...Animal Farm is a novel that appears at first glance like a children's book metaphor to represent Russia, but it's much broader than that, it's the mistakes of all men with absolute power. Animal Farm is a historical novel that illustrates the idea that absolute power corrupts absolutely and with corruption comes lack of equality among the people. George Orwell uses: metaphors, fables, satire, illusion, and characterization to convey the ideas that men make mistakes with too much power. Animal Farm, like a metaphor, conveys a deeper level of meaning beneath the children’s story about animals on a farm. One main point Orwell was trying to show his audience is too much power can corrupt any government. This can be viewed through the character Napoleon. As the story progresses, the pigs gradually obtain more power, which they used to take advantage of the less intelligent animals on the farm. When the animals were weeding the turnip field, "They worked diligently, hardly raising their faces from the ground, and not knowing whether to be more frightened of the pigs or of the human visitors" (Orwell, p.52). This shows how Orwell was trying to warn the audience that no matter what the person's intentions are, power can corrupt anyone. Animal Farm can also be a fable that is used to teach lessons on morality. One lesson can be that greed brings out the worst in everyone. For example, the pigs were driven by their own personal interests until they became just as bad as their enemies...
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...so people should choose who they give power to wisely. Animal Farm is a novel that uses animals to show how Russia was slowly failing in communism. It goes through how the leaders brainwash the common working class and most everyone else to keep power. The story makes it noticeable that all the common animals could rebel like the first time but were too brainwashed to understand the bad that was going on. This novel Animal Farm , by George Orwell, is written to symbolize the working class, Stalin, and propaganda in the soviet union to show if too much power is granted then the outcome might not be so great. In the story, the character Napoleon symbolizes great power and how too much power is a terrible thing. He is granted way too much power, so when other farms try to make deals he screws them around then they become enemies. With the power he is granted, he gets all the luxury that the animals aren’t supposed to have. Napoleon has so much power that “four dogs guarded his bed at night, on at each corner” (Orwell 95). If Napoleon was never granted so much power then the farm would be a great place. This is why Napoleon symbolizes Stalin in the book....
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...These are two words that can describe any leader of today’s time period. Often, leaders use propaganda to get their people to do what they want for them. According to Eric Hoffer, “Propaganda does not deceive people; it merely helps them to deceive themselves.” Propaganda is a biased misleading statement. When a political leader or anyone in general shares propaganda people don’t often believe what one may say. However, propaganda affects people and their thinking about life. Throughout the novel Animal Farm by George Orwell, propaganda is used very similarly. Napoleon is the leader of the farm and squealer is his sidekick. Usually Squealer states, propaganda to the animals to get them to do work for Napoleon. Most of them time the animals listen to what Squealer says however it causes the animals to often feel very confused. Therefore, George Orwell shows that the common theme is abusing too much power by sharing false statements about other animals....
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...Writing the novella, Animal Farm, A Fairy Story, George Orwell or, Eric Blair, satirizes the Russian Revolution using an allegorical fable. Using pigs to symbolize tyrannical, Soviet Russian leaders and other animals to represent the working class, Orwell demonstrates valuable lessons. "'Four legs good, two legs bad! Four legs good, two legs bad!' bleated the sheep, never seeming to grow tired of it." Capturing the essence of Animalism (communism), Napoleon, the boar despot, and Squealer, a lower pig leader, use the maxim," Four legs good, two legs bad!" as a tool of diversion, directed against the other animals. Bleating at tense moments causes other animals, instead of thinking further, to acquiesce to Napoleon and Squealer's ideas. Essentially, Squealer uses the sheep to take advantage of hard working animals, comparable to a propagandist using media to take advantage of an uneducated working class....
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...Lies, there was a multitude of lies spread due to the use of propaganda by all forms of government and all the countries of the world during WWI & WWII. There are many forms of propaganda, for example; there is name calling, bandwagon, card stalking, plain folks, etc. All of these are used in different ways, like name-calling that uses names to evoke fear or anger in the viewer. This technique applies a negative idea to the person of choice making them to be the enemy. In Animal Farm the character "Squealer" represents the propaganda used during the Russian revolution. My topic of propaganda played a major part in the Russian revolution but remains " little studied" as it doesn’t seem to be as important in our world today. During the Russian revolution the Russian empire was very low on food, so to keep their people on their side joseph Stalin used propaganda to manipulate their minds into thinking less about the food shortage and more about winning the war. Another thing was that even with all their resources going to the military, the government was unable to continue the funding to both the military and the people of Russia. For most nations the most effective way to...
