Animal Farm Text Response Essay

Animal Farm Text Response Essay James Ramm

George Orwell’s Animal Farm is a novella which is about a group of animals who rebel against their cruel master, but are soon overcome by corruption. In the text, George Orwell illustrates to reader that this corruption of the original ideals in Animal Farm was caused by this greed and hunger for power.
Greed in George Orwell’s novella Animal Farm is a main contributing factor to what lead to the collapse of the original ideals of Animal Farm. Over the course of the text, the pigs began to become greedier, and started to put themselves above the other animals. They sent Boxer, one of their most loyal and hardworking followers to be slaughtered, even when he had been “ ‘…looking forward to [his] retirement.’ (p.75)”. The only reason they did this was for some more alcohol, which illustrates to the reader that the pig’s greediness lead to the collapse of the original ideals of Animal Farm. On many other occasions as well as this, the pigs express their greed by eating better than the other animals, stealing the farm’s delicacies like apples and milk, and by sleeping in the farm house. They also changed the pivotal commandment “All animals are equal (p.15)” to “All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others (p.85)”. Here, it can be clearly seen that greed lead to the corruption of the original ideals in Animal Farm, which the original pivotal quintessential was “All animals are equal”.
A hunger for power in Animal Farm is a fundamental constituent to what lead to the collapse of the rebellion’s original ideals. As the pigs were the smarter animals, and had already learnt to read and write, it was a logical and obvious decision to place them in a position of power. But as the pigs gained more recognition from the animals, they began to disrespect their power and become dictators over the other animals.
Napoleon’s hunger for power is the greatest out of all the characters in the novella. This is most likely the case because of his struggle to rise to power. He had to evict Snowball from the farm if he wanted to become the ruler of Animal Farm, and he had to use cunning propaganda and Squealer’s persuasive skills to convince the animals that “‘Snowball was in league with Jones… [and] he was Jones’s secret agent all the time.’”. After evicting Snowball from the farm, his hunger for power proved even more imminent. He began introducing curfews and laws, stopped public debates and meetings, and he also “… proclaimed [Animal Farm] a Republic, [so] it became necessary to elect a President. (p.73) The fact that “There was only one candidate, Napoleon… (p.73)” further shows the reader Napoleon’s hunger for power that corrupts the original ideals of Animal Farm.

In George Orwell’s novella Animal Farm, the pigs show their greed by selling Boxer, one of their most vivid and loyal followers, just for their own personal gain, by putting the other animals on strict rations while they ate delicacies like apples and alcohol, and by changing the commandments to their own liking. A hunger for power is shown in the text through mainly Napoleon, who betrayed Snowball and used propaganda and Squealer to persuade the other animals to follow him. In Animal Farm, greed and a hunger for power lead to the corruption of the original ideals of the farm.