Education And Ignorance In George Orwell's Animal Farm

The novel clearly reiterates the notion that more people conform than rebel when confronted with authoritarian control. The animals in the novel are divided into two categories. Those who have knowledge and therefore power, and those who lack knowledge and therefore are submissive. The main difference is that the submissive animals such as the horses and sheep represent the people that chose to stay uneducated, as it is a much less difficult pathway. They chose this because knowing consequences creates threatening actions against the livelihood of the animals. Despite the animals suffering from violence, poor conditions, and being overworked, they continue to conform as it becomes an easier lifestyle for them. The repetition of the lines “Napoleon is always right” and “I will work harder” showcases how the farm animals follow the routine of others and resign to conformity as their means of life, for it is an easier, simpler outlook to life for them. The idea of being an outlier and having a voice is forsaken by the animals, as the narrative evolves they witness more and more unruly acts of behaviour from the pigs, who are controlling the farm. The emotive language used within the line “Silent and terrified, the animals crept back into the barn” effectively demonstrate how a wave of melancholic and frightened emotions flood through the farm animals, creating a sense of compliance within. The use of threatening tone within the lines “At this there was a terrible baying sound outside, and nine enormous dogs wearing

Although the pigs in this novel are terrible creatures who do terrible things, they are unfortunately very, very smart. These pigs are power hungry, and they will do anything that it takes to maintain their power. But, to maintain power, the pigs must first gain power. The pigs use education as a way to gain power. After the rebellion in the beginning of the novel, the pigs find books that teach them to read in the farm house. The pigs, being the power hungry animals that they are, teach themselves how to read and write. They know that they are much smarter than all of the other animals on the farm. Since the other animals could not learn how to read or write, the pigs used this as leverage to get power. Because they are the only animals that could read or write, they were quickly thought of as leaders and much

None of the animals seemed to quite understand what the two pigs seemed to talk about they weren't informed properly. If the animals couldn't make informed choices, then they couldn't make good choices. Some animals had the proper education and learned to read and write. These same animals had such a lack of intelligence that they couldn't figure out what the pigs were talking about.

Countless times, the book shows that the pigs lied and manipulated the others. They were able do this simply because the rest of the animals turned a blind eye towards the things they saw and were told. In the beginning, all the animals were so happy that they had won the rebellion and gotten rid of Mr. Jones, they did not realize that the newly communist society was slowly changing and not for the better. On page 32, it states “The reading and writing classes, however, were a great success. By the autumn almost every animal on the farm was literate in some degree. As for the pigs, they could already read and write perfectly.” As you can see, all the animals were educated – at least to some extent – but the pigs were by far the smartest. This shows that the other animals were able to at least recognize letters and words. While the animals were somewhat literate, they did not take the time to better educate themselves. This caused them to remain blind to the fact that Napoleon was slowly creating a group of sentinels and surreptitiously planning to get rid of Snowball. Napoleon took advantage of the fact that it had been decided that the pigs knew better when it came to certain things. For example, he took puppies away from their mother. He promised to educate them well. Napoleon seemed to be acting benevolent but

Although many people believe that naivety is good, it can be very easily exploited by corrupt leaders. Naivety makes it very easy for a corrupt leader to take control of a society. Naivety makes it very effortless for leaders to manipulate the citizens to believe anything. Such as, the leader can lead them to do something for themselves, but instead on help the wellbeing of the government or leader. Similarly, George Orwell, author of the historical allegory Animal Farm, takes a dim view on how leaders can manipulate the citizen’s naivety. Orwell suggests that complete devotion to an ideal and being manipulative lead to loss of freedom and equality in a society.

In a society where an elite class has access to tools that the masses do not, this elite group of people often use these tools to dominate and oppress society. In George Orwell’s story, Animal Farm, Orwell demonstrates that education is a powerful weapon and is a tool that can be used to one’s advantage. Living in a world where power is easy to gain, the pigs quickly use education (or lack thereof) to manipulate the rest of the animals on the farm to serve themselves. This story ultimately reveals the underlying message that  first, education is important to all levels of society, next, for when it is not, society is stratified, resulting in the masses suffering.

Ignorance is defined as, "Lacking knowledge or awareness in genera; uneducated or unsophisticated." In the novel Animal Farm, George Orwell addresses the topic of ignorance. Orwell illustrates that the social and political oppression of the animals is due to their inability to read, which causes them to believe everything they are told. First of all, the animals' ignorance prevents them from realizing the pigs are taking advantage of them. The pigs constantly manipulate the laws to fit their needs. The narrator says, "...it was certainly true that nothing of the kind existed in writing, the animals were satisfied that they had been mistaken." Because the animals lack the ability to read, they are not able to realize that the rule has been manipulated.

