Animal Farm Theme Analysis

George Orwell’s Animal Farm features a story that demonstrates the theme of how some leaders corrupt and manipulate people in order to gain benefits and power. This theme is illiterates through use of different symbols, specifically the windmill. It stands for corruption and treachery in order to allow deceitful people to continue to remain in power by making profits. The windmill symbolizes Napoleon's manipulation of the other animals to corrupt and gain benefits. Snowball, the inventor of this idea, wanted the windmill to “light the stalls and warm them in winter” making the living conditions much more enjoyable. He also claimed that it will help “run a circular saw, a chaff­ cutter, a mangel­slicer, and an electric milking machine” so that the animals could have a smaller work load. After being chased off by Napoleon, who formerly opposed it, Napoleon claims the construction of the windmill to be his idea and not
Snowball’s, claiming “it was he who had advocated it in the beginning” Hence, the windmill becomes a symbol of domination, which is done through the manipulation of the animals. They are made to work like slaves, Boxer in particular, for little to no profit for them. Despite the immediacy of the need for food and warmth, the pigs exploit Boxer and the other common animals by making them undertake backbreaking labor to build the windmill, which will ultimately earn the pigs more money and thus increase their corrupt power. Napoleon tells the animals that they will “engage in trade with the neighbouring farms: not[...]for any commercial purpose, [...]to obtain certain materials which were urgently necessary.”This is to say that
Napoleon simply manipulates the farm animals to force them to believe that the windmill will help reduce their workload, but in reality, he does it to gain more profits and power for himself.
Furthermore, the pigs blame the first collapse of the windmill on Snowball to psychologically manipulate the