Animal Farm Essay

Animal Farm Essay
Many of the characters in George Orwell’s Animal Farm are eventually corrupted by their position of
leadership, which they use to exploit other creatures. The pigs, for example, seize command and
begin to manage the other animals. Squealer and the hounds are used by Napoleon to suppress the
animals' inquiries concerning the windmill. Napoleon is the most corrupt character in the book as he
begins modifying the commandments, satisfying himself, and betraying his most loyal worker, Boxer,
he demonstrates ultimate power corrupts unquestionably. Napoleon shifted his power in order to
achieve more "power," a higher prestige. He amended the law solely to allow himself to become
intoxicated. Orwell utilises literacy techniques including characterisation and dialogue to highlight
that Napoleon and his followers are corrupt and go against their own words at times in the book.
A literacy technique that is used in the novel is characterisation and this is shown when Napoleon
takes charge of the farm. He says he wants all animals to be equal but in reality, he doesn’t. When
he was voted in by the other animals, he agreed with everything Old Major said but by the end he
went against almost everything that Old Major stated. You can see characterisation in this as there
are many similarities between Napoleon and Stalin who governed the Soviet Union from 1922 until
his death in 1953; he was a very corrupt leader who killed about 6 million people while in charge,
but this grew to 9 million. “No one believes more firmly than Comrade Napoleon that all animals are
equal. He would be only too happy to let you make your decisions for yourselves. But sometimes you
might make the wrong decisions, comrades, and then where should we be?” (Page 55). The effect of
this on the farm was that there was backlash, an argument broke out with Squealer trying to make
Snowball sound as bad as he possibly could. Squealer then would ask the farm if they wanted Jones
back, trying to make it sound like if Jones had to come back it would be a disaster, but in the end, we
found out that the farm had turned into a disaster without Jones in charge but with Napoleon.
Another technique that is used heavily in this book is dialogue, dialogue is when two or more people
or in this circumstance animals have a conversation in a book, film, or play. This is used a lot from
the front to the back of the book. But most notably when Snowball has the idea of building a
windmill to provide electricity to the farm, this would improve the animals’ lives. One of the biggest
points he raised was that it would help them complete their labor and the animals would not have to
work as much. But Napoleon doesn’t like this idea because he thinks that they would begin selling
and trading farm products which is against one of Old Majors rules. But after all of this and Napoleon
is in charge he goes against his own words and begins to trade with neighbouring farms, and he even
hires an agent. “From now onwards Animal Farm would engage in trade with the neighbouring
farms: not, of course, for any commercial purpose, but simply in order to obtain certain materials
which were urgently necessary. The needs of the windmill must override everything else, he said. He
was therefore making arrangements to sell a stack of hay and part of the current year's wheat crop,
and later on, if more money were needed, it would have to be made up by the sale of eggs.” (Page ?)
This is a quote from Napoleon once again going against what he said previously. The effect on the
farm after they heard this was that the animals felt uneasy that Napoleon was going against Old
Majors rule once again.
George Orwell uses these literacy techniques to explore corruption in his novel Animal Farm. He
does this by showing characterisation when he shows similarities to former Soviet leader Stalin, he
also shows dialogue when Napoleon starts to go against what he was saying previously at the start
of the book. Orwell has done a good job at showing Napoleons true colours and what he would
eventually do to the farm and his fellow animals.

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