The pigs as we know by now, were the best educated but they gradually demoralise through the novel. ‘All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others’. This quote for me

In Animal Farm, the pigs are the best example of power being gained through knowledge is seen. The first way this power is seen is when the pigs create rules for the other animals. This quote shows how the animals obtain their power from having more intelligence: “None of the other animals on the farm could get further than the letter A. It was also found that the stupider animals, such as the sheep, hens, and ducks, were unable to learn the Seven Commandments by heart. After much thought Snowball declare that the Seven Commandments could in effect be reduced to a single maxim, namely: “four legs good, two legs bad.” (Page 33) In this quote, their knowledge is seen because of their power to create rules. They have the ability to create rules over the other animals, which gives them control over the other animals. The pigs are also the ones who teach the other animals to read and write. They are the teaches with more knowledge, so this puts them

George Orwell’s Animal Farm is, first and foremost, a political satire warning against the pursuit of utopian desires through unjust and oppressive means. Operating under the pretense of an animal fable, Orwell disparages the use of political power to poach personal freedom. He effectively alerts his readers to the dangerous price that can accompany the so-called “pursuit of progress”. And he illuminates how governments acting under the guise of increasing independence often do just the opposite: increase oppression and sacrifice sovereignty. While the cautionary theme Orwell provides proves widely applicable, in reality his novel focuses on one tale of totalitarian abuse: Soviet Russia. The parallels between the society Orwell presents in his Animal Farm and the Soviet Union – from the Russian revolution to Stalin’s supremacy – are seemingly endless. Manor Farm represents Tsarist Russia, Animalism compares to Stalinism, and Animal Farm, with the pig Napoleon at its helm, clearly symbolizes Communist Russia and Joseph Stalin. But Orwell does more than simply align fiction with fact. He fundamentally attacks Soviet Russia at its core. And in so doing he reveals how the Communist Party simply replaced a bad system with a worse one, overthrowing an imperial autocracy for a totalitarian dictatorship. This essay will demonstrate that Orwell’s Animal Farm is

Elie Wiesel in Night and Snowball from Animal Farm are very similar characters because they were victimized by tyrants and used as scapegoats, but they are also unique and individual characters because Elie knew he was being taken advantage of and Snowball did not. Animal Farm is written by George Orwell, and it is about a farm of animals that take over the farm. Napoleon, a large pig, slowly takes away food and supplies from the other animals until he starts walking on two feet and becomes a “human.” Because of him Snowball is expelled from the farm and acts as a scapegoat for everything that goes wrong on the farm. Night is an autobiography written by Elie Wiesel, and in it Elie tells the story of he was taken from his home and put into a concentration camp under the control of Adolf Hitler.

In today’s society, influences from the western world depict education as a prerequisite for adulthood, required to be undertaken as a child. We as students in a western world must learn the ways of the western world and how we can alter and instil it into the societies of the honourable eastern world. In ‘Animal Farm’, the pigs first tried to teach the other animals to read; some animals learnt the alphabet, but most did not. Seeing this, the pigs realized that they could tell the animals anything and they would have to be believed. Gradually, the pigs began to control education and began to indoctrinate the animals. For example, the sheep were taught to say ‘Four legs good, two legs bad’ at certain times so that the animals had to listen to the pigs’ propaganda, which was accepted and remained unquestioned.

An example of manipulation caused by the absence of education can be seen in the use of propaganda throughout Napoleon’s rule, in the form of the loudmouthed pig, Squealer. Near the end of chapter three, on page 35 and 36, Squealer convinces the animals that the pigs have a valuable reason for taking the milk and apples for themselves. He cries, “It is for your sake that we drink that milk and eat those apples,” and shortly after that, the animals blindly believe him. The novel states that “It was agreed without further argument that the milk and the windfall apples (and also the main crop of apples when they ripened) should be reserved for the pigs alone.” This is a prominent use of propaganda, in the form of Squealer’s thoughts and actions. The other animals are not educated enough to know that they are being manipulated, which leads to Napoleon rising further up the social scale. Squealer frightens the animals into believing that Mr. Jones will come back if they don’t let the pigs eat the apples and milk. He uses something that he is sure will alter their opinions and utilizes that as his main argument. The rest of the animals don’t understand much, but they are certain that they do not want Mr. Jones to come back, which causes them to walk into the manipulation blindly. If they had known that the pigs were being greedy and selfish, maybe they would have done something about it, and stood up for themselves. They may have been able to prevent the tyranny from taking place, and rule the farm the way that they had always

Revolutions are started by communities that are unhappy with how they are living their lives. Revolution is a way to create change. However, in many revolutions new leaders emerge and will sometimes create a life that is worse than it was to begin with. This happens throughout the book Animal Farm by George Orwell. In this essay, I will talk about how Napoleon takes food away from the other animals, how Napoleon classifies himself, using these topics, I will provide evidence and explain how Napoleon and the other pigs became just like those they overthrew and denounced. The revolution in Animal Farm began because Mr. Jones, the owner of the farm, used the animals to benefit his own well-being. Now after the revolution,

You sit in class and always know the answer. People come to you for help and after a while you become cunning. You start to charge people for help. They still keep coming in for help and now you control the school and what goes on. The novel Animal Farm by George Orwell is about a farm that animals took control from the owner lead by intelligent pigs. The pigs rose to power because of their intelligence and are lead by Napoleon. They go through many hardships, but at the end Napoleon makes peace with the humans much to the rest of the farms dismay. A theme that is found in the book is that knowledge is power. This theme comes up many times in the beginning, middle, and the end of the novel.