Power Leads To Corruption In George Owell's Animal Farm

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Recommended: Themes portrayed in the novel Animal Farm

Friedrich Nietzsche once said, “Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.” Similarly George Owell shows how communism doesn't work in the book Animal Farm. In the story the idea of communism is resembled when the pigs overthrow the humans and animals begin to run the farm. The author uses allegory, symbolism, and mood to develop the theme that power leads to corruption. Allegory is used to show that power leads to corruption. The whole story is an allegory to the Russian Revolution. Old Major is a pig that has the great idea of everyone being equal, just like Marx and Lenin. Napoleon is the one who takes over Old Major’s …show more content…

The mood in animal farm changes from the start of the book to the end. At the beginning after the rebellion the mood is very cheerful and ambitious, the animals all have big plans for the future, the outlook is very bright. As the story goes on the situation in general gets worse and the mood is not nearly as good and happy, the animals are betrayed by their leader Napoleon. After the destruction of the second windmill I think the mood lowers severely. When the commandment changed to, “Four legs good, two legs better! All Animals Are Equal. But Some Animals Are More Equal Than Others,” this shows that the corruption has really set in and the mood is shocking because of how much control Napoleon has over the rest of the farm. The animals lose hope but they still push on. The general mood for the reader in most of the book is sad because of the decline of the animal farm. The animal farm transforms into what they had originally started out to fight against. At the end of the book, when all the animals realize what has happened to them and how they have been mislead by their corrupted leader Napoleon the mood is utter misery. They realize how blind they had been and that now it is too far to do anything about. As the mood changes during the book its clear to see that power leads to

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