The Failure Of Government In Animal Farm, By George Orwell

John Dalberg Acton once said, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” This seems similar in the case of Animal Farm, a book by George Orwell. In the story the tired animals rebel against their owner and set up their own government, but the pigs assume control and abuse their power which corrupts the whole system by oppressing the other animals and exploiting them. Even though the pigs abuse their power, the naive animals are the reason why the pigs rose to control because the working animals were tricked by the pig’s corruption of language, persuaded by their propaganda, and were naive time and time again.

The book Animal Farm, written by George Orwell, is the story of the rise of Napoleon, a pig who becomes the brutal dictator of Animal Farm through manipulation, deceit and violence. In this essay I am going to describe why I agree that the character of Napoleon can be likened to any other dictator in history. Firstly by his violent take over, secondly with his purges against anyone who opposed him and lastly the manipulation of his people.

Societies are built on a hierarchy. There is a leader, an upper class, a middle class, and a lower class. This representation of human society is built by our natural need for a leader no matter how tyrannical. George Orwell firmly exposes and attacks this flaw of human nature in his allegorical novel, Animal Farm. In Animal Farm Orwell displays situations mirroring that of the Russian Revolution, and how it failed to produce the utopia that was promised out of the revolution. George Orwell, before writing the novel, was disillusioned by the Communist revolution, a revolution that promised to provide all its people with a government that owned everything, but in turn was owned by the people. Orwell quickly concluded that all revolutions will fail, as the Russian Revolution did, because those who attain power are then corrupted by it. In this view of revolutionary efforts Orwell presents his views on human nature as a whole, that humans are unable to maintain an utopia, unable to abstain for consuming power, and that humans will subjugate and oppress one another if given the power to do so.

George Orwell’s Animal Farm is, first and foremost, a political satire warning against the pursuit of utopian desires through unjust and oppressive means. Operating under the pretense of an animal fable, Orwell disparages the use of political power to poach personal freedom. He effectively alerts his readers to the dangerous price that can accompany the so-called “pursuit of progress”. And he illuminates how governments acting under the guise of increasing independence often do just the opposite: increase oppression and sacrifice sovereignty. While the cautionary theme Orwell provides proves widely applicable, in reality his novel focuses on one tale of totalitarian abuse: Soviet Russia. The parallels between the society Orwell presents in his Animal Farm and the Soviet Union – from the Russian revolution to Stalin’s supremacy – are seemingly endless. Manor Farm represents Tsarist Russia, Animalism compares to Stalinism, and Animal Farm, with the pig Napoleon at its helm, clearly symbolizes Communist Russia and Joseph Stalin. But Orwell does more than simply align fiction with fact. He fundamentally attacks Soviet Russia at its core. And in so doing he reveals how the Communist Party simply replaced a bad system with a worse one, overthrowing an imperial autocracy for a totalitarian dictatorship. This essay will demonstrate that Orwell’s Animal Farm is

Elie Wiesel in Night and Snowball from Animal Farm are very similar characters because they were victimized by tyrants and used as scapegoats, but they are also unique and individual characters because Elie knew he was being taken advantage of and Snowball did not. Animal Farm is written by George Orwell, and it is about a farm of animals that take over the farm. Napoleon, a large pig, slowly takes away food and supplies from the other animals until he starts walking on two feet and becomes a “human.” Because of him Snowball is expelled from the farm and acts as a scapegoat for everything that goes wrong on the farm. Night is an autobiography written by Elie Wiesel, and in it Elie tells the story of he was taken from his home and put into a concentration camp under the control of Adolf Hitler.

People respond to control and power differently for various reasons, however, one of the main reasons is based on their personality; their confidence and intelligence. In, Animal Farm by George Orwell, confidence and intelligence is a big factor for why certain animals obtained power and control and why other ones did not. People with confidence and intelligence are likely to gain most of the control and power. People with little intelligence, but lots of confidence are more likely to have some power or work underneath the leader. People with intelligence, but no confidence seem to have no power at all and shy away from it. Both intelligence and confidence are needed for someone to take total power. Therefore, the amount of confidence and intelligence a person has will decide how they respond to control and power.

Success is an iceberg. What you see on the surface is never the full story. Success can also be very destructive. In the beginning, it seems harmless but the more that is exposed, the more you uncover how many consequences come with it. In George Orwell’s, Animal Farm, He writes about the struggles endured throughout the rises and falls of the characters in the book. Animal Farm was always doomed to fail because the absolute power corrupted the pigs, the uneducated animals were easily manipulated, and the commandments ended up only applying to the lower class animals.

