Symbolism In Animal Farm

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.

Do you think blind societies can be more dangerous than oppressive leaders? In Animal Farm, Mr. Jones owned a farm where he mistreated the animals to a point they eventually rebelled and came to rule themselves. Being the smartest, the pigs came as the natural leaders. Eventually Napoleon overthrew Snowball and became the self initiated leader of Animal Farm. Boxer is a horse on the farm but is oblivious to the fact the pigs are power hungry. Throughout the novella the pigs kept persuading the other animals into thinking what they’re doing is the proper and just thing to do. Boxer is gullible and blindly obedient which makes him the perfect citizen in Napoleon's tyrant rule which is harmful because he doesn’t recognize the damage

Napoleon adjusting the commandments in his favor helps him gain power. Napoleon changes one of the seven commandments to “four animals good, two legs better” (134), when the “pigs [start] walking on [their] hind legs” (132). Napoleon then changes another commandment to “No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets” (67) so he can benefit from it and not look like a bad guy. The major commandment that changes is “All animals are equal” (25) to “All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others” (134) to show Napoleon has majority of the power. By changing the commandments, Napoleon gains

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”

The book Animal Farm by George Orwell, is an allegory for the Russian Revolution. One allegory can be seen through Czar Nicholas II, who represents Mr.Jones. In Animal Farm the animals defeat and overthrow Mr.Jones, a bad farmer who mistreats his animals. The animals try to recover from the horrible reign of Mr.Jones, and the story is about how they live after overthrowing the farmer. Czar Nicholas II and Mr.Jones both struggled with their subjects and eventually were not fit to be a leader anymore so lost the right.

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

One of the techniques used by Napoleon is, brainwashing the animals. The 7 commandments were expected to be followed by the animals including, Napoleon. Whenever Napoleon broke the rules, instead of feeling guilty, he had Squealer change the commandment to suit his wrongdoings. "Some of the animals remembered - or thought they

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

Animal Farm by George Orwell and The Lives of Others by Florian von Donnersmarck have highlighted the dangers inherent in a Totalitarian society by using stylistic features. The stylistic features used include, symbolism of art, and themes of corruption and hope. Animal Farm is an allegory for communism, specifically the 1917 Russian Revolution the Stalinist era of the Soviet Union and reflects on many of the events that lead up to the revolt. The Lives of Others is an allegory for socialism, specifically the German Democratic Republic during the Second World War. And although both focus on different times, both Orwell and Donnersmarck have used the power of artistic expression in their respective works.

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).

His main way of getting people to listen to him is by using his dogs to force people to do the required task or else they will get their heads bitten off along with the sheep saying ¨four legs good, two legs better¨ (Orwell, pg. 134) to help reinforce the idea that pigs are superior to the other animals. Another way Napoleon uses fear to gain the control over the animals at the farm is he threatens them with starvation. Both of these methods used by Napoleon were also used by Joseph Stalin to gain control over the masses. If society gives in to these methods then they are just giving more power and control to the higher power. Napoleon also threatens the animals with saying jones is going to come back and that is a reference back to when Stalin told his people that if they didn’t do what he wanted the old way of living was going to come back to them. With that much power and having all those people listen your commands can make you feel like you are unstoppable and greedy.

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

Napoleon uses military force to intimidate the other animals and consolidate his power. In his supreme craftiness, Napoleon proves to be more treacherous than his counterpart, Snowball. At the regular meetings, Snowball often won over the majority by his brilliant speeches, but Napoleon was better at canvassing support for himself in between times. He was especially successful with the sheep. The sheep had taken to bleating “Four legs good two legs bad!” both in and out of season, and they often interrupted meetings with this. It was noticed that they were especially liable to break into the chant at crucial moments in Snowball’s speeches. Also, it was observed that Napoleon had been taking the sheep aside to teach them a new song. After weeks of secret meetings, the sheep started shouting “Four legs good, two legs BETTER” and then the pigs were seen walking on their hind legs. This is a perfect example of how the pigs change the rules and bend the overall concept of Animalism to satisfy them and to make life easier for them. Also, the pigs start executing animals that don’t do what they are told. The other animals recall that it was in fact against the rules for an animal to kill another. The animals go to read over the 7 commandments to confirm their suspicions only to

Napoleon exploit's the animals inferiority complex. When he changes the seven commandments to justify his actions, the animals are doubtful as their memories tell them that the seven commandments were different. However Squealer tells them that they are wrong and it is just a figment of their imagination. The animals think that if napoleon says so then he must be right and so let him get away with it.

In the month of April it always rains cats and dogs. April does not really have cats and dogs falling from the sky in the same manner as rain but this phrase is still used. That is because it is a metaphor. A metaphor is a word or phrase given to an object or action that means something other than what is being said. In the example given it is comparing rain in the month of April to the size of cats and dogs which means the rain drops are bigger than normal.