The Necessary Intellect of Ordinary People

The uneducated are often unaware of how people take advantage of them when under the power of a leader using propaganda. Propaganda is an opinionated advertisement used to control and appeal to people's judgement and emotions, and gets them to do what they want (Stults). Not all persuasion is propaganda, and not all propaganda is bad (Stults). George Orwell writes Animal Farm as an allegorical fable associated with Lenin’s lead over the revolution that established the Communist control of Russia. After the animals of Animal Farm are successful with the Rebellion against Jones, they to lose sight of how the pigs are slowly influencing them. Like the use of propaganda in Russia, the pigs on Animal Farm are able to manipulate the other animals using simplicity and repetition, distortion and bad logic, and fear.

In 1917, a majority Russian people were unhappy with their leader, Czar Nicholas II. As the dislike grew, Vladimir Lenin began forming a revolution against the leader. After Lenin, along with Joseph Stalin and Leon Trotsky, overthrew the Czar, they began to slowly take control of the people (Stults). Orwell wrote an allegory to the revolution, Animal farm, which includes the same pattern of events as in the Russian revolution. He explains how the manipulation using words can be a powerful tool against many audiences (“Animal Farm” Novels). The animals on Animal Farm supported the revolt against Jones because they felt they were not living as they should be, in the same way that peasants and farmers supported the revolution because they felt they were not treated right (“Animal Farm” Literature). In both situations the purpose of rebellion in to overthrow the hierarchy that later forms again by the leaders of the mutiny. A...

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...ntellect can lead to people being unable to decide whether the things people tell them are true or not and to make good decisions for themselves.

Works Cited

“Animal Farm.” Novels for Students. Ed. Diane Telgen and Kevin Hile. Vol. 3. Detroit: Gale, 1998. 1-23. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 10 Feb. 2014.

“Animal Farm.” Literature and Its Times: Profiles of 300 Notable Literary Works and the Historical Events that Influenced Them. Joyce Moss and George Wilson. Vol. 4: World War II to the Affluent Fifties (1940-1950s). Detroit: Gale, 1997. 14-20. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 11 Feb. 2014.

Orwell, George. Animal Farm. New York: Signet Classics, 1996. Print.

“Reporting America at War: Propaganda.” PBS. Public Broadcasting System, 2003. Web. 23 Jan. 2014.

Stults, Taylor. “Propaganda.” World Book Advanced. World Book, 2014. Web. 4 Feb. 2014.