The Inevitability Of Corruption In George Orwell's Animal Farm

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.

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.

Power is one of the most desired things in the world, and is often hard to attain, but once it is gained it can often corrupt a person. Corruption due to power is shown in many instances in the book, Animal Farm. In the book, there is an opening for someone to take control of the power, and the animals that do are the pigs. The pigs gain the power for many reasons. When power is gained there are many things people can do with it, either bad or good. The pigs’ actions in animal farm show the different ways that power can be used by those in charge.

Orwell shows how power was given to the pigs through intimidation. Squealer tries to intimidate The Animals by mentioning a name they dread. Squealer noticed the animals knew the pigs slept in beds, so he mentions,“Surely none of you wishes to see Jones come back?”(67), to scare them. Orwell conveys how powerful Jones’ name is. He shows how Napoleon and the other pigs use Mr. Jones name to their advantage. They create an environment of fear amongst the animals. The lives of the animals were also threatened by Napoleon when an incident came up. The text states that “ They were all slain on the spot and the tale of confessions and executions went on…”(84). Orwell wanted to show that Napoleon was ready to kill anyone in his way of absolute power. The animals felt “shaken and miserable” and they were now more frightened to even have the thought of rebelling against Napoleon. Using this

When the animals were under Jones’ rule, they lived a life of misery and slavery. He was a very cruel master; he abused and enslaved the animals and furthermore, he locked away all the food so the animals were left to starve. Jones was a despicable, incompetent and drunken farmer; he was in the position of power on the farm but he did not fulfil his duties as leader, as all he does is drink, as Orwell described it: "Mr Jones, of Manor Farm, had locked the hen-houses for the night, but was too drunk to remember to shut the pop-holes." (Ch.1; P.1). He was a tyrant, as he operated the farm with absolute control, only for the benefit of himself with no cares about how his animals were being treated in the process, which was how Napoleon came to treat his subjects. And as Old Major described him "Man is the only creature that consumes without producing." (Ch.1; P.4). The fall of Jones’ tyranny

Why did 1917 Russia have flaws with its government and politics so much so that it started a revolution? Within the novel Animal Farm by George Orwell, there are many examples of leadership and corruption such as in the Russian revolution. There are many examples within the novel for this theme like the way the pigs deceive the lower animals with their lies is one example of this. How Napoleon persuades the animals in his decisions by abusing the force of the attack dogs. Banning practices from the animals like the song Beasts of England and at the end Napoleon changes a commandment to say that all animals are equal but some are more equal than others.

“Remember that all things are lawful to me” (Tranquillus). These words by Gaius Caesar Germanicus, more commonly known as Caligula, epitomize the corruption caused by absolute power. Under his rule, the Roman treasury was emptied, people suffered from seemingly random acts of brutality, and Rome was ruled by an emperor who thought of himself as a god. Similarly, in the novel Animal Farm, the Manor Farm is taken over by its four-legged inhabitants. Their equal government is soon taken over by a power-hungry leader, a young boar named Napoleon. George Orwell’s fictional dictator Napoleon in the allegorical novel Animal Farm and the lavish life of the Roman Emperor Caligula both prove that power always causes corruption.

As a political writer and socialist of the time, Orwell turns the tragedy of the Russian people, whose dreams of a communist utopia were crushed by the Stalin regime, into a message to society. These people of the Russian Revolution were treated just as poorly, if not worse, than before the revolution because of political innocence and an authoritarian government. With his novel, Animal Farm, serving as allegory for the Russian revolution, Orwell warns that any society that gives the leader absolute power is fated to become corrupt and oppressive because of the inevitability of a leader manipulating his power for personal gain. Even revolutions that have the best intentions will ultimately fail if the leaders are not held accountable.

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.

I choose to write this short story reflective price, to explore the themes of corrupt leaders and segregation in Animal Farm. I particularly choose themes of corrupt leaders and segregation to highlight the circumstances in which took place in George Orwell's Animal Farm, I choose to write a short story in third person omniscient, so readers could have an inside understanding into each character, such as Coach Grates, who substitutes the personality of Napoleon, and Bobbie who substitutes the personality of Boxer. The intentional audience of my piece are those who have read Animal Farm.

Throughout the book of Animal Farm the theme of leadership and corruption is continuous. The animal’s who have the biggest part in both of these major themes are the pigs. Napoleon, for example, takes over as the leader in the beginning of the book and later his leadership methods turn corruptive.

The Tyranny of Animal Farm Pigs are said to be one of the most filthy and overall dumb animals on earth. They are known to roll around in mud and eat almost anything that they can find lying around on the ground. Although George orwell depicts them as being very smart in the end destructive. I the novel Animal Farm the pigs were responsible for the downfall of the animal utopia. Firstly, Squealer decided to play mind games on the animals forcing them to always think otherwise.

Animal Farm Theme Essay The Animals from Animal Farm don’t know crap about what the government (pigs) are doing. The pigs are cruel and corruptive. The main theme of Animal Farm By: George Orwell is: If citizens are not constantly aware of what is happening in their government, corruption can take over and destroy the vision or the possibility of a better society. One example of the pigs corruption is with Squealer and the barn.

Humans can be insufferable; humans have had the power but the power could be conducted. When power is giving to ones that do not know how to cope with it, selfish intentions can lead to violent choices that affects everyone around. George Orwell, in his work Animal farm, develops the idea that power can be amoral and addicting. When a being is given to much power they can unreasonable and do not understand regulations and the directive for the ones who do not have power. This paper is against the corruption of power over misuse, greed or selfish ambition. In other words, one shouldn't be given power, power they cannot handle. They simply go over they’re head to prosper they’re ambitions and choices, not over looking the wealth of others. Unable

After the overthrowing of Jones, seven commandments of Animalism were created of which parallel Karl Marx’s theory of communism. Orwell depicts the commandments as expendable with rules such as “No animal shall sleep in a bed” (P.17) and “No animal shall kill another Animal” (P.17) are gradually twisted and broken. Orwell then decides to exhibit the corrupted mind of the power thirsty pigs, in particular, Napoleon who believes that anything his way is the right way. Their descent into the beings they swore never to be like is concluded by the end of the story as “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.” (P.102) Above all, Orwell conveys that power corrupts and this corruption is the final theme that highlights the views of George