The society in Animal Farm and America in “Of history and Hope”, obfuscate history to manipulate memory. However, in Animal Farm, the goal of this change is to control the minds of the less intelligent animals, to the advantage of Napoleon. Both of these literary works deal with concepts of remembering and forgetting, such as in “Of History and Hope” when Williams says in the first line , “We have memorized America,... (WIlliams, 1)” he conveys the severity of how Americans memorize information about the past but do not truly know it. He later relates back to this when he says, “If we can truly remember, they will not forget. (Williams, final line)”. By zeroing in on “truly remembering” Williams emphasizes to his readers the importance …show more content…
First he tricks the other animals into thinking that it is alright to engage in trade, “Once again the animals were conscious of a vague uneasiness. Never to have any dealings, never to engage in trade, never to make use of money - had not these been among the earliest resolutions… All the animals remembered passing such resolutions; or at least they thought they remembered it. (Orwell, 63)”. Napoleon plays with and manipulates the minds of the animals so they they forget what they should remember. Orwell repeats the word “remember” twice to add emphasis on the fact that the animals try to remember certain things but can not and so they move on and accept whatever they are told. Napoleon does this yet again but on a much larger scale when the pigs move into the big house and begin the sleep in beds, “...some of the animals were disturbed when they heard that the pigs… also slept in beds. Clover, who thought she remembered a definite ruling against beds, went to the end of the barn and tried to puzzle out the Seven Commandments… ‘It says ‘no animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets’’... Clover had not remembered the Fourth Commandment mentioned sheets; (Orwell,
Napoleon uses the animal's lack of knowledge to change the commandments to his side. “...ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS,”(Doc A, Chapter 10). Napoleon uses the animal's knowledge to his advantage because he manipulated the law of Animalism so he can stand higher up than the other animals. At the beginning of the book, Napoleon makes the animals chant, “Four legs good, two legs bad,” towards the end of the book he makes the animals chant, “Four legs good, two legs better!...”(Doc A, Chapter 2-3 and Chapter 10).
argue about what he says. This allows him to run the farm in his own
He gave them the false inspiration and hope that they were working for to stay free. This is what Hitler did to the Jews who were able to work, he had in his concentration camps say “work to be free”, but in reality he did not have the intention to set them free. The reason as to why the animals did not rebel was for two reasons. One being that they just were not educated at all and the other reason is because Napoleon has an immense amount of fierce dogs around him at all times. This made him an intimidating pig. The animals were oblivious to the corruption around them that he shrugged off a fellow animal dying by another simply because Napoleon said it was fine and the Commandments said that it was exceptional. The dumbest of the animals was a horse named boxer. Because he was the strongest of the farm animals, what he said greatly influenced the others animals, and because he was on the side of Napoleon the other animals followed. There were many times were the animals would have revolted without Boxer present, but after he died, it was too late to turn back. He inspired the animals by constantly saying, “I will work harder”, and, “Napoleon is always right”. This often concluded questions regarding Napoleon’s style of handling business.
Napoleon being another intelligent pig on the farm believed he could become the leader and have all the power on the farm by scaring the animals. He does so by telling the animals they will work more or there will be punishment “Throughout the spring they worked a sixty-hour week, and in August Napoleon announced that there would be work on Sunday afternoons as well. This work was strictly voluntary, but any animal who absented himself from it would have his rations reduced by half” (Orwell 40). “The animals believe what the leadership tells them—that they are working for their own good now, not for Mr. Jones’s—they are eager to take on the extra labor”
Napoleon threatens the animals with death if they are to disobey his rulings. “He ordered the hen’s rations to be stopped and decreed that any animal giving so much as a grain of corn to a hen should be punished by death” (76). By introducing the concept of death and punishment, he frightens the animals into listening to his decree. In addition, Napoleon also interrogates the animals on the farm. “Surely none of you wishes to see Jones back?” (67). This rhetorical question is repeatedly asked as one of Napoleon’s tactics to make the animals remember the previous conditions that took place on Manor Farm. He often uses this intimidating question to make them believe that they could always return to how things are. *Moreover, Napoleon declares stringent orders among the animals. “Napoleon had demanded whether any animal had anything to confess” (84). He uses forceful language to language to demoralize the animals until they confess their wrongdoings. Napoleon intimidates the animals by threatening them with death, repeatedly asking frightening questions, and is very demanding, all in order to manipulate the animals on the
One of the many awful things he did was he proclaimed that whoever killed, snowball would be rewarded. He would also kill any animals he believed were working with Snowball, breaking the commandment that said no animal shall kill another animal. He also formed one single commandment after breaking all of the other ones, which was “ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS” ( 194). This shows that the pigs finally established dominance over the animals, and no longer believed that all animals were equal. Another action that showed that Napoleon was taking dominance over the other animals was when he took away some of the dreams that at the beginning was once promised to them, such as “The luxuries of which Snowball had once taught the animals to dream, the stalls with electric light and Hot and cold water, and the three-day week, were no longer talked about. He said, lay in working hard and living frugally” ( 185). This shows that the animals were promised great things, but this all changed when Napoleon's desire for power clouded all of his previous beliefs. Lastly, the pigs and Napoleon appeared one day walking in their hind legs and showing qualities of humans until one day in the eyes of the animals they become so human like, it was impossible to tell between humans and pigs. The animals
