The next thing that Napoleon did to achieve what he wanted was to take the nine newly born puppies from the two dogs Jessie and Bluebell. He did this so he could train them privately as his own personal guards. It is almost like the Tsar and his Okrana in the Russian Revolution. Later on in the novel Napoleon uses the dogs as well as Squealer to his advantage as he uses them as a threat to the other animals so they would agree to what ever he said.
When there used to be debates between Napoleon and Snowball, they always used to have arguments and Snowdall usually won:
“These two disagreed at every point where disagreement was possible”
After a while Napoleon started to realise that Snowball was a better debater then him and he got rather jealous of him and found him as a threat to his plans:
“At the meetings Snowball often won over the majority by his brilliant speeches, but Napoleon was better at canvassing support for himself in between times”
Snowball was also the brains behind all the ideas and good plans. Snowball thought of ways he could improve Animal Farm and he formed special committees for different animals and thought of many other good innovations and plans:
“Snowball…was full of plans for innovations and improvement.”
Napoleon found Snowballs speeches a threat to his plans so in the first meeting Napoleon got the sheep on his side. The sheep were useful as they did what Napoleon wanted them to, disrupt Snowballs speeches as they began chanting in the middle of the speech and did let Snowball carry on his speech:
“It was noticed that they were especially liable to break into ‘four legs good two legs bad’ at crucial moments in Snowballs speeches.”
One of the greatest ideas that Snowball had was to build the windmill. It was also greatly admired by the other animals except Napoleon:
“Only Napoleon held aloof. He declared himself against the windmill…then suddenly he lifted his leg, urinated over the plans and walked out without uttering a word”
Then Napoleon decides to get rid of Snowball. He does his by using the puppies he trained:
“Nine enormous dogs wearing brass-studded collars came bounding into the barn. They dashed straight for Snowball”
That was the last they saw of Snowball.
With Snowball gone from Animal Farm Napoleon could now get all the animals to do what he wanted. The firs thing he did was to abolish the Sunday meeting and he also formed a committee. Some animals were still baffled at the departure of Snowball but were too scared to say any thing because of the intimidating dogs but others were just to dumb to understand like Boxer:
“Even Boxer was vaguely troubled. He set his ears back, shook his forelock several times, and tried hard to marshal his thoughts; but in the end he could not think of anything to say”
Squealer had a very large in put in the way that Napoleon governed. Squealer was sly, greedy and crafty. He is also a great persuasive speaker and is very manipulative, it could be said that his description is his name. Squealer uses his intelligence to persuade the other animals on the farm into doing what Napoleon wants, even if they don’t really want to do it. He uses his craftiness and cunning to persuade the animals into thinking that he is on their side and he’s doing all he can to help them out, he was Napoleons minister of propaganda.
Squealer gives many speeches near the end of the novel. The first is the one about the mike and the apples. Squealer tells the animals that the pigs took the milk and apples not for themselves but for thee health:
“You do not imagine, I hope, that we pigs are doing this in a spirit of selfishness and privilege? … Our sole object in taking these things is to preserve our health”
This showed proof that Napoleon was using propaganda to get his way. He used the art of propaganda which was threat from the dogs giving menacing growls every time Squealer spoke and also user promise. This combination seemed to work very well together.
Another way Napoleon uses methods to make him look good is simply changing the rules and ideas to favor him. Squealer again is responsible for the wrongdoing.
After a long wait Napoleon decided that the plans for the windmill should go ahead. He also used Squealer here again as he told him to tell the animals that the idea for the windmill was his all along, in his speech Squealer told the animals
“Napoleon had never in reality been opposed to the windmill. On the contrary it was he who had advocated it in the beginning.”
A line that Squealer used a lot in his speech was:
“Surly there is no one among you who want to see Jones come back?”
When the windmill fell Squealer and Napoleon used a great tactic as he discriminated Snowball and blamed it all on him which lost total support for him from the animals:
“Comrades,’ he said quietly, ‘do you know who is responsible for this?...SNOWBALL! he suddenly roared.”
After Snowball had left all of the Seven Commandments of Animal Farm are eventually broken before the commandments were changed to prove the pigs did nothing wrong. Napoleon started trading with the other farmers. The first commandment broken was number four which stated that no animal should sleep in a bed. But the pigs stayed in the far house and also slept in the beds. To suit there conveniences the pigs changed it to:
“No animal shall sleep in a bed, with sheets.”
And Squealer explained to the animals that it was for the good and they agreed.
That next one was number six which was ‘no animal shall kill any other animal. Soon Napoleon started to kill some of the other animals and changed the commandment to:
“No animal shall kill any other animal, without cause”
Soon one by one the commandments were broken to suit the pigs which soon lead to the collapse of Animal Farm.
The collapse of Animal Farm had to do with Animalism itself, the animals, and the corruption of the pigs. At the beginning the animals are looking for freedom and equality and when they get it some of the animals take advantage and ruin it for the others. Everything the animals did to overcome humans, to gain equality was done for nothing. So it is true that too much power brings the worse in people and animals. Any amount of power also corrupts. Great or little power corrupts us in a way that is immoral. Overall Napoleon was a terrible leader as he did not have any leadership qualities as he was greedy and selfish, unlike Snowball how would have managed the farm a lot better and more fairly the Napoleon as Snowball was thinking like a leader and he was all ways trying to find ways of improving things. Where as Napoleon just wanted more and more power and due to Napoleons becoming the atrocious leader of Animal Farm it soon collapsed and Animal Farm was abolished, which meant that the pigs and humans got what they wanted.
