Napoleon Animal Farm Equality

     There are many ways in which Napoleon obtains and maintains power on Animal Farm. Napoleon obtains power fundamentally by elimination of all opposing him. He obtains and maintains power by turning other animals weaknesses into his opportunities. He also uses his education and knowledge to obtain and maintain power, as well as his ability to defeat the resistant feelings in other animals. To obtain and maintain power Napoleon uses various degrees of manipulation. He also uses persuasion and propaganda, brainwashing techniques and violence to

In rebellion no one should go unwatched. No action should be unseen and no one should be left unmonitored. At the end of Animal Farm, the pigs have started walking on two legs, they have invited the humans from neighboring farms over, and they have been wearing clothes, drinking alcohol and other human activities. With that quote, “Animals are more equal but some animals are more equal than others,” the reader of the story must wonder if the pigs planned to take over from the start.

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.

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.

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.

Someone, or some pig in the case of Animal Farm, who thinks they are better than everyone else will try to get to a position of power of leadership, so other people will see that too. A good example can be found on page 95, “The general feeling on the farm was well expressed in a poem titled, Comrade Napoleon… Napoleon approved of the poem and caused it to be inscribed on the wall of the big barn, at the opposite end from the Seven Commandments. It was surmounted by a portrait of Napoleon, in profile, executed by Squealer in white paint”. This bit of text displays Napoleon’s large ego and how that affected the way he ruled the farm. Napoleon thinks he is better than everyone else as a leader and as a pig, so he decided to try and get all the other animals to worship him and the pigs. This explains why as a leader he was always putting his interests and well-being

“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

After the revolution, Manor Farm was renamed to Animal Farm and the Seven Commandments of animalism were established to ensure equality. The pigs became the supervisors of the farm. However, the rivalry between two pigs Snowball and Napoleon made Napoleon use force. Napoleon ordered his dogs to chase out Snowball from the farm in order to become the only leader. Napoleon’s selfishness and corrupt power made him commit different atrocities against his own comrades. As a result, the lives of the animals except for the pigs and dogs were of tyranny and inequality. Napoleon became worse than their former human master. The animals spent the rest of his life almost starving and working in the construction of the windmill that was destroyed several times. The abolishment of Sunday morning meetings, the public execution of animals, and the drinking of alcohol were the most important changes that facilitated the transformation of animal farm, and Napoleon as the most responsible for the downfall of the utopian vision of Animal Farm.

Throughout history, people have always wanted to change things for the better. But it’s never that simple. In history, people have started revolutions with one leader, but it never goes too well. In the book Animal Farm by George Orwell, revolutions fail and only result in a change of tyrant. Napoleon, the animals main leader, is the change of tyrant.

The pigs were able to bend the animals at their will with simple words, empty promises of more food and early retirement kept the animals doing more and receiving less while the leaders did less and received more. Another example of the leaders making the farm miserable would be squealer using propaganda. According to the text “ “There were times when it seemed to the animals that they worked longer hours and fed no better than they had done in Jones’s day. On Sunday mornings Squealer... would read out to them the lists of figures proving that the production of every class of foodstuff had increased by two hundred per cent, three hundred per cent, or five hundred per cent, as the case may be. The animals saw no reason to disbelieve him, especially as they could no longer remember very clearly what conditions had been like before the rebellion” ( Orwell 92). The leaders began to think for the followers altering their thoughts so they would never be suspicious of the leaders.

Napoleon was able to keep the working animals from rebelling by instituting a deep fear of punishment if they did rebel. Napoleon used his guard dogs to scare the animal into submission by killing any animal that associated with snowball or followed his philosophies (Orwell 84). He also tricked the animals into submission by changing the commandments that the animals lived by (Orwell 109). The majority of the animals did not even realize that they were being tricked and generally followed what ever the pigs told

“Beasts of England, beasts of Ireland, Beasts of every land and clime, Hearken to my joyful tidings of the golden future time…rings shall vanish from our noses and the harness from our back, bit and spur shall rust forever, cruel whips no more shall crack (Orwell, 5).” The analogy of the Russian Revolution, Animal Farm by George Orwell tells the story of how a group of animals kick Farmer Jones off of his farm and take over. At first, it seems to be going well, until Napoleon the pig starts taking the lead. Overall, He makes a horrible leader. For a person to qualify as a good leader, they have to be kind, understanding, gentle, truthful, and willing to work hard, or else, no one will want to be around them.

All the pigs did was install fear into animals while they were stealing with their corrupt power. Napoleon would go out and kill innocent animals just because they were loyal to someone other than himself. It was like when he killed the hens for saying that they saw Snowball in a dream that said to disobey Napoleon. Another way is when Napoleon gets the dogs and puppies to become savage and terrify every animal on Animal Farm. He would walk around with the dogs to show his authority over the animals.

Throughout your life, have you ever heard of a leader doing awful things to the people and citizens of his/her country? Animal Farm by George Orwell proves that having absolute power will always corrupt a leader, as shown by the character Napoleon. Napoleon, the main leader and dictator in Animal Farm never really followed the true laws and rules of Animalism. Although in the beginning of the story, he is introduced as a keen boar, with only the interest in following out the last wishes of the wise boar Old Major, we soon see that he believes the pigs are better than all the other animals. An example of this is when the cows are milked for the first time.

In the novel Animal Farm by George Orwell, the animals in a farm start a revolution against Jones, the farm owner, since they felt that they have a lack of freedom. When the animals take over the farm, they began to create their own society with the seven commandments and Napoleon and Snowball as their leaders. However, Snowball was kicked out of Animal Farm by Napoleon and Animal Farm ran into some problem like when the windmill broke for the 2nd time. As a result, many animals on the farm died. This shows that power can easily be corrupted, because of the selfishness of Napoleon, the benefits the pigs have over all the other animals, and the amount of rights given to the other animals by Napoleon.