The Seven Commandments In George Orwell's Animal Farm

Soon the original commandments get condemned to a single one reading “ all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.” Napoleon commits to uniting with the human farmers against the working classes of both humans and animals, and even changes the name from Animal Farm back to Manor Farm. Looking in on the elites through the farmhouse window the animals can no longer tell the pigs from the humans.

When the pigs gain power they start to organize committees throughout the farm. They also position the animals for labor work and basically act as a congress. This allows them to be passive making others do all of the work. They have a wide variety of knowledge to brainwash the animals into thinking the

Meet Napoleon, a pig that tries to act as a human in order to pursue his lifelong dream as a farm’s dictator (not really). Welcome to Animal Farm. Napoleon is a pig in a farm called Animal Farm, after the animals decide to rebel against their farm owner Jones, they change the farm’s name from Manor Farm to Animal Farm. This story goes on to Napoleon deciding to use his intelligence as an advantage to lead the other animals. He writes 7 commandments that the animals need to followed. Napoleon’s power could have been checked after he broke these commandments, by deciding to give the pigs all of the milk and apples, by beginning to sleep in the beds of the farmhouse, and by killing two sheep.

For the pigs to maintain their popularity with the other animals, Squealer secretly paints additions to some commandments to benefit the pigs while keeping them free of accusations of breaking the laws (such as "No animal shall drink alcohol" having "to excess" added to it and "No animal shall sleep in a bed" with "with sheets" added to it). Eventually the laws are replaced with "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others", and "Four legs good, two legs

From the very beginning, Napoleon and the pigs take charge and make the other animals do the work for them, while the pigs just supervise. In chapter three, when they begin working on plowing the fields, the pigs do not do anything other than tell the others what to do, “The pigs did not actually work, but directed and supervised the other” (20). The pigs, from the very start of animal farm, took charge and only directed and told others what to do. They solidified their positions as leader’s right at the beginning of the farm. Also, at the end of the book, the pigs, to show their leadership, carry whips around to make sure the work gets done, “After that it did not seem strange when next day the pigs who were supervising the work of the farm all carried whips in their trotters” (92). Since the creation of the farm the pigs started to slowly present the fact that they would take charge, and in the beginning when they were nice about it no one argued with them. By the end though, the animals finally realized what had happened, but by then it was too late for them to do anything about it. Admittedly, Napoleon and the rest of the pigs are greedy because they take all the extra food and make the others work like slaves, but that does not make them ineffective in the ways they make the animals work. Napoleon showed his effectiveness as a

First of all, Napoleon is unjust, does not demonstrate good leadership qualities and has poor reasoning. Napoleon has just held executions for animals he considers traitors and scares the animals while killing without reason. Orwell shows this as he states how, "the tale of confessions and executions went on until there was a pile of corpses lying before Napoleon's feet and the air was heavy with the smell of blood, which had been unknown there since the expulsion of Jones," (Orwell 84). This proves how Napoleon is unjust and doesn't care for the animals at all. He is only concerned with the efficiency of the farm and does not show sympathy for the animals, but treats them as though they are machines only there to do his work. Similarly, another example of Napoleon being corrupt as a leader is when he is becoming more secretive and separates himself from the other animals on the farm. For example, "Napoleon inhabited separate apartments

The pigs disobeyed all of the commandments. The main one was to do things like humans and Napoleon started trading with humans. Napoleon traded with Frederick and Frederick did not pay Napoleon with real money so Napoleon was furious. Frederick put together an attack on Animal Farm and planned to take down the windmill. Frederick put together an army and each man had a gun. In this battle, several animals were injured and several died, even Boxer was shot. If Napoleon were to follow the commandments the humans would not turn on him and knock down the windmill because, there would be no association. Today if you do not follow the rules you could get a detention or even worse, go to jail which would lead to your life being ruined. Or if you don’t follow certain rules in the branches of military you have a chance of death.

In Animal Farm, the pigs used their superior knowledge to persuade the other animals into thinking whatever they say is true. The first example of this in the novel is when the pigs are caught sleeping in beds. Clover remembered a rule against animals sleeping in beds, but when she went to check, she found “...herself unable to read more than individual letters...”(47) When she finally finds someone that can read the rules, it seems as though it has changed. This lack of education shown in Clover allows the pigs to change one of the Seven Commandments. Yet another example of the pigs changing history is just a few chapters later. Originally, the sixth commandment stated that no animal shall kill another animal, however when the animals checked after the massacre put on by Napoleon, “It ran: "No animal shall kill any other animal without cause." (63) This once again goes to show that without education, these animals are susceptible to deception. The pigs realize the power they have and use it against the unintelligent animals in order to cover up their

