‘Literacy is a bridge from misery to hope’- Kofi Annan. Indeed it is. The ability to read is something that many lack and therefore face despair in everyday situations. However, Annan;s words apply to fictional worlds as well. In the novella Animal Farm by George Orwell the animals are illiterate and have to struggle with the consequences. Due to this, they have trouble deciphering what is true and what is false. Their crude leader, Napoleon takes advantage of this by manipulating their memory of events, by verifying his claims with writing, and by --------------------------. In Animal Farm the animals who are under the rule of Napoleon are manipulated due to their illiteracy. Napoleon, being the devious pig he is takes advantage of this by manipulating their memory of events. There are many instances …show more content…
Due to the fact that many of the animals are unable to read or write, they are forced to memorize the Commandments. For example, on page ninety-one, Orwell states, “It ran: No animal shall kill any other animal without cause.” Somehow or other the last two words had slipped out the animals’ memory. But now they saw that it had not been violated; for clearly there was good reason for killing traitors who leagued themselves without Snowball”, (Orwell 91). As proven in the text, Napoleon uses the fact that the animals cannot read to do what h e desires. Since the animals can only rely on their memory, which is already so fallible it makes it quite easy for Napoleon to turn his homicidal acts, which are clearly against the original Sixth Commandment (No animal shall kill any other animal) into something acceptable. Moreover, the animals cannot verify Napoleon’s claims with a legitimate source other than the pigs, who are in league with him or the other animals who
Napoleon knew the alphabet faster than any other animal on the farm, and was able to use that against them. . Because he was so wise he could change the writing on the rules to fit his boundaries, while the other animals would not know. “Clover learned the alphabet but could not put the words together, Boxer could not get beyond the letter D.” (Orwell 28) The other animals struggled, and that led the perfect opportunity for Napoleon.
In the book Animal Farm, George Orwell’s character Napoleon is a sly and very intelligent animal. Napoleon uses many techniques to stay in charge and gain the animals trust such as fear, propaganda and revisionist history. Fear is used as a motivating factor. Propaganda, such as, scapegoat and followers are used. Napoleon revises history and the commandments because he cannot have laws that overrule his ultimate power as a dictator and to show that he is a hero.
The dogs could do anything they wanted to do to the animals as long as they were given permission from Napoleon. John Locke said when you try to take anyone's rights you're at a state of war with them and the dogs took away the right to speak freely and the animals were scared to talk about it with each other for the fear of being hurt by the dogs. The dogs wouldn’t let the animals have some of their rights and they were scared and Napoleon could do whatever he wanted to do to the animals. One example of this is Napoleon started ordering the dogs to kill animals. Third, Napoleon was a horrible leader that only cared about his own prosperity and did anything to get to the top.
Napoleon made a substantial impact on the way the animals reacted to their new hardships. The pigs, including Napoleon, are said to be the most intelligent animals on the farm, but unlike the others, Napoleon uses it to manipulate the
He twisted the truth and didn’t keep his promises. In Chapter 8 of Animal Farm, George Orwell wrote, “They had thought that Fifth commandment was ‘No animal shall drink alcohol’, but there were two words they had forgotten. Actually the commandment read: ‘No animal shall drink alcohol to excess’” (Text 1). In Animal Farm, Napoleon changed the rules so that he would be able to do what he wants.
These messages include the importance of an informed and educated public, the prevalence of deception and propaganda, and the concept of absolute power corrupting absolutely. A theme conveyed through Animal Farm that is still relevant today is the importance of an informed, educated public. Following Napoleon’s executions of the traitors, the animals begin to question whether this act went against their established commandments. They thought the Sixth Commandment read: “No animal shall kill any other animal.”
In order to make animals agree to his bidding, Napoleon even begins bringing fear to the animals to keep them silent. “The four pigs who had protested when Napoleon abolished the Meetings raised their voices timidly, but they were promptly silenced by a tremendous growling from the dogs.” (Orwell 63) By bringing his frightening dogs to the public, all animals are forced to agree to whatever Napoleon decrees which soon begins taking away their freedom to speak freely.
Furthermore, Napoleon gives the other animals the impression he was the sole leader of the rebellion on Animal farm and makes Snowball -a leader who wanted what was best for the animals- seem like an enemy who was in cahoots with Farmer Jones since long before the animals took over the farm. Napoleon and Squealer (another “fat cat” pig.) always put the blame on Snowball whenever something went wrong in the farm to avoid having the blame fall on them. Napoleon is an exemplary example of just how selfish and hypocritical people can be in furthering their own aims because he continued to subtly but purposely change the seven rules put in place as the pillars of animalism. For example, Napoleon and the other pigs move into Farmer Jones’s house and sleep in his bed after commanding “No animal shall sleep in a bed”, so he changes the commandment to read “no animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets”.
In the novel, the pigs capable of reading and writing wrote down Seven Commandments to be followed by all animals to set a standard of equal expectations. But the power grew among the pigs, especially between Snowball and Napoleon as they influence the animals even more. The two began to have controversies over the construction of the windmill. As tension grew, Napoleon released his dogs to chase Snowball away from the farm by force to gain complete control of the farm (Animal Farm, Ch.5). It then became very noticeable that Napoleon had grown in greed and began to use corrupted force against those who opposed him to remain in power, proving to be no better than Mr.
The animals have no idea what is going on in Animal Farm since squealer uses his charming words to confuse the animals. Napoleon, the boar, has many goals but the main one was to have complete and absolute power. The pigs act in specific situations to weaken equality and give up their freedom by giving fewer rations to the other animals and forcing them to work on Sundays. The other animals do not realize that the animals are losing their freedom and equality because they are not smart and do not understand the conflict. The pigs do influence the attitude and behaviors of other followers on animal farm.
He convinces them by making up scientific facts that using your brain is more exhausting than physically working all day. Since he is the smartest and one of the only ones who knows how to read, he can get away with making up facts. Once he got away with getting extra food, he decided to assert his power in harmful ways. Napoleon started to change the seven amendments of Animal Farm, which were sworn not to be changed, and started to rewrite the past. “‘It says, “No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets.”
And to the benefit of Napoleon, all the pigs can read. So this creates the
With most of the animals not being able to read had not noticed the changes that started to occur to the commandments. For example, the seventh commandment started as ‘All animals are equal’ and later changed to ‘All animals are equal but some are more equal then other’. The changes in the commandments only benefited Napoleon and his wanting of more power. This made what started as an image of hope to become a reality of being trapped and manipulated to all the animals that were not
Throughout history there have been dictators who have corrupted their countries, brainwashed their people, and have been responsible for the deaths of many. In Animal Farm, George Orwell wrote about animals on a farm who were able to speak and suffer through very similar things that humans have suffered through within their country, and under the rule of a modern day dictator. The animals in the novel were fighting for their freedom from the rule of Mr. Jones, a poor leader who often forgot to feed the animals and take care of them daily. Napoleon, a pig, ran out his competition and took power during a time of instability. And suddenly Animal Farm was turned into an allegorical novel. The allegory was for Stalin, the dictator that was responsible
For the first few years of his rule, Napoleon had no understanding of agriculture. There were often periods of starvation amongst the animals. In this quote we understand the animals are not meant to be portrayed as idiotic because they truly are led to believe in their ruling to be still taking care of them. While Napoleon does not know how to properly manage a farm, he seeks to receive the praise of one who has.