Propaganda in Animal Farm

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Mikha Roos 12-4 Propaganda – Animal Farm Propaganda involves spreading biased and often misleading information to promote a point of view. This will persuade people to think in a certain manner and accept specific beliefs. My chose speech is Squealer’s Speech from George Orwell’s novel “Animal Farm”. In this novel, propaganda is used to trick and deceive, and after a while becomes nothing more than a twisted mass of lies designed to hide reality from the masses. It is used to bewilder and confuse the masses with aim to stop them from thinking for themselves. In the novel, Squealer is in charge of all Propaganda involving Napoleon (the corrupt leader’s) campaign. He is an excellent candidate for this position as he has magnificent language skills which he uses to persuade everyone that everything is for the best. In his short speech he uses six techniques to support and highlight the propaganda in process they are, selection of facts, lying, repetition, pinpointing the enemy, assertion of goals and rhetorical questions.4 The first technique, selection of facts, refers to a propagandist selecting only certain facts amongst a complex group of them to support his argument. This can clearly be seen when Squealer talks about apples and milk being necessary substances to the well-being of pigs and that the management of the farm depend on the pigs. This is only partially true as every member of the farm play a role in upholding it, not just the management and also, the apples are not the only food that may ‘benefit’ the pigs’ well-being. But selecting only certain faces re-establishes faith in the leaders that may have been lost. This also leads to the second technique which is downright lying like when Squealer states so boldly that it is for the other animals’ sake that the pigs eat all the apples and drink all the milk. This reminds us of the greatest

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