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Animal Farm Essay

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In George Orwell’s novel Animal Farm, a major turning point in the novel was when Napoleon used his secret police force, his dogs, to exile Snowball. Snowball had previously been trying to improve the animal’s lives for the future by building a windmill. After Snowball was exiled, Napoleon became leader and everything immediately went amiss. Orwell stated that: "Somehow it seemed as though the farm had grown richer without making the animals themselves any richer- except, of course, for the pigs and the dogs" (p.86). In other words, no one was benefiting from the animal’s labours apart from the pigs and the dogs because the amount of authority the dogs and the pigs, especially Napoleon had, was corrupt. Frighteningly, if Snowball had been …show more content…

Governments used propaganda as a tactic to create fear, distort the truth, and strive for absolute power. Before Snowball got exiled, the pigs were already starting to use propaganda, especially Squealer. Squealer justified the pigs taking all the milks and apples by saying “milk and apples (this has been proved by Science, comrades) contains substances absolutely necessary to the well-being of a pig. We pigs are brainworkers. Do you know what would happen if we pigs failed [in taking care of Animal Farm]? Jones would come back!” (p.23). The pigs used the fear of Jones returning to guarantee loyalty and trust from the animals. Since the animals “did not want Jones back. They agreed without further argument that the milk and the apples should be reserved for the pigs alone.” (p.23). This confirmed to the reader that propaganda was an effective technique used by leaders to fabricate the truth. Snowball also used propaganda. After the Battle of Cowshed, Boxer was distraught over killing a stable boy. Snowball demonstrated his brutality by stating “no sentimentality, comrade! War is war. The only good human being is a dead one” (p.28). In addition to telling Boxer he should not feel sorry for taking a human life, his message to all animals was that all humans are evil and to not hesitate to kill humans. Snowball was trying to convince everyone that war was acceptable. Finally, the best example of propaganda was when Squealer stated “do not imagine

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