Power And Corruption In George Orwell's Animal Farm

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In George Orwell’s Animal Farm, we are exposed to a timeless problem: power corrupts. In our twenty-first century society, corruption from power is a problem that we face in our daily lives. This corruption is seen in politics, in our justice system, and even in our own families and friends. In Orwell’s short-story these exact issues are depicted through the lives of the animals on Animal Farm. Although Animal Farm was published in 1945, it remains relevant to our society in that power and corruption will always correlate with one another. In order to understand the correlation between power and corruption, the two types of power must first be introduced. “Socialized power is power used to benefit others. … The other form of power is called…show more content…
It seems that we too often condemn the people above us for their corruption, but overlook the corruption going on in front of our eyes in the people that we know, and we do this because we trust them. It can be said that wealth and status are two factors that are deemed to be power symbols, and once a “normal” person achieves one of these power symbols it often goes to their head; this is where the corruption begins. After achieving a little power, more power is wanted, and doing whatever can be done to get that power becomes top priority. Seemingly good people change entirely just to get more of what they want, and they break rules and hurt others during the process. This same situation is illustrated in Animal Farm. The animals start out as friends and they decide that they will have a rebellion, with the point of the rebellion being the betterment of all of their lives. In reality, their leader, Napoleon, was corrupted by his power and became concerned only with himself rather than the other animals. He made himself appear as if he was everyone’s friend in the beginning, just to make the other animals trust him, and he took advantage of this trust. This allowed him to gain power among the animals, and he abused this power entirely. His own wants became the drive behind the rebellion, and he abused and manipulated everyone in the process of trying to get when he
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