Examples Of Abuse Of Power In Animal Farm By George Orwell

As the majority of animals on Animal Farm worked laboriously, their ironically equal leaders, the pigs, watched and forced them to work more and more. Animal Farm, written by George Orwell in 1945, is a novel about a farm overthrown and later led by articulate animals. Throughout the novel, the pigs evolve into cruel leaders who exercise poor leadership through bending rules for their own benefit, abusing the working class, and lying for their own benefit. To begin, one form of abuse of power is through the pig’s changing of the rules for their own benefit. Just before the pigs were busted for sleeping in the farmhouse, Muriel read, “No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets," to the other animals (Orwell, 67). Here, the pigs decided

The first example that portrays this is, "Throughout the spring and summer they worked a sixty-hour week, and in August Napoleon announced that there would be work on Sunday afternoons as well” (Orwell, 59). Just chapters after Snowball is banished, Napoleon begins to force more and more labor on the innocent animals of Animal Farm. However, they, the pigs, hardly do anything but stand by and watch. Secondly, another quote that elaborates on the pig’s laziness is, "The pigs did not actually work, but directed and supervised the others. With their superior knowledge it was natural that they should assume the leadership" (Orwell, 28). Once again, those scandalous pigs are slacking off, increasing the burden of work for other middle class animals. This was one of the earliest instances of foreshadowing that the pigs would become the new Jones of the farm. Obviously, the pigs would overwork the working-class of animals through abusing their

One clear example is when Squealer says, "Do not imagine, comrades, that leadership is a pleasure! On the contrary, it is a deep and heavy responsibility" (Orwell, 55). So how exactly is leadership a deep burden to the pigs, Squealer? How unfortunate it is he restrained from sharing that piece of information. All the readers know that this is a lie while the poor and stupid animals sit and believe these lies. Another instance of lying by the pigs is, "It was about this time that the pigs suddenly moved into the farmhouse and took up their residence there...It was absolutely necessary, he said, that the pigs, who were the brains of the farm, should have a quiet place to work in" (Orwell 67). The key word in this lie is necessary. Just like the last lie, all the readers know that the pigs do not need to move into the farmhouse, but rather want the luxuries it provides them. Just once more, the pigs let leadership go to their heads and abuse it for their own beneficial