Animal Farm - George Orwell Essay 1

Suhail S Thandi

Explore Napoleons rise to power in Animal Farm, with reference to Orwells style, based on Chapters V VII Reiterating the story of the development of communism in Soviet Russia in the form of a fairy tale, Animal Farm allegorizes the rise to power of the callous dictator Joseph Stalin. Napoleon, the callous pig representing Stalin, manages to create a hierarchy on which he places himself on top due to several factors including fear, violence, propaganda, negative unity, and the passivity of other animals. The factual, matter of fact way of writing only makes Orwells work more impactful, and thus the novel is full of dramatic irony and unfortunate fate that can be predicted by the reader, but sadly not the characters. Napoleon is meant to represent Stalin; however he can stand in place of any dictator or any ruthless leader, conveying Orwells message on several levels, and this making it relevant in the modern world up until today. Since the beginning of the novel, Napoleon had made no contribution to the well-being of the farm, and the only interest he did take was when he took a litter of puppies and kept them in secret. This shows that Napoleon is manipulative and only does what he deems best for himself, not for the community. He represents all corrupt leaders and leaders who have gone wrong in the course of their ruling. Napoleon starts to command the other animals, and shows no interest in any logical expansion of the farm. He has strict law enforcement and is surrounded by his flattering sycophants. Such details allow Orwell to show the reader that Napoleon is in fact a very insecure and weak pig, fueled only by the passivity of the animals and the heroic dramatization by Squealer. Napoleon is shown as a coldblooded, self-elected ruler of Animal Farm. When he makes himself leader after banishing Snowball from the farm, he commands the other animals, and after the meeting he dismisses them. A classic example of betrayal, this shows that Napoleon never believed in the idealistic, utopian dream of Old Major which was shared by so many other animals. He saw to the fact that this nave dream was ephemeral and he became someone to be feared, but also respected. The animals noticed that frequently he did not even appear on Sunday mornings, but issued his orders through one of the other pigs which creates an air of mystery, which only adds to his aura of menace. Napoleons lack of leadership qualities become evident when the animals start to starve, which implies that the conditions are worse than they were during Jones time, and when hes indecisive about who to sell the timber to, Pilkington or Frederick. This absence of confidence during a time of urgency and his talking lowly to his inferiors show him as not only a horrible pig with a horrible personality, but also a weak pig who cannot take control of situations that are beyond the comfort of his milk and apples. Napoleon starts to use his power to make even Snowball and his ideas inferior. For instance, when Snowball worked hard and laboriously to make the plans of the windmill, Napoleon did not bother turning up to look at them, and when he did, it was to urinate over the plans. This open insult, this crude humor, foreshadows the brutal path he will take to become the sole, and unfortunately a tyrannical, leader. Whenever Napoleon felt threatened by Snowballs
1

Animal Farm - George Orwell Essay 1

Suhail S Thandi

speeches, he used his trained sheep to start bleating Four legs good, two legs bad and often interrupted the meeting with this. The reader realized that Napoleon is being cunning and malevolent when Orwell uses a blunt and rather unemotional tone to describe that it was noticed that [the sheep] were especially liable to break into Four legs good, two legs bad at crucial moments in Snowballs speeches. Perhaps the most terrifying act that Napoleon did was literally having Snowball chased out of the farm. It was a major turn of events and because it was tolerated by the passive animals, Napoleon was able to declare that the power to make decisions for the farm would be exercised solely by the pigs, turning from a socialist state to an anarchist state. Soon, Napoleon starts to create an image of Snowball as someone who is evil and does not think of the farm first, but of himself, a sad irony as Napoleon actually paints a picture of himself to the other animals. Another way Napoleon controls the passive animals is through negative unity: he demonizes Snowball and convinces the other animals that Snowball is a criminal who has malicious plans for the future of the farm. He starts off by blaming the collapse of the windmill on Snowball, wording his speech in a way that left no counter-thoughts for the animals to think otherwise. He creates a conspiracy that makes the other animals unite and do Napoleons work, but under fear. Napoleon forces the weaker animals to confess to crimes they had not committed, and most of them include tainting the memories of other animals with bad impressions of Snowball, making them forget all the promises he had meant to deliver and all the good he had done to the farm. Four pigs pleaded guilty of being secretly in touch with Snowball ever since his expulsion who had been Joness secret agent from the start, and similarly three hens came forward and stated that Snowball had appeared to them in a dream and incited them to disobey Napoleons orders. Hence, Napoleon successfully manages to create a common enemy, which creates a temporary unity between the pigs and the other animals, allowing Napoleon to lead the panicked animals and hence regain his position as leader. The only thing that Napoleon did with perhaps a little enthusiasm was when he took the small puppies and brought them up in secret, away from the rest of the farm and thus the animal community. He does not educate the dogs, and only takes care of them so that they would in turn protect him and help him threaten the other animals: they become his private army. Following the expulsion of Snowball from the farm, the animals notice that the dogs wagged their tails to [Napoleon] in the same way as the other dogs had been used to do to Mr. Jones, a forewarning of a grim future, similar to the past they had escaped from. This training helps Napoleon rise to power, as because he is surrounded by this entourage who continue to inflict fear onto the other animals; they are unable to retaliate, as any form of revolution ends with that sole, brave animal dead from the jaws of the merciless and brutal dogs Napoleon continues to abuse his self-entrusted power and while the animals are supposed to have equal power over what is happening to the farm, Napoleon slowly sabotages them and
2

