How does Napoelon use his power to control the animals?

After Snowball is chased out of the farm Napoleon, with Squealer as his right-hand “man”, assumes total control of the farm. To be able to control what the animals say and do Napoleon uses his intelligence and a number of techniques, these being the following: propaganda (relying mostly on lies) and intimidation.

Propaganda is the main aspect that allows him to control the animals, since it is because of this that most of them are on his side. Because the pigs have higher intelligence than the rest of the animals, it’s easy for him and Squealer to tell things that are not true, or completely true, and have them believe it. “He would be only too happy to let you make your decisions by yourselves. But sometimes you might make the wrong decisions, comrades, and there where should we be?” (p 40) Here Squealer tells the animals that the reason why Napoleon is making all the decisions now is because they can make the wrong ones. And because of his way of acting before and his higher intelligence the animals believe Napoleon can never be wrong, especially Boxer, who is an important figure in the farm.

When he finds animals that do not go along with what he thinks, he uses intimidation to get them to stay silent. “The four young pigs who had protested when Napoleon abolished the meetings raised their voices timidly, but they were promptly silenced by a tremendous growling from the dogs.” (p 47) Napoleon has the now grown up puppies who are only loyal to him always around to threaten any animal who dares speak up against him. The animals that are against him have no option but to live in fear because of this.

Napoleon intimidates and lies to the animals to be able to have them where he wants them to be, doing what he wants them to do.

Amazing Tactician Snowball brings Victory

By: Isamine Souma

A week ago in the place we all once knew as Manor Farm, but that is now called Animal Farm by its new owners, a battle in which two lives were lost was held. This battle, we found out after sneaking into the farm, has been baptized as “The Battle of the Cowshed” by the animals.

According to what we were told the old owner and a group of companions attacked the farm in an attempt to take it back, but thanks to Snowball’s, a pig’s, great ability to create tactics in a short time they were defeated. Sadly, the life of a brave sheep was lost, but it will be forever remembered.

Snowball directing the animals (representation of the battle)

“The only good human being is a dead one” said Snowball to us after we went to talk to him disguised as animals. Since it was probably our only opportunity to talk to him we decided to ask him all the questions we had in mind, the most important one being how he learned such good war tactics. “Reading and studying books left by the humans. As useless as they might be these days, their old literature does help out a lot.” He also told us he mainly read Julius Caesar’s books, to think we were once told that animals were not capable of intelligence makes me think a lot about what we don’t know about all of these creatures.

With this doubt in mind, we went to talk to animal expert Mr. Smith. We asked him what he thought about this development (animals having intelligence) “There must be some sort of radiation in that farm. I refuse to believe animals are capable of such thoughts” was what he told us. After this he seemed to doubt his own words and we were forced to leave.

We also talked to a military general, Mr. Free, to ask him what was it about the animals’ strategy that made it work so well. “They got the right timing for their movements, everyone did what they were supposed to be doing” He said that was the secret to a good strategy: teamwork. In this occasion, the animals were working as a team while the humans weren’t. “It’s only logical the animals won” was his final statement.

We also had a talk with Mr. Jones, but he refused to say much, maybe out of shame of having lost his farm and a battle to animals. We asked him about teamwork and he said, while looking sad, that it was something they were lacking “We just attacked without planning. If we tried again with a better strategy we might win” After this he didn’t say anymore and we were forced to leave the place he has to now call home.

Image from: http://randommusings2010.blogspot.com/2012/07/v-behaviorurldefaultvmlo.html

Animal Farm in 2013

Animal Farm is, quite obviously, an allegory of the Russian revolution. If one knows about the events of the Russian revolution, one can quickly associate them with the events that happen in the book. The animals rebelling represent the people of Russia, the people who lived in poverty and barely got enough to eat even with their hard work. The rebellion itself is the rebellion of the people, how they went against the Zar (Mr. Jones in the farm) and won. The pigs are the leaders of the rebellion, old Major being the one that implanted the idea on them (Karl Marx, maybe Lenin). At first, the new government seems perfect, but then there start being abuses that the people/animals don’t notice because of the power of propaganda, of fear: they don’t want Jones back/ they don’t want the Zar back. They’re all manipulated, and the leaders do as they please, get what they want. Then comes the battle, this is a parallel to the battles there were against the people who sympathized with the Zar and the people against him. Obviously, the side against him wins. With all this said, the book is truly a good allegory. You can see the things happen, can see the abuses.

Now, this doesn’t necessarily mean that it can only mirror events in the past, it can also mirror events happening in the present, if only because past actions tend to repeat themselves in slightly different scenarios. Let’s take Egypt’s current situation as an example: (article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-23744435) Their (now ex) president was deposed of his position by the military (because that was what people wanted), and they are currently being ruled by a military government which claims everyone is the same and have space in the country. But this is not true: the government kills the people that are against them, the people who want their old president back. One can easily relate this to the way of ruling the animals had, anyone who was against the regimen was frowned on and, after Napoleon’s ascension to absolute power, threatened by the government (the pigs). In both of them there are abusive governments that claim to be with the people, with everyone, claim that everyone is equal, has an equal place, even though those things are not true. They only accept people who believe in the same things as them, people who think the same as them, people who follow them.

In what ways does Major use rhetoric in his speech and what impact does that have on the animals?

Along his speech, Major uses rhetoric in many different ways. He uses these different rhetorical devices to be able to get his point across to the animals. But before I start making my points, I’ll explain what rhetoric is. Rhetoric is a way of using language in an effective ad persuasive way, rhetorical devices are persuasive language techniques. These techniques are really important because they help get points across to the listeners. Three of these that are important are rhetorical questions, tricolon and hyperbole.

Major uses rhetorical questions in various moments during his speech to make the animals think about the situation they live in, how they are made to work and gain nothing from it, how men take all the profit. “In return for your confinements and all your labour in the fields, what have you ever had except your bare rations and a stall?” _(p.5)  Here, Major makes them think about what they get in return after all their work, makes them think and realize it’s not what they deserve, they are barely given enough to live. The use of rhetoric devices here is to make them get to this realization. 

He also uses tricolon to highlight the state they live in, the various things that are wrong with it. “our lives are miserable, laborious and short” _(p.3) Here, he’s talking about the state their lives are in, how they don’t live happily, how they don’t live much. He uses tricolon to make his point more effectively, to make the animals see this faster, since three examples at once have more effect than only one. 

Hyperbole is a way of exaggerating statements to create strong impressions, Major uses it to express how much they have to do, how they are all abused. “forced to work to the last atom of our strength” _(p.4) What he says here is that they are abused, forced to work until they can’t do it anymore. This is also used to make the animals realize the state of the lives they live in.

To conclude, Major uses rhetorical devices in his speech to get the animals to think and come to the realization that mankind abuses them, makes them work for them while giving them nothing in exchange.