“In past years Mr. Jones, although a hard master, had been a capable farmer, but of late he had fallen on evil days”(Orwell 38). In Animal Farm George Orwell describes life for the animals on a farm in the english countryside during the mid to early 20th century before, during and after a revolution against their master Mr.Jones in order to represent the russian revolution and describe to people throughout the free world how leaders in both capitalist and communist societies oppress the working class as a result Orwell 's tone throughout the novel is concerned. Tsar Nicholas II led Russia into failure in the Russo-Japanese war as well as World War I and allowed the shootings of over one thousand protesters on Bloody Sunday; these actions inspired Orwell to create a representation of tsar Nicholas II in the character Mr.Jones who is known for being drunk and forgetful.

In the novel Animal Farm by George Orwell, the pig Napoleon uses specific tactics to gain power and control over the animal farm. Some of these techniques include controlling information through education, scapegoating, use of fear, swaying public opinion and blind obedience.

The Vulnerability of Ignorance To live in a place that is completely controlled by a governing force in every aspect of life provokes a questionable concern. It is clear that too much authority in the hands of a certain group can lead to a deceitful, corrupted system that directly benefits any private agendas of the elitists in power. This concern was the epitome of why the political activist and novelist, George Orwell, wrote the book Animal Farm to emphasize an overall allegory that challenged a communistic system and an overbearing totalitarian government. Orwell purposefully crafted this fable-based novel to reach an audience in western Europe.

Animal Farm by George Orwell has addressed the theme that power corrupts those who possess it, especially Napoleon. Corruption of power is well defined in Lord Acton’s statement, ‘power trends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely’. Throughout the Novel Napoleon has absolute power, he uses manipulation over the other animals and demonstrates that Communism can contribute to corruption of power. Since the beginning Napoleon has had absolute power over Animal Farm. He used his knowledge and education to take over the farm.

English Yearly Examination Revision Write an essay that shows how power affects the characters, the events and the outcome of the book. The short story and fable, Animal Farm, written by George Orwell, was inspired by the upbringing events leading to the Russian Revolution. Revolving around the concepts of Marxism and Communism, an ideology where all individuals will contribute all that they are capable of giving, and in return, will receive ‘payment’ based on how much they contributed. Once a popular theory, which was expected to pave the way to a new and better future, where everyone is supposed to be ‘equal’.

During the early 1900’s wars and revolutions were raging all around the world. George Orwell in Animal Farm expresses the political tendencies of those who have and those who lack education through characters such as Squealer, Napoleon, Muriel, and Benjamin. In Animal Farm, the message George Orwell sends to his audience is that there is power in obtaining an education that saves one from being bamboozled. The first way Orwell expresses the importance of education is through the pigs, who were the most educated animals on the farm. Within “three months” the pigs had “taught themselves to read and write,” which leads to them having the most power (Orwell 23).

Tyranny has always been present in human history from Joseph Stalin to Adolf Hitler they have all taken advantage of the public and used them to their own advantage and personal needs. In the story Animal Farm by George Orwell this tyrannical, totalitarian, and corrupt form of government is seen. In the story the tired animals organize a rebellion against their owner and drive him out. They create their own government, with the pigs assuming control. But the corrupt pigs take advantage of this power entrusted to them, and oppress the animal for their own benefit. Even though the pigs abused the power they had, The naive and gullible animals themselves were the ones responsible for the pigs’ quick rise to power and control because the animals were tricked into supporting the pigs evil plans, they were too braindead to organize and execute a rebellion even after they realized the pigs were up to no good, and they were so foolish that they even supported the expulsion of snowball, the only good pig that worked for the good of the other animals.

There were many elements that contributed to the destruction of Animal Farm in Orwell’s novel, but in the end, the most damning attribute was the lack of citizen involvement and civic duty. Because the animals did not make it a priority to implicate proper checks and balances into Animal Farm, Napoleon was able to take control after chasing Snowball out. This is the tipping point where Animal Farm is doomed to its dystopian state. Not to mention the way he banished Snowball: by using vicious dogs he had previously stolen from Jessie and Bluebell, who barely even questioned his motives. This quote shows Napoleon’s violent exile of Snowball via his vicious dogs: ”By the time [Snowball] had finished speaking, there was no doubt as to which way the vote would go. But just at this moment Napoleon stood up...nine enormous dogs wearing brass-studded collars came bounding into the barn. They dashed straight for Snowball...he put on an extra spurt and, with a few inches to spare, slipped through a hole in the hedge and was seen no more. Silent and terrified, the animals crept back into the barn...Napoleon, with the dogs following him, now mounted on to the raised portion of the floor where Major had previously stood…” (Orwell, George. Animal Farm. Brawtley Press, 2012.). In this quote we see that Napoleon called the dogs to chase Snowball not because he committed any type of crime or was corrupted, but because he was succeeding in his political career; meaning he was gaining more