How Napoleon controlled and maintained power

In Jorge Orwells book Animal Farm there is a sense of dictatorship and tyrannical rule
this rule is shown by Napoleon. Napoleon was one of the pigs on the farm of higher
intellect he desired greed and an empire. Napoleon is a large Berkshire boar who receives
great power when he arranges for the expulsion of Snowball. Napoleon changes in a
negative way as the plot progresses. At first, Napoleon wants to better his life and the
lives of all the other animals, but that soon changes. Power tends to corrupt some people,
such as Napoleon who uses his power to change rules, control others, and shows
favoritism. The dictator Napoleons power came to rise by scapegoating Snowball the
opposition. Snowball the other intellectual pig was better at speaking and persuading
Napoleon, so when there were debates on the animal farm Napoleon would have a harder
time. Napoleon takes over the farm early in the novel after chasing out snowball and
constantly scapegoating him for every fault in Animal Farm. Napoleon being the dictator
quickly blames and turns the farm on Snowball to help him with this he uses Squealer to
spread his propaganda.

After the rebellion of the farm two pigs lead the farm, Napoleon and Snowball. Napoleon
and Snowball worked efficiently at first but when it came to debates they could never
agree on anything. Napoleon greatly disliked Snowball and started planning how to get
rid of him, mysteriously Napoleon took nine dogs from their mother and taught them in a
hidden place. What really made Napoleon furious was Snowballs constant attention from
the farm.
During debates Snowball was a good speaker and could easily gain the animals support
with his speeches alone. So, Napoleon trained the sheep to break into their favorite slogan
of ' four legs good, two legs bad' at vital parts of Snowball's speeches making hard to
convey his points to them. During the debate of the windmill The animals formed
themselves into two factions under the slogans, Vote for Snowball and the three-day
work week and Vote for Napoleon and the full manger (50). When, despite
Napoleon's efforts, Snowball managed to get most of the animals support on the matter of
the windmill, Napoleon knew Snowball was a threat to his position. Despite Napoleons
many complaints that the windmill was not worth the time and that the farm need to
concentrate on food production instead. Snowball continued working on his plan, this
made Napoleons quest for dictating the farm come into a stopping halt. The way that
Napoleon found he could control the farm was through power, those nine dogs soon
grew over time. Snowball was increasing his chance of winning the debate, when the day
come to vote over the windmill Napoleon tried to exterminate Snowball. The nine dogs
chased Snowball off, almost catching him. Then later on to help with accusations that
Snowball was a traitor Napoleon forged documents which the animals cannot understand,
but which help his point, Napoleon is using their lack of education to manipulate them.
Supposed documents are found which allegedly contain proof that Snowball had been
consorting with Mr. Jones from the very beginning of the revolution. It has been proved
by documents which he [Snowball] left behind him and which we have only just
discovered. I could show you this in your own writing, if you were able to read it (7981). Napoleon claims he had always suspected Snowball was a traitor, and has driven

Snowball away from the farm because he knows Snowball is a dangerous character and
a bad influence (58). By bringing forth the supposed documents, Napoleon proves that
he has been correct about Snowball. He is proving to the animals that he can see what the
others cannot, which is one of the reasons why he is a strong dictator.

The tyrannical rule of Napoleon begun quickly after chasing off snowball and stealing his
projects for the windmill. Napoleon stole snowballs plans for the windmill and said they
were his own sadly with his bad communicating skills he sent squealer to talk instead.
Squealer took the archetype of the media in the Novel because of his persuasiveness and
effortless ability to convince the other animals for Napoleon. Three weeks after the
expulsion of Snowball, Napoleon declares the windmill which Snowball had promoted is
to be built, and Squealer is explaining to the animals that Napoleon had never really
opposed the windmill, but had just used Tactics, comrade, tactics (58) in order to get
Snowball to leave, the Animal Farm believes every word that squealer says they believe
this even though they watched Snowball for hours work on those plans for the windmill..
"The animals were not certain what the word tactics meant, but Squealer spoke so
persuasively, and the three dogs who happened to be with him growled so threateningly,
that they accepted his explanation without further questions (58). After falling on hard
times, Napoleon claims Snowball is often secretly frequenting the farm by night (77),
and holds an audience in which he executes those who are allegedly in league with
Snowball. "She Clover did not know why they [the animals] had come to a time when no
one dared speak his mind, when fierce, growling dogs roamed everywhere, and when you
had to watch your comrades torn to pieces after confessing to shocking crimes (87).
There is no question concerning the legitimacy of the crimes which the executed animals
are accused of the only point of the executions is to show the animals what Napoleon will
do to any animal which goes against his policies. Napoleon uses power to change rules.
The animals design The seven commandments of Animalism as rules which apply to all
equally. Napoleon arranges to change The Seven Commandments to justify his wrong
doing. After series of changes, only one commandment remains: All animals are created
equal, but some are more equal than others. By having the power to make changes, he
can make everything suit himself. At first there was the idea of a Utopia, heaven on
Earth, but Napoleon changes that too. The Utopia changes to a dictatorship under
Napoleons influence. Snowballs crimes are fabricated by Napoleon, and the animals
spontaneous confessions are fueled with the assumption that Napoleon will let them use
Snowball as a scapegoat, just as he has done countless times before. It is also clear that
Napoleons motives are not centered about finding loyalties to Snowball, but are instead
bent upon drawing a firm line where he is the leader, and if any are discovered to be
showing loyalty to any other, that individual will be executed. Napoleon became the
undisputed leader. He then banned the debates and told the animals they would follow
orders instead. This was so that the animals would not be able to have a say in the
running of the farm and would not be able to disagree on any matters.