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...In the novella Animal Farm, George Orwell explores the augmentative nature of power and its susceptibility to corruption through his fable allegory of the Russian Revolution. Orwell exposes his audience to the inevitable escalation of power, especially in socialist societies where the motives of individuals are tainted with a lust for power. Through the symbolic character of the pigs, in particular Napoleon who symbolizes Joseph Stalin, power is initially seized through the corruption of food rations amongst the animals. When Squealer, representing propaganda, notifies the animals that ‘milk and apples contain substances necessary to the wellbeing of pigs,’ dramatic irony is used to great effect. By reasoning that ‘it is for your sake that we drink the milk and eat those apples,’ the audience can see, as the animals cannot, that this is the turning point whereby the pig’s leadership gradually befalls to corruption. Power continues to be augmented up until the denouement of the novella where, ‘the creatures looked from pig to man, and from man to pig…but it was already impossible to say which was which.’ Though satirical in nature, this symbolism is demonstrative of the pigs’ ever-increasing demand for power, which inescapably resulted in a more corrupt government than the one it overthrew. Orwell urges his audience to pay cautious attention to, and be critical of; the decisions made by their leaders and ensure they too are not corrupted by an infatuating desire to gain political...
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...Animal Farm An Allegory of the French Revolution By Travis Booker English 1302 Mrs. Simpson April 18, 2012 What is an allegory? Allegory is a device used to present an idea, principle, or meaning, which can be presented in literary form, such as a poem or novel, in musical form, such as composition or lyric, or in visual form, such as in painting or drawing. It is also seen in scriptural passage. Allegory communicates its message by means of symbolic figures, actions, or symbolic representation. Allegory is generally treated as a figure of rhetoric; a rhetorical allegory is a demonstrative form of representation conveying meaning other than the words that are spoken. As a literary device, an allegory in its most general sense is an extended metaphor. As an artistic device, an allegory is a visual symbolic representation. An example of a simple visual allegory is the image of the grim reaper. Viewers understand that the image of the grim reaper is a symbolic representation of death (Kennedy 142). During a time when there was much change and the spirit of rebellion was all around, Animal Farm was written by George Orwell. George Orwell used allegory in his novel Animal Farm to parallel the Russian Revolution and resulting totalitarian regime to the revolutions of the animals and the pigs' corruption of absolute power. The novel's characters, events, and corruption of ideas paralleled the pattern that took place among the Russians during and following the...
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...Animal Farm Journal “Propaganda is as powerful as heroin; it surreptitiously dissolves all capacity to think.” (Courtemanche) I think in this quote Gil Courtemanche is stating that propaganda is so powerful that it can easily corrupt people’s minds and change the way they think and their view on things. I agree with Courtemanche’s statement because propaganda can take away people’s ability to think for themselves and can cause people to believe in a distorted truth. For instance, propaganda was huge in manipulating the German people during World War II. The Nazis only allowed certain messages and information to be released to the public, which shaped Hitler’s character as a hero and almost God-like. Hitler’s book, “Mein Kampf” was distributed to schools and used to indoctrinate the youth. Anti-Semitic campaigns were used by the Nazis to corrupt the minds of Germans, making them believe that the Jewish public were to blame for Germany’s social and economic problems. As a result of this, eleven million innocent people were murdered. Germans mindlessly idolized Hitler only because they were repeatedly told what a great man he was. As a result, the German people were not able to think or make their own decisions. They agreed with whatever Hitler said because they were drawn into a false illusion that Hitler was a good man who only wanted the best for Germany. George Orwell’s novel, Animal Farm contains numerous examples of the power of propaganda and how it can easily brainwash...
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...analytical skills. In this book, the life of the characters is purely determined by the political happenings of the time. (Bloom, 2007). Many literary and political analysts have found a place to refer to in interpreting political realities of the world in George Orwell’s works. Orwell is remembered for his other book Animal Farm that continues to spark emotional reactions from all over the world every day. A look at how the political theme gets manifested can help one to understand better the happenings in the story and their general applicability to the world we are living in. The Theme of Political Strife There are a number of themes that Orwell (1964) brings out in his book 1984. It is a prediction of the coming political sceneries in future since its publication came earlier before the year 1984. Among the major themes that can be found in the story are betrayal, suffering, hatred and political strife. The theme of Political Strife is indeed among the most dominating as most events are centred on the political happenings within the novel. The existence of the slogan “War is peace, freedom is slavery and ignorance is strength (Orwell, 1984, p6) depicts a society that is full of political struggling. The analysis below looks at how political strife gets...
