Under-Education In George Orwell's Animal Farm

Animal Farm begins on Manor Farm, where overworked, tired, and hungry animals are unhappy in the conditions that they are in, but when an old boar named Old Major introduces the idea of a rebellion and encourages the animals to take control over the farm, the animals begin an uprising against the humans, taking control over the land and renaming the farm “Animal Farm.” However, greedy and corrupt leaders rise to power and turn a once prosperous farm, into a nightmare. In Animal Farm, George Orwell asserts the idea that absolute power results in corruption. Napoleon and the other pigs, interested in remaining superior, persuades the other animals by using intimidation and emotional appeals in order to keep control of the gullible animals.

An author often writes a novel as a warning to mankind. In Animal Farm, George Orwell creates a world of animals that allegorically represent man. The intelligent pigs take advantage of the uneducated lower animals and take control of the farm. By showing the steady increase of the pigs' intellectual exploitation of the lower animals, Orwell warns the reader of the importance of an education.

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

Although many people believe that naivety is good, it can be very easily exploited by corrupt leaders. Naivety makes it very easy for a corrupt leader to take control of a society. Naivety makes it very effortless for leaders to manipulate the citizens to believe anything. Such as, the leader can lead them to do something for themselves, but instead on help the wellbeing of the government or leader. Similarly, George Orwell, author of the historical allegory Animal Farm, takes a dim view on how leaders can manipulate the citizen’s naivety. Orwell suggests that complete devotion to an ideal and being manipulative lead to loss of freedom and equality in a society.

In a society where an elite class has access to tools that the masses do not, this elite group of people often use these tools to dominate and oppress society. In George Orwell’s story, Animal Farm, Orwell demonstrates that education is a powerful weapon and is a tool that can be used to one’s advantage. Living in a world where power is easy to gain, the pigs quickly use education (or lack thereof) to manipulate the rest of the animals on the farm to serve themselves. This story ultimately reveals the underlying message that  first, education is important to all levels of society, next, for when it is not, society is stratified, resulting in the masses suffering.

Ignorance is defined as, "Lacking knowledge or awareness in genera; uneducated or unsophisticated." In the novel Animal Farm, George Orwell addresses the topic of ignorance. Orwell illustrates that the social and political oppression of the animals is due to their inability to read, which causes them to believe everything they are told. First of all, the animals' ignorance prevents them from realizing the pigs are taking advantage of them. The pigs constantly manipulate the laws to fit their needs. The narrator says, "...it was certainly true that nothing of the kind existed in writing, the animals were satisfied that they had been mistaken." Because the animals lack the ability to read, they are not able to realize that the rule has been manipulated.

‘All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others’. George Orwell writes this toward the end of his highly acclaimed allegory, Animal Farm. From this single statement we can tell quite a bit about Orwell’s views on education which he puts across strongly throughout the novel. A message I see that this statement portrays is that everyone has the right to an education but some people were getting a better education than others at the time. During this essay I will be arguing that George Orwell was critical of the education system in 1945 (the year the book was written) and that he aired his views, hidden as they were, in many places through the book.

In chapter 7 Napoleon began punishing and executing the animals who he believed to be traitors, by forcing them to confess to “crimes” that they committed. Through this, it is obvious that although the pigs goal is to keep humans out of animal farm, and make sure that the animals are safe, it is causing a sense of fear and terror in the animals. This also shows how the animals have no freedom of

George Orwell’s Animal Farm is a perfect example of how ignorance and lack of education can be used for control. Control which can lead to political and social oppression. The experiences of the various characters present how the pigs use this idea to oppress the animals of Animal Farm.

Have you ever heard the saying “Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” and “We learn from history that we learn nothing from history.”? These quotes come from George Santayana and George Bernard Shaw, these men tell how it’s common for people to repeat past mistakes. However, if people learn to look back and understand history, it’s harder to replicate disastrous actions. History is full of wars and brutish words, yet the source of all these problems come from a single issue: power. Leaders seek power in every crevice they can find. In the book, “Animal Farm” by George Orwell, Napoleon is a cruel dictator who successfully takes over a farm after running off its competitors. Major, an old pig, told the farm of a new way of living. However, after he died, Napoleon steadily took over the farm. Therefore, taking the time to understand history’s past and mistakes can be an effective weapon against repeating the same mistakes. Failure to learn outcomes in a repetition of history, as Napoleon proves, as shown in today’s life, learning from history helps resolve futures issues, and only suffering comes from problematic actions of the past.

In the novella “Animal Farm” written by George Orwell, we see many different themes. It goes from talking about power, to talking about democrats and socialists. We are going to be talking about education. This will show you that all of the animals other than the pigs have a lack of education. It will show that being illiterate and innumerate is very dangerous in society. There are no perks to being uneducated but, there are many disadvantages. Being taken advantage of, being tricked, and having less rights. All of these things show how having a lack of education is dangerous.

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.

George Orwell’s allegorical novel Animal Farm was written about the Russian Revolution. It and speaks on behalf of communities being affected by dictatorship that started out as a socialist movement. Something that always will accompany a leader rising up as a dictator is ignorance, refusal to accept the situation, and manipulation of anyone below the tyrant leader. Most of the animals in Animal Farm are said to be ignorant right from the beginning of the story (with the exception of the pigs and the dogs) which inevitably is what led to their failure as being equals.

Even though the farm had been overthrown the farm animals still had to tend to the farm e.g. milk the cows, harvest the hay. The animals questioned what would happen to the milk in which Napoleon answered ‘never mind the milk comrades cried Napoleon pacing himself in front of the buckets, that will be attended to the harvest is more important , Comrades snowball will lead the way. I shall follow in a few minutes, forward comrades the hay is waiting ‘ [pg. 16- Napoleon], this shows Napoleon even without as much power as he obtains later on deceiving the other animals into doing the work , he also uses this time to drink the milk, the animals on their returned noticed the contents of buckets had disappeared. All the animals on the farm begun to harvest the hay fields ‘The pigs did not actually work, but directed and supervised the others, with their superior knowledge it was natural the they should assume leadership”[pg. 17 ] This text doesn’t say that the pigs are acting immorally but suggest that the pigs never had the intention of doing any manual labour and assumed their own superiority above the other farm animals. The pigs had immoral intentions from the start, After jones was over thrown and old major was out of the picture there was now no one stopping the pigs from Taking control and doing what they saw

You sit in class and always know the answer. People come to you for help and after a while you become cunning. You start to charge people for help. They still keep coming in for help and now you control the school and what goes on. The novel Animal Farm by George Orwell is about a farm that animals took control from the owner lead by intelligent pigs. The pigs rose to power because of their intelligence and are lead by Napoleon. They go through many hardships, but at the end Napoleon makes peace with the humans much to the rest of the farms dismay. A theme that is found in the book is that knowledge is power. This theme comes up many times in the beginning, middle, and the end of the novel.