Propaganda In Animal Farm

George Orwell had written his novel “Animal Farm” in order to warn his readers for numerous reasons. In many parts of the novel, George Orwell clearly portrayed how ignorance was a very big part as to why the animals were so easily controlled. This in theory, lead to the conflicted problems the animals had about equality. In particularly, equality was the key idea of the relation between the Russian Revolution and Animal Farm. Accordingly, George Orwell had expressed thoroughly how power can almost certainly be corruptive. Most importantly, it showed the definite danger of a naïve working class.
One of main ideas one can learn from George Orwell is that the readers can be taught that they should be self-aware and not be ignorant as it presumably
can be taken advantage of, frequently. Forthrightly, the animals allowed themselves to be used and treated in this way. In other words, ignorance can be easily fixed and frustratingly enough, they did almost nothing to fix this. Consequently, the animals were easily deceived and manipulated. For example, Boxer, who represented the loyal and working class of the attempt communism in the Soviet Union, had undeniably been taken advantage of. Because of having the inability or unwillingness to question the authority and puzzling out the implications of numerous possible actions to avoid the result that had occurred, Boxer preferred to draw a blind eye and repeated the words “Napoleon is always right” (Chapter V). In addition, the pigs had the upper hand and could therefore control him, and the other animals smoothly without any problem whatsoever. This is also the moral of why George Orwell wrote Animal Farm as a fable. Animal Farm demonstrates how by being naïve and ignorant can be used against and in turn suffer to the full extent of being taken advantage on.
The common animals of Animal Farm had fought for equality, but easier said than done, it was proved that the outcome was not what they had in mind.
At the beginning of the novel when Old Major (based on both Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin) had given his remarkable speech that had influenced the other animals to start “animalism,” he had had created many of the Seven Commandments. George Orwell had used this chance to show the role of propaganda and how it could easily manipulate people. Coincidently, Squealer had the position of propaganda and thus George Orwell represents this through Squealer’s manipulation of the seven commandments. Two of which were very significant throughout the novel. The phrase, “Four legs good, two legs bad” (Chapter III) explained the clear line between humans and animals despite the fact that not all animals use four legs. George Orwell had used this commandment to demonstrate how the upper-class abuses language to control the lower-class. It was observed that this certain instruction was in fact effective at first but soon developed into nothing more than a simple opinion as by the end of the novel, the phrase had changed to “Four legs good, two legs better” (Chapter X). Namely, this phrase displayed the overall bias prospective of the animals. Similarly, another commandment “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others” (Chapter X), demonstrated the obvious unfairness of the pigs and the other animals. This was the consequence of the animal’s ignorance as they did not take in the thought that the original commandment, “All animals are equal” (Chapter 7) was altered. Conversely, it also points to the specific form of corruption on Animal Farm. All in all, considering Animal farm as an allegory, the novel demonstrated that this form of inequality was also evident during the Russian Revolution as a consequence of having Joseph Stalin (Napoleon) and Leon Trotsky (Snowball) as the
leaders.
George Orwell had clearly shown that power certainly corrupts throughout the novel. Unquestionably, the pigs were given absolute power and in return wrecked the ultimate plan of animalism the animals, including Old Major, originally strived. Although, the leadership did have a positive effect at first, having driven the men away and all of the animals were working together for the common good. The pigs started to exploit and abuse the position of authority they had over the other animals, where a rivalry was formed. Ironically enough, the pigs continued on and on, and soon enough they were beginning to resemble the behavior of the men the animals had driven away. This suggested that George Orwell did in fact warn the readers that power can without a doubt be corruptive. As George Orwell wrote Animal Farm as a political satire and as a third prospective, the warning was expressed very straightforwardly in contrast to what the actual animals were thinking. Apart from that, the pigs’ manipulation of the other animals symbolised the windmill. This is because while the animals worked a tremendous amount on the windmill despite the fact for the need of their own food and comfort, the pigs were the only ones who had gained in that entire period. They were the ones that were not participating and earned the money and therefore, their power, in particularly Napoleon, expanded like nothing other. To put it in an allegorical point of view, as Russia was behind in the Industrial Revolution, the huge projects that were undertaken in Soviet Russia was what the windmill represented. Another example of the amount of power Napoleon had was when he had sold his most loyal companion for alcohol. This was quite a dilemma because before being carted off, Boxer served as the force that held Animal Farm together, and with Boxer’s absence, it represented that Animal Farm was no longer “equal,” and that Napoleon held complete authority.
Overall, out of the number of reasons why George Orwell had written Animal Farm, it is believed that the novel can be viewed as a warning for numerous reasons. Clear as a bell, the novel demonstrated that if one is ignorant it can undeniably be taken advantage of and be used against. It was also demonstrated that the idea of equality is most definitely harder to achieve than it is to dream of and that it was certainly unsuccessful throughout Animal Farm as the leaders were not clear-minded from the result of power. This is because George Orwell effectively proved that a great deal of power can truly be dreadfully corruptive. In conclusion, George Orwell wrote Animal Farm as a warning.
Bibliography:
Sparknotes.com – Animal Farm