The first few changes went against the commandments, such as he canceled Sundays morning meetings, he and the other pigs decided that they were going to move into Mr.Jones home and he also started engaging in trade with neighboring farms, an example of this, “Napoleon announced that there would be work on Saturday afternoons as well. This work was strictly voluntary, but any animal who absented himself from it would have his rations reduced by half” ( 92). Napoleon started slowly changing things for the worse. Some of the commandments he started breaking was things such as pigs sleeping in beds, drinking beer, and using money and he even made the song beast of England illegal. The pigs started lying to the animals and giving themselves special privileges, even though equality between the animals was incredibly important and was the causes of the

Without law and order, it is nearly proven that civilization will fail. Because of this, Snowball saw it necessary to create a set of rules for the animals on the newly evolving farm, so came about the 7 Commandments. Unfortunately, but undoubtedly in the pigs’ advantage, most of the other animals did not know how to read or write. Because of this the other members of the farm had to bestow their trust and goodwill in the more educated of the animals. Little did they know that their innocence and their devotion to the farm as a whole would in the end lead to their demise. “The birds did not understand Snowball’s long words, but they accepted his explanation, and all the humbler animals set to work to

Knowledge is the primary form of power that the pigs have and take advantage of. Towards the beginning of the book this is shown when the pigs create a society in which they are superior because of their intellect: "but the pigs were so clever that they could think of a way round every difficulty. As for the horses, they knew every inch of the field, and in fact understood the business of mowing and raking far better than Jones and his men had ever done. The pigs did not actually work, but directed and supervised the others. With their superior knowledge it was natural that they should assume the leadership." (pg. 27) This shows that the power is distributed unevenly, and the pigs have much more because they are not working and think that they are above that. the pigs not working shows their selfish and deceptive side, and that they are trying to say they should not have to work because of their superior knowledge. The pigs gained

In the beginning of animal farm there are set rules that all the animals must follow in order to achieve perfect society. One of the first things that happened however was that they shortened the seven rules to one because most of the animals were so uneducated that they could not remember or even read the seven rules written on the barn wall. This is the start of how Orwell shows how uneducation is a serious problem. The pigs used the animal’s inability to comprehend to their advantage. They changed the rules on the barn and because the animals could not understand them in the first place, they accepted the changes because they did not know any better. Those of the animals that did understand them however were later convinced that they had been the same way all along because of their blind loyalty to their ruler. Another factor they came into play when trying to control the animals, and also played a part in helping the pigs rise to power, was Squealer, who represented propaganda. Anytime the animals questioned something that didn’t seem right Squealer was immediately there to show them how they should be looking at the situation and what the consequences could be if they did not accept what they were being told, as one of Squealers favorite things to say was, “You don’t want Famer Jones to come back, do you?”. Because none of the animals could challenge or cared to challenge the pigs, that is what really cleared the path to let the pigs gain

At this there was a terrible baying sound outside and nine enormous dogs came bounding into the barn. They dashed straight for Snowball,” with this ousting of Snowball, Napoleon secured his place as dictator of the animals. After securing his position Napoleon was able to gather a group of pigs together that were meant to help him govern the other animals. The pigs were placed in this position because they were considered to be the most intelligent of all the animals. Further political corruption occurred when Napoleon begins to slowly add changes to the 7 laws or commandments set up by a past leader. Because not all the animals on the farm can read it made it easy for Napoleon to change the rules ever so slightly that the changes were barely noticeable. This parallel in today’s society can be seen when comparing under privileged areas to middle class areas, for example emphasis on education. Those with less education are more easily manipulated than those with higher education. It is

These commandments were to “form an unalterable law” (pg.17) but as the pigs quickly began to realise that their mental capabilities outshone the other animals, their self entitled supremacy rose with it. Their constant desire for power then followed and they believed that their egotistical ideals were not something to be reckoned with, therefore manipulating the commandments to their own liking. This was exemplified when the commandments are gradually undermined by the pigs to; “no animal must sleep in a bed” to “no animal must sleep in a bed with sheets” (pg.17,50), and “no animal shall kill any other animal” to “no animal shall kill any other animal without cause” (pg.17, 66)( Dr Jennifer Minter, English Works, 2016). The pigs act as if they are abiding by the commandments to gain the trust from the mindless animals using strategical manipulation strategies, then later reveal their true intentions in a time and way that no animal is cunning enough to challenge them, making them all powerless to protesting against the supremacy. A representation of this occurs by all the original commandments being erased and replaced with the new guiding principle “all animals are equal but some are more equal than others” (pg.

In chapter 2, when the 7 commandments were first written down, there was already a slight corruption in the pigs. The pigs steal the milk and apples and explain it with the lie that these foods have nutrients essential to pigs, which need these