George Orwell’s Animal Farm has the protagonist Napoleon that gains great power and control over all the animals in Manor farm, making the farm a dictatorship. The three main contributes for Napoleon to gain power is propaganda, violence and exploitation.
The propaganda is the by far the most significance way that Napoleon develops power and controls over all the animals. He does this by lying, betraying and deceiving the animals of Manor farm. Napoleon uses squealer to persuade the other animals that, “Napoleon is always right” (Pg.41). In fact, Napoleon also uses Squealer to tell all the animals that Snowball is the cause of all the problems and if anyone was with Snowball, they would be slayed on the spot. “Torn to pieces after confessing to shocking crimes." (Chapter 7). Squealer keeps repeating to the animal’s that “Jones would come back! Yes, Jones would come back.”(Pg.23). this made all the animals on the farm fearful and they all presumed that Napoleon was handling them better then when Jones was there. In spite of all this, Napoleon changed the commandments to his liking, “No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets. No animal shall drink alcohol to excess. No animal shall kill any other animal without cause.” Although, after, there was only one commandment “all animals are equal but some are more equal than others” (Pg.90). With all this happening, the animals thought that was how the commandments went. Propaganda is by far the most significant way that Napoleon develops power over all the animals.
Napoleon’s violence, made the other animals scared to retaliate against him and this is the second most importance contribution that made Napoleon control all the animals in Manor farm. Whoever went up against Napoleon either got injured or killed. Napoleon’s violence made him a cruel person, which made him kill all animals that followed Snowball. “When the confession’s finished, the dogs, ordered by Napoleon, tore their throats out” (Pg.56). In fact after this encounter Napoleon abolishes ‘Beasts of England’ and it was forbidden to sing it. “It is no longer needed comrade,’ said Squealer stiffly. “Beasts of England” was the song of the Rebellion. But the Rebellion is now completed.” (Pg.59). Napoleon, ordered all the pigs on the farm to “carry whips in their trotters” (Pg. 90), whilst they actually never hit someone with the whips, it still made all the animals scared to ever go against Napoleon. In fact Napoleon threatened the animals with half rations if they did not work on Sunday or work hard enough; this was painful for a lot of animals and most of the animals wanted to retaliate but were just too frightened. “They had come to a time when no one dared speak his mind, when fierce, growling dogs roamed everywhere, and when you had to watch your comrades.” (Pg.56). Therefore violence is the second most contributing fact that made Napoleon develops power and control of all the animals.
Exploitation is a key figure in the text and Napoleon does this by selfish use and taking advantage of the animals, making this the least contributing factor for Napoleon gaining power over the animals. The primary use of exploitation in the text is when Napoleon makes himself the leader and having the growling dogs by him. Having the dogs beside him made everything easier for him to intimidate the animals. This made them believe anything, such as the milk and the apples and how Squealer tried to convince the animals that milk and apples are good for the nature of the pigs. “Comrades!’ he cried. ‘You do not imagine, I hope that, we pigs are doing this in a spirit of selfishness and privilege? Many of us actually dislike milk and apples. I dislike them myself.” (Pg.23). In fact, Napoleon ordered the dogs to chase snowball off the farm and that is when Napoleon stole Snowball design of the windmill and claimed it for himself. “The plan which Snowball had drawn on the floor of the incubator shed had actually been stolen from among Napoleon’s papers” (Pg.39). Exploitation is certainly a key figure in the text, but still id the least contributing factor that Napoleon gains power and control over the animals
In conclusion, the protagonist Napoleon