Pandora’s box has taught for many centuries that, though there are many evils in the world, hope is essential for an individual to achieve happiness; however, this Greek myth fails to address what would happen if an individual did not have the ability to hope. George Orwell believed that if the aforementioned hypothetical was true then the individual did not have the ability to have true happiness, thus developed his opposition toward a totalitarian government – a regime that has full control over its people. To publicize his view, he had created a dystopian novel called 1984 in which he portrayed his presumption of the future through the life of the protagonist, Winston, who desires to forge change but is impotent due to the many totalitarian
I think Orwell’s prediction of the future is a rather bleak assessment that I do not believe will come the pass. Over the course of history, peoples under the heels of various regimes of tyranny have, for the most part, found means of resistance and their own voices in order to break away from oppressive status quo, illustrated by the many independence days that inspirit the calendar year. Moreover, with the ever increasing role of the internet and social media in our lives, access to information and diverse ideas from all different viewpoints is so extensively available in the free world. Therefore, any governmental attempt to pull the wool over our eyes or shackle us to unjust policy would inevitably be brought to light and widely condemned,
Firstly, Napoleon uses manipulation to generate a cult of personality in the Animal Farm. Napoleon directly shows how he manipulated the animals as he believed “...[weaker] animals on Animal Farm did more work and [would] receive less food than any animals in the country” (92).Napoleon shows how he only cares about himself as he uses the animals. He would make the animals do labour to support himself and to be powerful.The animals would agree to everything that he said because they believed that Napoleon wanted the best for them. Napoleon made the animals believe that they were in better conditions even though “starvation seemed to stare them in the face.” (50). He did a great job to hid the reality from the animals. His thoughts and
At this point, Napoleon is now understanding the hard work that goes into running a farm. Napoleon decides to conversate with humans that can buy the needed supplies from the town stores. When the animals heard about the newly made agreement, they were stunned. Animals that have any relations with humans were seen as a traitor. Napoleon then
Through having Napoleon declare that “there would be no more debates,”Orwell is able to portray that the pigs are silencing their subjects in order to maintain power for themselves. Napoleon’s education makes it possible for him to assume all power through manipulation. Napoleon’s complete control and silencing of the animals foreshadows that he may resort to more oppression and take
Napoleon used his crisis to rule the land. In multiple scenarios of the book, he was ruling by the minute. When one animal would point out that he was sleeping in the bed of the farmer, he would say that “ he wasn’t sleeping with any bed clothes” even though the animals knew that the 10 rules written on the barn said otherwise. The animals grew to anger when each time they would argue with Napoleon, they would check that list where the information was located and it would be changed by what he had said.
The pigs lie to the animals and make it seem like they are eating the apples and milk for the benefit of the animals instead of their own. Because of this lie that seems reasonable to the animals, they think the pigs need the food to keep the farm together which makes them give respect to the pigs for supposedly saving their lives. Napoleon and the other pigs continue to use food to control and manipulate the animals to gain power. After the hens refuse to give their eggs to Napoleon and go on a rebellion, Napoleon tries to shows them who is really in charge and reacts in a bad way. Orwell writes, "Napoleon acted swiftly and ruthlessly.
Some of the readers might think that it’s easy and some might think it’s hard. We all know that Napoleon finds tricking animals easy. When he wants something all he has to do is change up the rule a little. “No animal shall sleep in a bed” (Orwell, 15) This is how it should be. It is one of the original commandments. “No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets.” (Orwell, 42) Napoleon did not inform anyone but the other pigs that they were now allowed to sleep in beds. He wanted it so he got it but he had to trick the other animals to get it. When all of the other animals saw a change in the seven commandments they were very confused to why it looked different but since they can’t read they didn’t totally understand what changed. The animals all know that Frederick the neighbour farm owner is a jerk. Since no one of the other animals are literate, Napoleon made the decision to sell the timber to Mr. Fredrick. Frederick decided to trick the animals at animal farm with fake paper notes. “Fredrick had wanted to pay for the timber with a cheque, which, it seemed, was a piece of paper with a promise to pay written upon it. But Napoleon was too clever for him.” (Orwell, 61 - 62) In this quotation you see that Frederick used his knowledge of numbers. Napoleon didn’t know that he was given fake bills. He should have listened to all of the other animals when they said that he was not the best choice. When the pigs all lied to the rest of the animals it was so bad and cruel. Boxer was getting older and he collapsed. The pigs told everyone that he was being sent to a doctor but in fact he was getting sent to an animal slaughter place. “‘Quick, quick’ he shouted ‘Come at once!’ ‘They’re taking Boxer away.’” (Orwell, 75) At first, all of the animals thought that Boxer was going somewhere safe. He actually got sent to a horse slaughtering place. Hopefully there will be better leaders in the future especially when it comes to the lives
The antagonist of the book ‘Animal Farm’, Napoleon was highly emphasized for his cruel tactics that he upheld against his fellow animals. He tortured and tormented them giving himself the title of a cruel leader. This sense of tyranny is why he resembles Mr.Jones the previous owner of Manor Farm. Similar to Mr.Jones, Napoleon has created a caste system in which he is the “farmer” and the rest of the animals are his “slaves”, he has shown that he only uses the animals for his own monetary gain, and that he uses fear and propaganda to control the rest of the animals. In this essay I will compare and contrast the two individuals.