Abuse Of Power In Animal Farm

­Martina Ferreira
English EE
September
Word count: 3147 Animal Farm (original title)
George Orwell is remembered as a committed opponent of communist oppression. Power can have the compelling action of corrupting the moral ethics of one’s character. This can be seen through history, such as Marx’s Communist Manifesto, Stalin’s ruling, World War II and many more. As Lord Acton said “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely” (). A leader does not have the desire to do wrong at the start, they begin with good intentions, but power is complicated, as it is showcased in Animal Farm as utopian ideals with corrupt practices. Power is authority and strength, when excessive amounts of power are given, a dictatorship may form, in which
all decision and power are held by one individual. In George Orwell’s Animal Farm, Orwell demonstrates the failings of communism in the form of a fable. It was written in 1945 and it portrays some of the events leading up to the Russian Revolution. In a place like Manor Farm, it is easy to get caught up in all of the power.
In Animal Farm, George Orwell uses symbolism and allegory to show the corrupting influence of power.
George Orwell shows the pernicious influences of power through the animal’s laws and beliefs. At the beginning of the novel, the animals elaborated old Major’s teachings into a system which they called Animalism. Animalism is an ideology with a goal that all animals be treated equally and share the same responsibilities as well as rewards in the farm. This was a concept developed because the animals thought that the humans were taking advantage of their resources and them, and wanted to make a change because they believed that they could survive without the humans and would be much better off. With this in mind, the animals forced the humans out of the farm and started taking care of themselves. Orwell employs the ideology of animalism to allude to communism, this allegory between communism and animal societies is central to the text since the animal’s most important law is “all animals are equal” (Orwell 90).The issues that Orwell attempts to portray in Animal Farm can be considered to some extent representatives of the failings of communism. Communism is a structure that promotes equality,
fairness, and a classless society, followed by people who believe in an egalitarian system, just as animalism does. Through Animal Farm, Orwell shows how the corrupting influence of power has led to ‘Animalism’ being an unreachable ideal, suffering the same fate Orwell believes will befall communism; showing the innate contradictions of the ideology in the theory versus in practice. As the pigs gained more and more power, they abused it to benefit themselves. This power led the pigs to go from this ideal equality to “all animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others” showing that the more recognition and power they were given, the more they exploited the system for their own benefit (Orwell 90). This is the ultimate example of the pigs taking advantage of the intellectually inferior to control all of the animals. The first clause implies that all animals are equal but as the story goes on, the word ‘equal’ becomes a relative term rather than an absolute one, as differing levels of ‘equality’ are incorporated in this theory. In addition, the ‘all’ in the quote is to identify the ‘some’ from the rest, since the ‘some’ has become the higher class, the pigs. Therefore, showing the pig’s evolved concept of ‘equality’ to be a logical contradiction, while making it so that the less intellectual animals become helpless.