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The Presentation of Napoleon in Animal Farm by George Orwell Essay

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The Presentation of Napoleon in Animal Farm by George Orwell The novel Animal Farm, by the political writer George Orwell, is a story parallel to the events of the Russian Revolution. It features the brutal rise to power of one history’s most notorious dictators – Josef Stalin, who is portrayed by the tyrannical pig Napoleon. After the animals of Manor Farm expel their human master, Napoleon eventually manages to seize total control over every aspect of the animals’ lives. It is Napoleon’s character that I am analysing in this essay. Napoleon is portrayed right from the start of the novel as a rather sinister character. He is described as “a large, rather fierce-looking Berkshire boar … with …show more content…

However, while the actions of Snowball (who “dashed straight for Jones”) and Boxer (who was “rearing up on his hind-legs”) are described in detail, Napoleon is not even mentioned once. It can therefore be assumed that he was indeed not present at the scene. From this, we can detect cowardice as one of his numerous traits. He let other animals risk their lives in battle while he himself remained just a bystander. This implies that perhaps in the future, Napoleon would let all his fellow beasts do the farm-work while he merely watches them. During the Sunday meetings in the farm, Napoleon was “never in agreement” with Snowball and he uses sheep to silence Snowball at critical moments in his speeches. The fact that Napoleon was “canvassing support for himself” between meetings shows his cunning and also his level of power at the gatherings. He was also shrewdly trying to put Snowball down by contradicting him, and thereby making the animals doubt Snowball’s rhetoric. Napoleon took the nine puppies of Jessie and Bluebell into his care in the pretext of making “himself responsible for their education”. However, he was in fact training them to be his soldiers in order to expel Snowball and seize control of the farm. This shows that his strike for power was pre-meditated which further

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