Napoleon: An Effective Leader In Orwell's Animal Farm

“Outline the ways in which Napoleon obtained and maintained power on Animal Farm. What message is Orwell conveying to the reader through these processes?';

Meet Napoleon, a pig that tries to act as a human in order to pursue his lifelong dream as a farm’s dictator (not really). Welcome to Animal Farm. Napoleon is a pig in a farm called Animal Farm, after the animals decide to rebel against their farm owner Jones, they change the farm’s name from Manor Farm to Animal Farm. This story goes on to Napoleon deciding to use his intelligence as an advantage to lead the other animals. He writes 7 commandments that the animals need to followed. Napoleon’s power could have been checked after he broke these commandments, by deciding to give the pigs all of the milk and apples, by beginning to sleep in the beds of the farmhouse, and by killing two sheep.

Winston Churchill embodied a great leader because he was always being positive, had a lot of confidence, and he was honest with others. The pigs in Animal Farm, demonstrated bad leadership because they were negative, they lied to the other animals, and they were always doubtful. Winston Churchill was the complete opposite of the pigs. Being confident, positive, and honest gave him the image of a great leader across the world. A leader is someone who can lead and inspire others therefore, having good leadership will not guarantee success, but a lack of leadership will guarantee

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”

When thinking about pigs, you generally associate them with being dirty, repulsive and gluttonous. Well, that's Napoleon. In the novel, Animal Farm, by George Orwell Napoleon is a pig on Manor Farm who slowly exerts power over others and begins his reign as a dictator. Napoleon takes over and renames the farm Animal Farm while being completely deceptive and unfair. Napoleon is a prime example of how absolute power corrupts absolutely because he is unjust and doesn't care for the wellbeing of any of the other animals on the farm but himself.

After reading the book called Animal farm, it is plain to see that Napoleon is a very sly animal. He is clever —clever enough not to play much a role in the initial rebellion. It is only after the animals have rebelled that he took the leadership role. But did he actually do the right things to win the power?

He gave the pigs special privileges. They did not have to work as much and they got to drink alcohol. Napoleon feeds the pigs extra and the rest of the animals on the farm only have enough to survuve.They started acting just like humans and the other animals on the farm could not tell the pigs apart from the men. “The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again: but already it was impossible to say which was which” (Orwell 141). Napoleon only caring about the pigs and himself shows how power corrupts.

The undeniable greed Napoleon possesses can only be fulfilled by giving the other animals the illusion of bettering themselves by not questioning his logic: “Boxer, who had now had time to think things over, voiced the general feeling by saying, ‘If Comrade Napoleon says it, it must be right.’ And from then on he adopted the maxim, ‘Napoleon is always right,’ in addition to his private motto of ‘I will work harder’” (Orwell 60). Because Animal Farm’s audience predominantly consists of working class citizens, they begin to feel sympathy for Boxer since he cannot recognize Napoleon is exploiting him exclusively for his personal goal of becoming a puissant leader; therefore, animosity towards Napoleon develops in the audience. Considering the animals promptly welcome Napoleon’s promise of a better life, they work towards exhaustion, unknowingly fueling Napoleon’s greed: "All that year the animals worked like slaves. But they were happy in their work; they grudged no effort or sacrifice, well aware that everything that they did was for the benefit of themselves and those of their kind who would come after them, and not for a pack of idle, thieving human beings" (63). Although the animals working for Napoleon are unaware he is gradually becoming more human and willfully betraying his fellow animals for his own benefit, it is evident to the audience that Napoleon is corrupt. As Napoleon cunningly achieves power, his greed continues to grow, the same as a totalitarian leader’s:

Napoleon's driving force that kept the pigs in power was his way of forcing the animals to depend on the pigs for everything, and that they were simply more capable and therefore more deserving. “It

One of the major themes in this novella would be greedy and selfiness which is show throughout the book many times. The only thing the pigs want is everything good that comes from the farm itself. The pigs and especially Napoleon benefit of the hard work and sacrifice from the other animals. ¨Never mind the milk, comrades!” cried Napoleon. (Orwell, pg, 26) This is one of the many times the Napoleon has took the goods produced by the farm. Greed like this is

“No animal shall drink alcohol” (Orwell 25) was the 5th commandment, but Napoleon didn’t let that stop him. After he got drunk he had Squealer change the 5th commandment to “No animal shall drink to excess” (Orwell 109). Having that much power can be used for self-interest instead of thinking about the common good. No man or animal should have that much power or they will abuse it, just like Napoleon. Napoleon starting to think that the pigs were more superior. Orwell seemed to be stating that if Napoleon was the only one who knew what was right or true, then Napoleon could convince the animals that he and the pigs needed more of the resources, like milk and apples. Simultaneously Napoleon later on state that “All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others” (Orwell 134) Napoleon is literally saying all the other animals are less than the pigs. Because they are using tyranny as their style of government they can say whatever they want without having to prove it. From the start Napoleon is gaining control by having a better education, having apples and milk, drinking alcohol, wearing clothes, walking on two legs, and manipulating the animals to think they are dumb. Power is corrupting the farm and all of the other animals besides the pigs are losing control. From the start the pigs only did what they wanted to benefit themselves, by pretending to have the other animals

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

Throughout the book of Animal Farm the theme of leadership and corruption is continuous. The animal’s who have the biggest part in both of these major themes are the pigs. Napoleon, for example, takes over as the leader in the beginning of the book and later his leadership methods turn corruptive.

Over the course of time, many different leaders have come and gone, leaving a mark in history books and the minds of mankind. Whether or not the said leader was smart, generally being decided upon by the public, but intelligence should not be a significant factor, as many qualities form to create a good leader. Of these qualities, some include honesty, persistence, and good speaking skills. The honesty skill was shown by president Lincoln, who was known as “Honest Abe”.

"The communism of Karl Marx would probably be actually the best for everybody as a whole. But what he didn't figure into was human nature, and that's what corrupts it." This quote sums up exactly what went wrong with the revolution on Animal Farm, as Old Major provided the animals with a picture of a utopian world where every animal was to work to his capability, and still never go hungry, and enjoy luxuries that were never even thought of with Jones on the farm. But when the revolution became a reality, Napoleon took over along with most of the pig. And because they were thought to be superior they kept all the luxuries such as the milk and apples for themselves, leaving an even more miserable life for the rest of the animals on the farm. So, the question arises, how did Napoleon stay in charge. How was Napoleon able to keep power, and keep complacency in the animals, without the question of another revolution against the pigs ever coming up. Napoleon stays in charge because of his constant revising of animalism, his indoctrination of the animals through