Also, when the animals question them, the pigs change the commandments in their favor. Then when the farm doesn’t remember that particular commandments as they are, they are blamed for their “faulty memories.” On page 80 Napoleon is questioned, and Squealer steps in to state that there weren’t problems, and that what the pigs were doing is okay. “You did not suppose, surely, that there was a rule against beds? ... A pile of straw in a stall is a bed, properly regarded. The rule was against sheets, which are a human invention.” The pigs have clearly changed the commandments, for their comfort in this situation, and now have more peaceful resting areas because they could certainly not be “too tired to carry out their duties.” The pigs do use other tactics to get what they want; though changing rules was the most common.
This transformation from dictatorship to ‘Animalism’ was then a full circle transformation back to a dictatorship, but with a different leading party. Orwell even chose the pigs to play the leaders in his satire, because they represented the piggish characteristics shown by the leaders of the Russian Revolution: Stalin, Trotsky, and Lenin. Pigs, being omnivores eat anything and everything that is thrown to them, even their young if it gets in the way. As did Napoleon
By using the idea that it is for everyone’s good that the pigs eat the milk and apples, they are able to convince the other animals that they are not taking advantage of them like they had originally thought. In the same context, Squealer also frightens the animals by saying “Do you know what would happen if we pigs failed in our duty? Jones would come back!” (pg. 43) By using this propaganda technique, Squealer appeals to everyone’s fears and immediately all doubts of the Ha-2 pigs being selfish were cast out of the other animals’ minds as they are made to think the pigs are only doing what is best for the farm. When Snowball is expelled from the farm, this is another example of the propaganda being used to the pigs’ advantage.
There is some immediate conflict between two pigs, Napoleon and Snowball. For a while they work together to help liberate the farm, but soon napoleon starts behaving rather oddly doing things like: drinking the milk which the animals had gathered and stealing away bluebell and Jessie’s puppies for himself. He manages to turn all of the other animals on snowball and takes control of the farm himself. He ‘alters’ the seven commandments and by the end you cannot tell the difference between the humans and the animals. The entire book is an allegory for the Russian revolution; he uses small metaphors to symbolize some of the things which happened during the Russian revolution.
Based on his actions, speech, and what others comments about him, one can conclude Squealer’s attributes include manipulation, the skill of being a brilliant talker, and overall a propagandist. As one can see, Animal Farm exposes the truth about the Russian Revolution and mirrors a modern dystopia in which Squealer plays an important position. To begin, one of Squealer’s main attributes is manipulation and slyness. First, when no one is looking, he alters the commandments. Squealer changes the commandment from “No animal shall sleep in beds” to “No animal shall sleep in beds with sheets.” This action shows how sly and furtive he was by doing it.
The rebellion itself is led by two pigs, Napoleon and Snowball who are inspired by Old Major, the old pig. However, because Napoleon does not like Snowball, he makes a plan to put Snowball away from the farm. According to Orwell, this story has a reflection of Russian Revolution of 1917. Some of the characters in the story are believed to be a representatives of certain famous or infamous people. Moreover, this story has been adapted to be a movie.
*Tuesday 29th* September 2009 *What impression do we get from Napoleon in chapter five*? In Orwell’s allegorical novella Animal _Farm _that character Napoleon is portrayed as envious, secretive and power hungry towards the other animals in the farm; particularly Snowball where there is a battle for power. His character is greatly explored through the techniques and language that Orwell uses. This novel relates to the Russian revolution and shows how greed and ignorance can destroy the lives of innocent bystanders. Orwell has written in an intriguing and captivating style that makes the reader want to continue deeper into enlightening fairytale of the Russian Revolution.
Through the use of obfuscation Squealer manipulates the “dumber” class of animals on the farm to believe that even though they cannot see the pigs working they are the ones that are making sure the farm is functioning. This is portrayed in “Squealer told them that the pigs had to expend enormous labours every day upon mysterious things called ‘files’, ‘reports’, ‘minutes’ and ‘memoranda’.” By using these words Squealer is confusing the animals because they do not understand the meaning of them and they just accept it. However, those were used to confuse the animals when Squealer is actually directly lying to them. Symbolism between the Russian Revolution and the revolution on Animal Farm is very closely related. In the extract it describes how the farm has gotten richer but the animals still live their hungry troubling lives.
The animals describe Mr Jones and the humans as ‘parasitical’, which suggests he uses the animals to his convenience and not to any benefit to the animals, and that though he had power, Mr Jones relied on the animals to keep him in business. This idea of the leader being a ‘parasite’ reflects the fact that the only reason Nicholas was Tsar, was the country he was ruling keeping him in power. The power of Mr Jones and Tsar Nicholas is almost superficial, and they did not really have any control over their land; eventually the animals take charge of Manor Farm as did the Bolsheviks murdered the entire Russian monarchy. Orwell presents power of Mr Jones to be corrupted and abused, and what is interesting is that it is not earned; it just is so that Mr Jones controls the farm. In Animal
Since the pigs were the ‘brainworkers’, they start to gain more and more power subsequently through leadership which then corrupts them. Firstly, one of the messages George Orwell expresses is that absolute power builds to corruption. Orwell’s point is that power tends to corrupt but absolute power, where all power is given to you, corrupts completely. But when all the power is given to you, you will always want more which builds to corruption and this is demonstrated throughout the Animal Farm. One of the quotes said, “You do not imagine, I hope that we pigs are doing this in a spirit of selfishness and privilege?