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" 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 and his Totalitarian government took over, and the system was manipulated. As the pigs Napoleon become corrupted by power. 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 intact by inspiring them with slogans, "Napoleon is always right." and "I will work harder."(P.40) This seemed to work because no animal would refuse to do his or her job because of the fear of their food supply being cut as a penalty.
Due to the leadership undertaken in order to run the farm the pigs were given full responsibility as they were the most intelligent animals in the group, so they took control of the planning and government of the farm.
The simple animals (not the pigs) continued to believe that all the on the farm shared the freedom, equality and justice, due to the manipulative nature of the dominant pigs. Little by little the napoleon and his pigs began to change the some of the rules to suit what they want.
The pigs soon began having the better of food and privileges, which the other animals didn’t have. Some of the animals would disagree with the abuse of the power, these animals were then wither slaughtered or lied to in means of the changes in the rules/commandments.
"Animal Farm" successfully presents how the means of propaganda and brainwashing works in authoritarian system, by showing how the pigs could make the other animals believe practically anything.
Responsible for the propaganda was Squealer, a pig that "could turn black into white". Squealer managed to change the rule from "all animals are equal" to" all animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others". He convince the other animals that it was for their sake that the pigs ate most of the apples and drank most of the milk, that leadership was "heavy responsibility" and therefore the animals should be thankful to Napoleon, that what they saw may have been something they "dreamed", and when everything else failed he would use the threat of " Jones returning" to silence the animals.
In this simple but effective way, Orwell presents the tragedy and confusion of thought control to the extent that one seems better off simply believing that" Napoleon is always right". Through the changes of equal rights it shows that there is a definite class system that has been established, but the truth is hidden from the lower class by saying that everyone is equal.
My opinion of the pigs was that they became so tied up in abusing power for their own self-good that they began to forget really why they were rebelling. It is simple to see their representation in the Russian to the demanding and selfish government leader of the time.
Napoleon and the pigs were taking advantage of the agreement whilst disadvantaging the animals that were easily experiencing injustice and inequality.
