Abuse Of Power In Animal Farm By George Orwell

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How much influence would you have if you needed someone else to read for you? What if you were the only person you knew that could read? How would that affect your relationship with the people around you? These are a few of the many questions that George Orwell decided to tackle when he wrote Animal Farm in 1944. Animal Farm is an animal fable used to symbolize the Russian Revolution and the chaos that ensued. Orwell believes “In a society where people have no voice, if the ruling body with privileges such as special education, luxury and titles, has absolute power, this will lead to total corruption and disintegration of values.” (Yemenici) In Animal Farm, education is synonymous with power. There are three main levels of knowledge and…show more content…
They use their power to take over as unanimous leaders of the farm, as shown by Orwell on pages 30 and 31, “The mystery of where the milk went to was soon cleared up. It was mixed every day into the pigs’ mash. … At this some of the animals murmured, but it was no use. All the pigs were in full agreement on this point, even Snowball and Napoleon.” The pigs also manipulated all the uneducated animals, such as the sheep changing their saying to “Four legs good, two legs better.” (Orwell 118) The most blatant abuse of their power is slowly changing (and breaking) every one of the Seven Commandments, “The Seven Commandments are changed in such a way as to justify what the pigs do.”…show more content…
“[Napoleon] said that the education of the young was more important than anything that could be done for those who were already grown up. …Napoleon took them away from their mothers, saying he would be responsible for their education” (Orwell 29-30) Napoleon uses their education to create a sense of loyalty in them. They were educated in how to follow orders, even to the point of killing, but that is all they know. There is no originality in them, and they are all referred to as one. They aren’t even given names, “Immediately the dogs bounded forward, seized four of the pigs by the ear and dragged them, squealing with pain and terror, to Napoleon’s feet.” (Orwell
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