Snowball doesn’t see him as a threat until it is too late due to clever organisation and planning. However, although he is more like the other animals than Napoleon, Snowball is by no means the same as them. ‘No sentimentality, comrade! … War is war. The only good human being is a dead one.’ Snowball is a ruthless leader who is committed to the revolution, so committed in fact that he indicates he’d be willing to die for Animal Farm.
This applies to the book, because a certain character takes initiative and had much of the power, and took control of the farm. A character in the novel that stands out, and had great power is a pig named Napoleon. Napoleon emerges as the leader of Animal Farm after the Rebellion. Napoleon uses military force (his nine loyal attack dogs) to intimidate the other animals and consolidate his power. In his supreme craftiness, Napoleon proves more treacherous than his counterpart, Snowball.
Although Snowball and Napoleon are similar, they are also quite different, and, in fact, because of that deference, Snowball posses the characteristics of a better leader. Both Napoleon and Snowball are very intelligent. One night while the animals are sleeping, they hear a loud bang. When they go to investigate, they find that “squealer, temporarily stunned, was sprawling beside […] a lantern, a pain-brush, and an overturned pot of white paint” (Orwell 112). This shows that Napoleon is smart because he manipulates the other animals, as seen through Squealer when he changes the commandments.
This results in dictatorships, with leaders like Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler. They (and others) get ideas in their heads how things should be, and their self-motivation and their own ideas are where they draw their inspiration from when they make decisions. In the novella Animal Farm, Napoleon starts out small, being on the opposing side of all arguments, staying behind and fulfilling his own desires, for example when he drinks the milk that was for all the animals. He takes advantage of all the animals. He gets bigger ideas about how things should be, and eventually goes against all the principles that the animals had all agreed upon at the beginning of the rebellion.
Squealer enjoys manipulating the animals, making them follow his every word. He likes his arguments and "was never tired of explaining that" there is "endless work in the supervision and organization of the farm"(129). The animals will listen, so Squealer speaks for both Napoleon and himself. The animals mindlessly follow. Even if he says every instruction multiple times the animals listen.
“They dashed straight for snowball, who only sprang from his place just in time to escape their snapping jaws” This shows that even before the windmill had come into play napoleon had reared these puppies to be aggressive dogs and to get rid of snowball. Next the pigs begin to abuse there power and break the commandments. This starts to happen as soon as napoleon takes place as leader of Animal Farm. “Whatever goes upon two legs an enemy” This is
The author describes Snowball as “a more vivacious pig” that is “quicker in speech and more inventive” than Napoleon, meaning that Snowball has great speaking skills that help him win the attention and loyalty to his fellow animals and exhibits innovative ideas that may help the farm both economically and socially (Orwell 12). Although Snowball has certain flaws such as allowing the creation of a greatly divided social hierarchy, he attempts to create animal rebellions throughout the countryside in other farms and better living conditions for the animals. However, these qualities fail Snowball and allow Napoleon to take complete control of the farm. When Snowball proposes the idea to create a windmill for electric power to the farm, his speech “conjured up images” in the animals “of fantastic machines which would do their work as they grazed in their fields,” and his words brought “astonishment,” hope, and motivation to work to achieve a dream (35). Snowball tries to use peaceful ways to run the farm, but Napoleon’s brutal, relentless rule proves to prevail after Napoleon commands his secret dog police to chase
The animals, seeing the fall of their hero, fought harder than ever, from sadness and the desire for revenge. “Long Live Animal Farm!” Snowball pounced on Mr. Jones, knocking his rifle out of his hand with ease. Meanwhile, the cowardly Napoleon tried to sneak away from the chaos within the cowshed, only stopped by a rugged man, who spat, “you’re not goin’ anywhere!” Napoleon took to his heels and fled, with the man close behind, brandishing his long stick. The human invaders were desperate. The animals fought with renewed courage and determination due to Boxer’s death, but their stamina was giving way.
In the novel, Mr. Jones is very similar to Czar Nicholas II. Mr. Jones was irresponsible to his animals (let them starve), was sometimes very cruel by whipping them and then sometimes was kind by mixing milk into the animal mash. Czar Nicholas II was a poor leader even at best, compared with other western kings, he was cruel with his opponents, and was sometimes kind because he would hire students as spies to make money. Old Major would be compared to
Snowball’s control of Animal Farm is seen as decent, whereas Napoleon’s is corrupt. Snowball actually contributed as a political head with ideas to improve Animal Farm. He “buried himself with organising the other animals into what he called Animal Committees. He was indefatigable at this.” –pg 19. Snowball devoted time and effort for the success of the other animals.