Manipulation of language

The power of language is far-reaching, it is the language that builds up the foundation of human; therefore, only language can manipulate people. In the novel Animal farm, George Orwell uses many techniques of language to convey the moral of the book. The story shows how power will make people corrupt as well as illustrate the abuse of the language of power. There are different kinds of misuse of power language. The faith of rebellion make animals blindly follows the order from Napoleon. The wisdom of pigs allows them to trick the others. The fear that Napoleon’s army create make the animals obey. Orwell uses his words; demonstrate the power is use as a tool of manipulation and social control in Animal Farm.

To start with, Orwell demonstrates how the pigs use their intelligence, abuse the Seven Commandments and control the animals. Clearly, some of the animals cannot even fully understand the meaning of rebellion. “It was also found that the stupider animals such as the sheep, hens and duck, were unable to learn the Seven Commandments by heart.”(Orwell, 21) They are too stupid that they need someone to read for them and translate, yet the stupider animals can miss-understand the message. Moreover, the pigs are intentionally to twist the Seven Commandments so they can benefit themselves, such as sleeping in bed or drinking whisky. From this point of view, the pigs are very clever. They have teach themselves how to write and read, and can do both perfectly. The pigs have the ability to manipulate the stupider animals frequently; for the smart one, they can dominate them by abusing the Seven Commandments. For example, Squealer says “The rule was against sheet, which are a human invention. We have removed the sheets from the farm house bed, and sleep between blankets.”(Orwell, 46) The disparity of intelligence between the pigs and the others is tremendous. The effect of cleverly twist the rules indicate the intelligent of them. Nevertheless the pigs not only misinterpret Seven Commandments but also the intent of the rebellion.

Secondly, Orwell shows how pigs persuade the animals by using the faith of animalism and the rebellion. The basic ideas Old Major passes on in his first speech are that particularly, no animal must ever try to exert power over another animal, they are all brothers. However, after Napoleon takes control of the farm, he sees himself as a king and everyone should follow his command. “Napoleon was now never spoken of simply as ‘Napoleon’. He was always referred to in formal style as ‘our Leader, Comrade Napoleon.” (Orwell, 62) From this respect, the word ‘Comrade’ does not mean to remind everyone that all the animals are equal anymore. It becomes a method of Napoleon to tell everyone that he is a leader; furthermore to hero-worshiped himself. So everyone will compliance him due to his charm. Also, Napoleon and Squealer keep brainwash the animals that everything has been improved since the revolution. As George Orwell says in the book, “For the time being certainly, it had been found necessary to make readjustment of rations (Squealer always spoke if it as a ‘readjustment’ never as a ‘reduction’), but in comparison with the days of Mr. Jones the improvement was enormous.”(Orwell, 75) Squealer is trying to conceal the fact that the farm is not doing very well, and all the money is expend by the pigs themselves for their private purpose. He lies to them that they are actually doing pretty good compare to the old days. He even come up with a sophistry that if the rations are assign equality, it would go against animalism. The animals think they have more freedom than usually they had after they kicked out the owner, Mr. Jones; however, this is just a false appearance. That is why the pigs can easily manipulate the others.

Last but not least, Orwell presents the power of fear in language and how pigs slowly build up the fear to incite the animals; furthermore, to control them. In chapter five, Napoleon decides to eliminate Snowball, because of the competition he is losing. The dog army he has, frighten all the animals while they chase out Snowball. “Too amazed and frightened to speak all the all the animals crowded through the door to watch the chase.” (Orwell, 35) The dogs have created fear in all of the animals. It helps Napoleon to consolidate his regime and his position of the leader in Animal Farm. The fear also prevents rebellion against Napoleon or any questioning of his authority. Another use of fear in the story is when Napoleon orders his fiery dogs to slaughter the four pigs that are challenging his authority. Then he continues to slaughter the animals, threes hens, a goose, three sheep and many others are slain. “Until there was a pile of corpses lying before Napoleon’s feet and the air was heavy with the smell of blood…” (Orwell, 57) This fills the rest of the animals with more fear and terror. Therefore, now everyone knows the punishment of disobedience will only lead them to death. By the same token, Squealer keeps using the phrase “surely none of you wishes to Jones back?”(Orwell, 46) is truly a decent use of fear to control the animals. No matter how they question Squealer about the Seven Commandment, they will just accept it when Squealer says the phrase. Consequently, fear is just for the pigs to prevent the uprising and to let things to follow their fancy.

In conclusion, there is no doubt that Animal Farm has illustrate the manipulation, and control by the power of language. The use of fear has been control by the power of language. It is use to bring the animals under Napoleon’s supremacy. The disparity of intelligence between pigs and the other has been shown repeatedly. It gives the ability to pigs to oppress and intimidate animals in the farm. In addition, the blindly faith has helped the pigs to find a seemingly justifiable reason to control them. The three techniques heavily influence the way animal farm was set up and the lives of the animals. The story also allows people to refer to them, because the animal characters are humanize, it becomes universal. Furthermore, it lets people to look at the various tyrannical and dictatorial societies.