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...Corruption of Pigs, Leaders and Modern Day Life Corruption is a provoking issue for many societies around the world, impacting multiple generations and at various degrees. Corruption is defined by Merriam Webster Dictionary as, ‘dishonest or illegal behavior especially by powerful people’. It is displayed by Hitler in the Holocaust, George Orwell’s book Animal Farm, and even in our modern day. George Orwell conveys a powerful message that applies to all three situations, supporting Orwell’s compelling message. Orwell’s political message about corruption of the government and leaders abuse of power is depicted in the way Hitler led Germany, the current U.S. government and George Orwell’s portrayal of the Russian Revolution in Animal Farm. There are many examples of people taking advantage of power in our country today. In a New York Times Article titled “ "Officials Push to Bolster Law on Wiretapping", author Charlie Savage informs readers of the government’s new push for an increase in surveillance. Recently, phone companies and networks have updated their software, causing it to be additionally difficult for the government to spy on them and take the customers personal information(Savage 1). As the U.S. government continues to wiretap and collect information from large phone carriers such as AT&T and Verizon(Savage 1), it will become an extreme and impactful invasion of privacy. This push will extend the laws to companies like Gmail, Facebook and Skype(Savage 2). Savage...
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...The pigs become ambitious because they have so much more power over the other animals which allows them to do whatever they want without question. The hard work of Boxer the cart horse and the extra hours he contributes to the farm believing that it will benefit the revolution, before his injury he adopted the motto’s of “I will work harder” and “Napoleon is always right” (Pg. 41). He used these mottos to express how much he wants the Animal Farm to succeed and maintain a good life, due to his low unintelligent he “Tries with all his might” to learn to read but unfortunately, he “Could not get beyond the letter D” (Pg. 21). The pigs are related to human nature by using the power that they acquired from all the animals, in a bad way, which lead to becoming corrupt. Therefore, the pig's successful reign over Animal Farm was due to ambition and power over the other animals....
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...Power Hungry Leaders Create Corrupt Societies Corrupt leaders use their advantages and power against the weak. They use higher intelligence to manipulate and control those who are too ignorant to see through the lies. These leaders rise to and retain power by twisting the truth in their favor. This is what the character Napoleon does in Animal Farm, by George Orwell. Corruption of power leads to the exploitation of the weak through fear and manipulation. Snowball was a perfect leader, with excellent ideals and did everything for others. Napoleon, on the other hand, was a diabolical leader who sought power. To do this, Napoleon directs his ‘right hand man,’ Squealer, to spread rumors and lies to make Napoleon seem perfect. After Napoleon took charge, Squealer said, “I trust that every animal here appreciates the sacrifice that Comrade Napoleon has made in taking this extra labour upon himself” (50). Napoleon...
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...the majority had to be employed in low-paying jobs due to lack of education. The Animal Farm, by George Orwell, opens with Old Major, a benevolent pig in Manor Farm, sharing his message about a rebellion against the egotistical human beings, which three intelligent pigs—Snowball, Napoleon, and Squealer—pass on by organizing the Animalism. Although the rebellion breaks out successfully and the farm name changes to “Animal Farm”, things go sordid when Snowball is sent into an exile and Napoleon takes the leadership. Numbers of tragic events occur under Napoleon’s atrocious leadership and...
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...Animal Farm George Orwell’s Animal Farm can be said to be one of the most popular parodies, dealing with politics, which has ever been written. It is shown to be against communism and shows how the author observed the disloyalty of the ethics and beliefs of revolutionary Communist Party of the Soviet Union. It describes the meaning of tyranny in general and sarcasm at the mannerisms of any ruling class, to think what they know is right and it is the best course of action for those they rule. Animal Farm was written for almost sixty years now and it still impacts the way people think mentally. Animal Farm warns of blind faith, the abuse of power, and propaganda. The story mostly tells readers how a revolution of farm animals emerged against a cruel master. They were all revolting against the unethical, greediness and a power hungry master. There is something we refer to toxic leadership. Being in the military, there are times where myself rarely make decisions. There is always somebody that out ranks me, giving a demand, and I go about following out those orders. That is where all the decisions come from, those higher ranking. Those high-ranking individuals sometime misuse their power to do unjustifiable things in my eyes. It is not something that happens all the time, but it does happen. In Animal Farm, the pigs abuse their power by changing the law to their own advantage. In the Novel, Boxer has a motto. This motto is “Napoleon is always right!” Before you know it...
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...chose is Animal Farm by George Orwell. Our aim in this essay is to write about what the novel tells us about marketing or consumer society. What does Animal Farm tell us about consumer behaviour? It is a message targeted at emotion, aspiration and hope that can trigger deeply emotive and primal response, which often results in us buying into an idea/product irrationally. Also, it speaks to the idea of...
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