Napoleon also showed his corruptness by going against the commandment that “all animals are equal” and one of the reasons for the men’s rebelling that they’re eggs were being sold to the outside world for the money for supplies that only the pigs would have the benefit of. Napoleon and his rival pig Snowball had fallen out over plans to build a windmill which was to supply the farm with electricity. Napoleon was jealous of how smart Snowball was and the respect the other animals had for him. So Napoleon had his trained guard dogs attack and chase Snowball off the farm.
Throughout the whole story Napoleon and the other pigs showed corruption and arrogance by automatically assuming because they were smarter=r and more intelligent that they should be in charge even thought he seventh commandment stated “all animals are equal” also written by the pigs.
The theme of corruption revolves around the one commandment that “all animals are equal” and yet the pigs seem to forget this on many occasions especially in the last chapter when the pigs become so corrupt that they had taken on all of Jones’s flaws and bad habits. So much so that the pigs walked on two legs, talked to and had a feast with humans. This was the first commandment and the most important yet, they saw no need for them to obey or take any notice of it. The first commandment of animalism was “whatever goes on two legs is an enemy.” This is ironic as it is the pigs that are now the enemy of the farm animals and are behaving in a cruel and wicked way towards the other animals.
In the novel it wasn’t just the pigs that were corrupt; Moses the raven lived on the farm but never helped with the upkeep of the farm. Mollie thought she was better than the others but every time there was a job needed to be done, or danger lurked nearby, she was off, “Mollie was nowhere to be seen at the battle of the cowshed.” Yet to hear her tell it she was the hero.
In this novel there is a strong sense of irony because the animals carry on with their everyday lives much as had happened in Jones’s day.
Corruption in this text comes down to the fact that because the pigs thought they were smarter they deserved extra power and respect. Communism in Russia ended up exactly the same supposedly everyone was equal but civilians were not equal. Slowly everyone started to realise that anyone with brains, authority or money was always going to do better than them. This is why the idea of communism never works nor did animalism.
The corruption by those in power is still going on in the world today especially in middle-eastern countries such a s Afghanistan where there are very rich in power and the very poor who are left to die of hunger.
Napoleon was so corrupt he started to change his own rules or add bits on to suit his changing lifestyle such as the addition off “in excess” to “no animal shall drink alcohol” and to “no animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets.”
The whole idea of corruption stemmed from greed in Napoleon’s case. He thought he was better than any of the other animals on the farm so he thought he had to have the most, or best amount of the good things in life such as food, water, warmth and respect.
The dogs in the novel were the most corrupt because of the executions the dogs carried out on the other “guilty” animals as they were seen with the pigs that were especially in alliance with Snowball “the dogs promptly tore their throats out.”
Therefore we can conclude that power is very dangerous and will almost always lead to corruption which will inevitably lead to a rebellion and the cycle of corruption will continue.
