Napoleon's Power In Animal Farm By George Orwell

     An important way in which Napoleon obtains and maintains power is by finding and utilising the weaknesses of others. Like himself, all of the other pigs are greedy, and soon begin stealing food from all the other animals. Napoleon knows that he can use their greed, to reinforce a group of companions who will support his decisions. He sets aside material things to entice their support, such as all the milk, apples, and barley, for which to make beer. This newfound pampering appeals to the pigs and they associate the upper-class society in which they live with Napoleon. This leads them to believe that if they follow Napoleon, and support his thoughts, their lives will be considerably better, so they follow and trust Napoleon. This is what Napoleon was aiming for, and the support of the pigs helps him to obtain and maintain power.

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

From the very beginning, Napoleon and the pigs take charge and make the other animals do the work for them, while the pigs just supervise. In chapter three, when they begin working on plowing the fields, the pigs do not do anything other than tell the others what to do, “The pigs did not actually work, but directed and supervised the other” (20). The pigs, from the very start of animal farm, took charge and only directed and told others what to do. They solidified their positions as leader’s right at the beginning of the farm. Also, at the end of the book, the pigs, to show their leadership, carry whips around to make sure the work gets done, “After that it did not seem strange when next day the pigs who were supervising the work of the farm all carried whips in their trotters” (92). Since the creation of the farm the pigs started to slowly present the fact that they would take charge, and in the beginning when they were nice about it no one argued with them. By the end though, the animals finally realized what had happened, but by then it was too late for them to do anything about it. Admittedly, Napoleon and the rest of the pigs are greedy because they take all the extra food and make the others work like slaves, but that does not make them ineffective in the ways they make the animals work. Napoleon showed his effectiveness as a

Napoleon is the example of a more dictatorial leader. He is more greedy for power and therefore corruption existed when he was ruling. He does not show much interest in the welfare of the animals, which means he only cares about himself but not about anyone else. He uses several methods to take and maintain control of the farm. He is quiet yet intimidating. Early on in Animal Farm, Napoleon takes Jessie and Bluebell’s nine newborn puppies. These puppies become the forefront of his campaign of fear. He uses them to gain power by eliminating his nemesis. Napoleon uses his intellect to good effect as far as self-interest is concerned. But a real good leader never uses fear to gain the power. He instills fear as a way of giving the animal no chance to argue about what he says. This allows him to run the farm in his

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, the revolutionary leader, was a power hungry and abusive pig. When the animals wouldn’t listen he had to have them follow his rules and visions. He brainwashed the animals into believing whatever he said, threatened them and used popular animals to convey his desires. As dictatorship was the most prominent form of governing during the revolution, the leader used techniques to influence the animals’ opinion.

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

While Napoleon was gaining power over the animals he had to get rid of other politicians and opposing citizens. He did this by raising dogs that would strike fear into citizens and end up chasing Snowball out of the farm making Napoleon have total power. “Four young porkers…uttered shrill squeals of disapproval…. But…the dogs sitting round Napoleon let out deep, menacing growls, and the pigs fell silent and sat down again.”(document B). This made it so the animals were too scared to oppose or overthrow Napoleon. He also made it so no one could challenge him politically. He did this by having his dogs kill masses of people so no one would dare have different opinions and speak out against him. “When they had finished their confession, the dogs promptly tore their throats out, and in a terrible voice, Napoleon demanded whether any other animal had anything to confess”(document B). The mass murder made it so Napoleon had total control of the farm. The violence of Napoleon’s leadership caused the animals to fear to have their own opinions and forced them to conform to Napoleon’s

I will be comparing Napoleon the pig to Hitler as to how he conquered his people and used the jews as a scapegoat. In the book “Animal Farm” by George Orwell, Napoleon uses his competing pig, snowball, as a scapegoat to gain control of the people. He does this by having dogs chase him off of the farm saying that Snowball was conspiring with the humans. This allowed Napoleon to take complete control of the farm and the rest of the animals. If the animals stopped the dogs from chasing off Snowball, it would have completely stopped his plans. However, because it was successful, he was able to use him as a way to focus the animal’s anger and keep them distracted from Napoleon's devious actions. For example, Squealer the

A quote by Aung San Suu Kyi reads ¨it is not power that that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it. Animal Farm by George Orwell is a long short story, published in 1917 it reflects the events leading up to the Russian revolution and the Stalin era. Characters are portrayed by animals that live on a farm . The character Napoleon in Animal Farm is a clever and sly animal who uses fear and greed to rule the animals around the farm. Leaders who do not care about the welfare of their citizens and rule with fear can ruin a society. Those type of leaders and person and the most harmful to a society.

An important way in which Napoleon obtains and maintains power is by finding and utilising the weaknesses of others. Like himself, all of the other pigs are greedy, and soon begin stealing food from all the other animals. Napoleon knows that he can use their greed, to reinforce a group of companions who will support his decisions. He sets aside material things to entice their support, such as all the milk, apples, and barley, for which to make beer as other were struggling with no food and without a source.

The story of Animal Farm is not just one of a talking pig who takes over a farm. Rather, the tale seeks to show the fear factor in which the citizens under Joseph Stalin’s totalitarian government lived with. George Orwell, in Animal Farm uncovers the truth about how the people under Stalin’s rule were constantly threatened to be killed if they did not dedicate their lives to helping Stalin with his plans. As Napoleon, an allegory for Stalin, takes control of the farm, animals lose their lives, are manipulated to fight the humans and are living in constant fear of getting killed.

Obviously, it was a great idea convincing the other animals about the windmill. However, Napoleon is here convincing the animals of Snowball causing farm troubles. For example, he told the animals that Snowball is a traitor because he was working for Foxwood Farm and he also said he proof of the secret documentation of Snowball working for Foxwood. However, Snowball is the animalism because he wanted the animals to be treated equally and have their freedom just like Old major had a dream about. On the other hand, Napoleon didn’t care for the animals he just wanted power so he had seven secret police dogs to scare away Snowball from the farm and also to kill any animal that didn’t obey his

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.

Napoleon is an opportunitist. When he realizes that he can turn a situation, whether good or bad, to his advantage, he does so. For example, when the windmill topples, he tells that that Snowball is the cause and turns the animals against him. From then on he makes Snowball a scapegoat. Whenever something goes wrong, it is because of Snowball. This makes the animals feel that they are lucky to have Napoleon instead. It is also an easy way out as it keeps the animals from finding out where the blame really lies. This secures Napoleon's leadership position as the he will not be blamed for anything wrong and creates the illusion that Napoleon's ruling is perfect, making him indispensable. In the case of the timber, he uses Snowball to back up his decision. Since the animals are against him, the party he is not selling to will have Snowball residing there. This causes the animals to support his decision.