Animal Farm - George Orwell Essay 1

Suhail S Thandi

makes them his subjects, and does not treat him as his equals. Through the means of Squealer, his propaganda machine, Napoleon becomes a larger than life character. Squealer manages to justify Napoleons wrong actions by twisting the words of Old Major, altering the seven commandments, and giving credit to Napoleon for whatever good happened in the farm. To make Napoleon seem like a figure that each animal should look up to, Squealer starts to address him by the name of Leader in Chapter VI, while convincing the animals that the pigs, and especially the leader, must sleep inside the house because it suited to the dignity of the leader. And to do so, the pigs make use of the animals ignorance and illiteracy to suit their needs, and change one of the commandments to No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets, hence managing to use the ignorance of the animals for their own selfish benefits. Another example is when Squealer plays with the memories of the animals, making them forget events that happened and planting images of incidents that never occurred. Squealer cleverly convinces the animals that it was not Snowball, but in fact their brave leader who sprang forward with a cry of Death to Humanity! and sank his teeth in Joness leg. The animals, unwilling to recall the incident themselves, blindly believe Squealer for he described the scene so graphically and suddenly, all animals remember how it was Snowball who had turned to flee in a critical moment of that battle. Squealer managed to distort facts and rewrite history to make Napoleon a powerful and extremely courageous leader. Because the way Squealer convinces the animals is written so factually, the reader is hit hard with the dramatic irony, and one tends to feel sorry for these slow and sad animals. The most important and the most prominent reason, why Napoleon managed to dictate over the animals was due to their own passivity and to a slight extent, their stupidity. Had they listened to Snowball and tried to learn how to read and write early on during the story, they would not have been as easily exploited by Napoleon and his group of pigs. When Snowball is evicted from the farm, none of the animals feel the need to question. They do not think, and hence give away their power unknowingly to Napoleon, who seizes it with such force that no animal is able to take it back from him. Because this whole event was described in such an emotionless way by Orwell, the impact of the silence of the animals is far greater than expected. The animals continue to let Napoleon exploit them; they do not question him when he cancels debates, they do not protest when Sunday meetings are abolished, and they do not oppose when Napoleon asks them to make more and more sacrifices, while he enjoys the luxuries that Jones once did. Boxer is created as a powerful beast, but he does not exercise the extent of his power, and submits to Napoleon, a pig who is a tenth of his size and a hundredth in terms of brawn. Boxer, along with the other animals, took pride in their work, but do not realize that they are subjugated like slaves. Because the animals did not bother learning how to read or write, the pigs manage to use their ignorance, and Boxers blind faith in Napoleon, for their benefit and convince them that Snowball had been in league with Jones from the very start which had been proven by documents which he left behind and which [the pigs] had only just
3

Animal Farm - George Orwell Essay 1

Suhail S Thandi

discovered. The misuse of their lack of knowledge benefits the pigs by letting the animals have faith in everything they say, and hence remain in the dark of all situations. Napoleon manages to rise above the others in the utopian Animal Farm, due to the passivity of other animals more than his cunning. However, his clever and notorious ways, his infliction of fear and violence, and his demonization of Snowball helps him become the unwanted leader of a farm that never required one. Because he placed himself on a pedestal, made himself grand and impressive, and lead other animals to believe he was doing what was right for them, he managed to govern the farm in a totalitarian way, that ended up putting the farm and the conditions of the animals working in the farm in a worse condition than they were before they started the revolution.