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Animal Farm Flaws

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Revolution was to be a means of getting rid of the animals’ supposedly biggest threat to an ideal society - man - but how would the animals get rid of the menacing faults in their own kind, which pose a bigger threat? Animal Farm consists of three characters whose unalterable flaws cause society post revolution to fail. Napoleon embodies greed; Benjamin embodies cynicism; the sheep embody unthinking nature.
To begin with, Napoleon embodies the human flaw of greed, which inevitably is accompanied and derived by corruption. Due to his ultimately corrupt nature, Napoleon resorts to unethical methods to forcibly obtain authority over the rest of the animals (i.e., instilling fear through the dogs and expelling Snowball). However it’s not Napoleon’s …show more content…

Primarily, in order for the pigs to maintain power it was crucial for them to have control over their lower class (the animals) as ultimately power lies in the majority. The pigs did this by oppressing the animals through the implementation of corrupt tactics such as the use of propaganda, fear, etc. However situations of oppression didn’t arise from merely the brutal tactics of the ruling class, but also the naive/unthinking nature of the working class. The sheep embody flaws like stupidity and unthinking nature which allows the pigs to manipulate them into blindly following (and enhancing) Napoleon’s fundamentally corrupt authority. Due to the pigs’ manipulation, the sheep build a mob mentality of “Four legs good, two legs bad”, which although is the basic principle of Animalism, acts as one of Napoleon’s key manipulation tactics upon the animals. For instance, whenever the animals try to talk against Napoleon the sheep silence them with “Four legs good, two legs bad”. This puts the animals in a situation where they cannot talk back as it would be the equivalent of talking against Animalism. This represents how both the unthinking nature of the sheep, and the use of pointless emotional arguments diverts the animals from the reality of the pigs. Eventually, Squealer teaches the sheep “Four legs good, two legs better”, yet the sheep are still unable to see the violation of Animalism’s …show more content…

Essentially, in every society, it's important for there to be revolutionaries that can think for themselves and stand against a corrupt ruling class. Otherwise, as portrayed by the sheep, any power hungry dictator will exploit their lower class, causing society to become a mass of slaves blindly following their oppressors. But how about the intelligent that don’t choose to speak? Throughout the novel, Benjamin is aware of the pigs tactics (i.e., violating the commandments, Spontaneous Demonstrations, etc.) but still stays quiet regarding the issue. This is due to Benjamin’s cynical attitude conveyed through his personal ideology that "hunger, hardship, and disappointment are the unalterable law of life”. He is the only character who remains unchanged, and all the while believes that efforts for change are futile and that life is fundamentally hard. For this reason, the pigs are able to maintain and abuse their power as they’re aware no one will question their corrupt authority. With this in mind, it's clear that a cynistic nature, accompanied with an unwillingness to improve society, leads to its downfall. However it must be remembered how Old Major’s cynical views lead to the revolution to begin with. Old Major, like Benjamin, believed that the ruling class were absolutely corrupt and the prime reason for their laborious lives. Thus, he implemented the idea of a revolution and Animalism as a whole, in hope for a

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