Essay on the Concept of Power

Nertile Latifi and Brikena Sela Julie Kolgjini Writing Seminar 0502-227 October 07, 2008 What is power, and how does it present itself in our lives? We know for certain that it proves as the one thing that either keeps people together, makes them revolt, or changes history overall. But what is it really? Is it the ability to do or act, or is it political/national strength? Does it always have to be represented by a person in charge? Or is it just something in our minds that has the possession to control our influence. There are so many meanings behind this short yet ‘powerful’ word, such as that which is discussed in Orwell’s Animal Farm, and that which is part of human nature. To begin with, various resources provide different illustrations of power. Reading George Orwell’s Animal Farm, it gives us the view of power in a form of an animal representing us humans. A short summary of the book is that of how one animal, a pig, in the whole bunch has the courage to stand up and feed the other animals with brainwashing information. He begins with things that amuse the group which was mainly equality for all. Since the farmer was in charge of the animals’ lives, the pig reaches out to them in their weakest point by promising them freedom and equality. The pig does this only so the others will agree with every other decision he makes. Time after time, he slowly changes the rules here and there, still pretending to be egalitarian. The rest of the animals are so convinced that they are being led towards the right path from the beginning, they never stop to analyze what they were actually doing, which was whatever they were told by the pig. Eventually they are brought back to the same position by their own kind, as they had been in the beginning by the farmer: following the dictates of a single individual. Thus, according to Animal Farm, we come to understand that power is simply something that is passed on in life. In the story, it was the one thing that

Cited: Orwell, George. Animal Farm. New York: Harcourt, Brace & Company Inc. 1946. Orwell, George. 1984. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1949.