In the book, Napoleon is superior to all other animals on the farm, for example he is called leader while everyone else was referred to as a "comrade", this is shown when in the book it says “our leader, Comrade Napoleon.” Not only was Napoleon treated differently but all the pigs were given higher authority then the rest of the animals. An inequality between the pigs and rest of the farm was that the pigs lived in the farmhouse while the other animals had to sleep in barns.
After the final commandment was put in to place, the pigs started to act more and more like humans. The next day the pigs who were supervising the work of the farm all carried whips in their trotters. No animal protested this, but this was however what Jones used to do when Animal Farm was Manor Farm. The whips that Jones had were destroyed but yet years later Old Major’s dream of the Rebellion was ruined and the pigs began acting like the Humans did, treating the other animals badly.
A pig, Squealer was in charge of propaganda, and he would often change the commandments of the farm so that they would fit the actions of Napoleon or the "upper class" of the farm, which was supposedly classless. For example, at one time a commandment read, "No animal shall drink alcohol" but soon after Napoleon drank an abundance and almost died the commandment was changed to "No animal shall drink to excess." which made it seem as though Napoleon was within the rules.
Another instance where Napoleon showed leadership was when everyone on the farm who had showed support at one time for Snowball, the exiled former leader, was executed on the spot. This act was a resemblance of The Great Purge in Russia where all opposition was killed off. The governing system of Animal Farm was corrupt, but it did not stop the propaganda and executions.
At first on the Animal Farm, it was promised to the majority of the animals who were neither Napoleon or a pig, or the so-called "working class", that "from each according to his ability to each according to his needs", no more, no less. In other words, if all the animals worked to their capabilities they would get the work back in rations. This system worked for a while, but stopped when Napoleon took over, and the system was manipulated. Napoleon and his fellow pigs gave the animals unfair hours of labour and unfair rations for their work, which corrupted the system.
Napoleon attempted to keep the animals together by inspiring them with slogans, "Napoleon is always right." and "I will work harder." Boxer particularly took to these. This seemed to work because no animal would refuse to do his or her job because of the fear of his or her food supply being cut as a penalty. As an example, Napoleon announced that all animals would have to work voluntary Sunday afternoons, but any animal that didn’t do it would have his ration reduced by half. Napoleon gave the animals long, many hour days so that the farm could move toward industrialization with the building of a windmill, much like The Five Year Plan of Russia. This act was made comical because much like in Russia the plan kept on failing, but the government proceeded in actions anyway. The so-called "working class" of the Animal Farm, which at first had a bright future, was turned into more of a "slave class".
We are told in the book “Somehow it seemed as though the farm had grown richer without making the animals themselves any richer – except, of course, for the pigs and the dogs.” The statement is showing us that the pigs had much more authority meaning they got more food than the other animals showing that the farm had a hierarchy and was not level. We are also told that the dogs got richer as well this was probably because they were Napoleon’s dogs and he had probably brought them up to perceive Napoleon to always be right.
There are two main lessons that the book illustrates. The first one is that there will never be a government where all people are exactly equal. In the book the animals have a government set up and one of the commandments the animals have reads, “All Animals are Equal” By the end of the of the book after the pigs had taken over the farm the commandment was changed to “All Animals are Equal, but some are more equal then others” So in the course of time all there will always be some that end up being or acting like they are better then the rest, making it seem like some are more equal. Another lesson that can be learned from this book is that if power is abused then all will be lost. In Animal Farm Napoleon had all the power when he got rid of Snowball. The power went to Napoleon’s head and he started to make a lot of bad choices. He changed all the commandments so he could do the same things to the animals as the humans used to do. So what happened to the farmer ended up happening to Napoleon and the rest of the pigs.