Propaganda in “Animal Farm” by George Orwell

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Introduction

Animal farm is a book that was written by George Orwell. This is a major piece of literature whose meaning, even if subject to interpretations among scholars, is clearly related to what the Russian revolution turned out to be. This paper is going to consider issues in this book under several sub-headings.

Transformations that explain the change from the seven commandments to one commandment

Several transformations did take place on the animal farm beginning from the overthrow of Jones. Initially the animals came up with seven commandments that had to be followed in order to have a harmonious living in the farm. When Napoleon takes over power, he starts to twist the commandments in order for them to suit his interests through the propagandist, Squealer.

In this novel, step by step, these commandments are eroded up to the time the conclusion is made that “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others” (133). Here what has started in an indirect manner is that all animals are not equal. This enables the pigs, or the ruling class, to behave like the human beings and engage in things carried out by human beings and other animals are exploited. Therefore the changing of the commandments serves to favor the ruling class.

How Snowball and Napoleon think of political power

Both Snowball and Napoleon are seen to be the animals that are the most intelligent. Each of them makes a choice of different tactics in the cause of the fight in which Napoleon emerges a winner.

Snowball tends to have an interest that is genuine in regard to bringing improvement in the welfare of the animals on the farm. Snowball is idealistic and he has a strong believe in the seven commandments that have been set up. His greatest objective is to carry out the spreading of the revolution and to bring in the improvement of the general welfare of all the animals on the farm. In regard to politics in the actual sense, what Snowball is doing is attempting to win the animals’ interests as well as their loyalty.

On the other hand, considering Napoleon’s style, this is seen to be the direct opposite of what Snowball stands for. He is ready to take his time carrying out a debate on Snowball, and in general terms he comes with ideas or opinions that are not in line with those of Snowball and in engaging in doing this, he brings about a conflict. The objective he has in mind is to strengthen his power over Animal Farm and makes sure he realizes its protection. He sees ahead and takes an initiative to secretly train young dogs and wins the loyalty of these dogs. This is an indication that he took the best option to be the “Coup”.

Napoleon was ready to employ a democratic process to a particular level but at the time he came to a realization that things were going out of his hands following the loss he encountered in regard to the vote on the windmill he used the dogs he had trained to forcefully have Snowball off the farm. At this point, the debate came to a halt.

Napoleon seems to play on the psychology of the animals, trying to twist history as well as events in such a manner that those animals that are not wise or intelligent could not see. This action of twisting makes his power much stronger. Eventually Snowball was not in a position to stand a chance. Snowball initially had it in mind that he had been taking part in politics on a ground that was level, but then in the end Napoleon was the one who emerged the winner.

Role of Propaganda

Propaganda is used both positively and negatively in the novel. For instance, Snowball uses propaganda positively where he effectively employs this to assume power over the farm. At the time the rebellion was over, he took power and declared his manifesto upon the ears that were desperate “Vote for Snowball and the three day week….” (65). He engaged in the spreading of propaganda that would give a boost to Animalism by setting up of the windmill. The windmill was meant to be utilized for luxuries that would play a major role in improving the welfare of the animals. He put it that even if the carrying of the construction of the windmill will not be easy, but then eventually this would turn to be of great benefit to the animals on the farm in the long term. The ideas held by Snowball were highly cherished by the animals and they turned out to be very much excited up to the time he was chased from the farm.

On the other hand, Napoleon engaged in using propaganda in a negative way to spoil the name of Snowball in order to destroy him. He chased away Snowball with a threat of death and then engaged in propaganda to spread out the idea that Snowball was a great traitor and he was cooperating with their enemy, Mr. Jones. He carried out this to strengthen his leadership position. However, there was general acceptance of the propaganda put forth by Napoleon.

The novel clearly gives an indication of the way propaganda can be employed to change the way people believe especially when these people are motivated by ideas that are positive and are willing to offer support to these ideas. However, when darkness in the novel is seen from Napoleon, it turns out to be very hard to make a distinction between truths and lies.

What Benjamin represents

This character is a donkey in the novel. He is the animal that has lived longer than any other animal on the farm. He is not very much straightforward in comparison with other animals in the book. This character may represent the old people of Russia or he might as well be representing the group of intellectuals. He does not have any feeling about life and suggests that he does not see any difference between the time the animals were under the rule of Jones and the time the animals are not under the rule of Napoleon. He has equal intelligence as the pigs but is not involved in ruling and neither does he belong to the group of the working peasantry consisting of the horses. This character may be representing the skeptical people who were in Russia as well as those who were out of Russia who held the belief that the people of Russia could not acquire any help from communism, but who did not engage in carrying out criticism in fear of loosing their lives.

Conclusion

This book gives a clear focus on the way leaders employ particular techniques to seize power and to use this power to control others who are being ruled. The book clearly indicates how leaders behave when they take over power after attaining independence. Originally there is a shared vision but this narrows down to self-interest with time and the vision that was originally shared vanishes away.

Work Cited

Orwell George, Animal farm: a fairy story. Edition 50. Signet Classic, 1996. Web.

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