Every animal on the farm buys into the plan of Napoleon not seeing that he is now ruling
and leading him. The animals start off listening to squealer compellingly and believing

everything he says. Boxer is a prime example of an animal that could of potentially

helped other animals by into Napoleons power as a dictator. Boxer starts off as a very
motivational worker for Animal farm, his motto was Work Harder this was if course
when snowball was around. After a while through listening to Napoleon and Squealers
compelling speeches he adapted to his motto that Napoleon is always right. If other see
Boxer working hard saying Napoleon is always right being the extraordinary worker he
was other may look up to him and make Napoleon is always right their own personal
motto. Later on the animals confessed and got slaughter for being talked to or by
snowball. These killings instill a mass fear among the other animals. Squealer assists
Napoleon by speaking convincingly on his behalf and making him seem more kinglike. Squealer aids Napoleon in his quest for absolute control or power. Napoleon uses
the animals lack of education in order to promote an idea which will prove his strong
leadership. Squealer would read out to them a list of figures proving that the production
of every class of food stuff had been increased by two hundred percent, or five hundred
percent, as the case might be (92). By fabricating these reports, Napoleon leads the
animals to believe that his methods are making Animal Farm prosperous. Apart from
appeal to authority and fear, Napoleon makes it a great part of his campaign to utilize the
tactic of repetition, creating slogans, short phrases and illusive threats. Near the
beginning of the reign of the pigs, the pigs claimed the milk and apples for their own,
telling the other animals that the milk and apples are necessary for their health. Do you
know what would happen if we pigs failed in our duty? Jones would come back!. Surely
there are none among you who wants to see Jones come back! (36). This phrase is
repeated many times until all of the animals believe the only way to keep Jones away is
to have the pigs as their leaders. However, the pigs have more in mind than just keeping
power, for this threat is also used every time the pigs want something which enables the
pigs to live in very good conditions.

In the end the animals believed every word of Napoleon and Squealer. Boxer helped
greatly without knowing consciously that being a role model while saying Napoleon is
always right can help the dictators power spread. To even help the animals believe that
everything and anything related to do with snowball was wrong, Napoleon took the morehuman [dictatorial] tactic of installing fear into the community by killing very animal that
confessed. Squealer help and even assists with convincing them that the killings were
necessary. Napoleon also made fake statistics to benefit himself and the pigs, he exploited
the lack of knowledge on the farm. Then Napoleon also made warning threats, for
example saying you dont want jones to come back do you? Napoleons tyrannical rule

was unstoppable, he says that he used tactics when stealing Snowballs windmill ideas
and that he believed in the project all along, but Snowball stole his plans. Then Napoleon
started ruling by force [the nine dogs], Squealer convinced the animals that protection
was ensured by having them around. But Napoleon quickly starts using those dogs as
more of intimidation to produce work. Later Napoleon changes the Seven
Commandments to fulfill his own purposes, when anyone trys to question they are
proven wrong by Squealers persuasiveness. Then for every fault in the farm, he used
Snowball as a scapegoat saying he visited the farm at night creating chaos. Once
Snowball was out of the picture Napoleon could easily control the farm by banishing
meeting where any animal could potentially oppose Napoleon. Napoleon from the
starting of Animal Farm to the end hated Snowball, Snowball was more convincing than
Napoleon no matter how many tatics Napoleon used to try and spoil Snowballs
speeches because Snowball always got more support than Napoleon. Once Snowball is
out of the picture Napoleon needs a way of scapegoating Snowball for his harsh actions,
Napoleon tells the other animals that there were documents that Snowball was also
conversing with Mr. Jones. Through this essay there is important evidence that Napoleon
power increased through scapegoating Snowball. This made Napoleon a genuine dictator
because there was no opposition to go against his word.