administration and direction of the farm. As he is a cruel human leader the animals decide to stop his mandatory, but thinking of a better way to live they took bad decisions and fall under the rule of a more tyrannical leader, Pig Napoleon. Napoleon and his committee of pigs constitute a dictatorship system that has to be obeyed by the animals on the farm to feel freedom from cruel leaderships like Mr. Jones'. Absurdly, Napoleon handles the laws to his benefit forcing the animals to work until their deaths, being more dictator than Mr.
In every society there are leaders who, if given the opportunity, will likely abuse their power. Napoleon takes over the farm but in the process he becomes exactly like the humans by mistreating the other animals and actually becoming friends with a human that owns a farm nearby. He breaks the laws that the animals made for everyone.
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.
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