Absolute power corrupts in Animal farm

750 Words3 Pages
In his self-proclaimed fairy story, Animal Farm, George Orwell has clearly shown that absolute power corrupts absolutely. In order to get this theme across, he has used fable to replace human beings with animals and show the process of power corrupting, allegory to draw parallel between Animal Farm and the Russian Revolution and satire to expose the corruption of the leaders. In order to demonstrate that absolute power corrupts absolutely without being defensive to anyone, Orwell has created Animal Farm as a fable, where all animals think, talk and fight like human beings. He has effectively used Napoleon, the leader of Animal Farm as an example, to show the process of power corrupting. Although Napoleon seems to be a good leader at first, he becomes very corrupted when he has gained absolute power, that is, when he has exiled Snowball from Animal Farm. He starts to sleep in bed, drink alcohol, wear clothes, engage in trade, smoke and use Moses the raven to opiate the animals. In the end, he has adopted all the manners of Mr. Jones and become what he has hated before. He is totally corrupted. By describing these changes using fable, Orwell has clearly shown the corrupting nature of power. Some people have questioned the believability of Orwell’s warning because the outcome of the story is fixed since the nature of animals cannot change. However, George Orwell has evidently shown that it is true by drawing parallels from Animal Farm to the Russian Revolution through his use of allegory. It becomes crystal clear that Animal Farm symbolizes the Russian Revolution when Old Major gave the speech in the cowshed. Whereas Old Major has said, “Only get rid of Man, and the produce of our labour would be our own” (1945: 5), Karl Marx had encouraged workers to educate themselves and struggle so that they could control the means of production for their own benefit. Another
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