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The Cult Of Personality In Animal Farm, By George Orwell

Decent Essays

Vladimir Lenin once said that “A lie told often enough becomes the truth”. In Animal Farm by George Orwell, Napoleon establishes a cult of personality by using fear, persuasion, and demonizing Snowball. A cult is a group of people that have extreme beliefs towards something or someone. Cults take away our freedom of choice by exploiting our weaknesses and making us feel like we need to belong to them. Firstly, Napoleon uses terror to establish a cult. In the book Napoleon trains a group of dogs to obey him. He uses those dogs to make sure that “[t]hey [the animals] were shaken and miserable” (25). Napoleon also uses fear to drive Snowball away from the Manor Farm. In the book the author states that “[t]hey [the dogs] dashed straight for Snowball, who only sprang from his place just in time to escape their snapping jaws” (16). Napoleon uses fear to threaten the other animals and make sure that if the others do something that Napoleon does not like, they will be killed. Secondly, Napoleon persuades the other animals to do as they are told. Napoleon has a minion named Squealer that is very good at persuading others. In the book, Squealer “holding down a long strip of paper with his trotter, would read out to them 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 might be” (27). This made sure that the animals believed that they are living a better life

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