Animal Farm Squealer
Squealer, a pig, plays a very important role in “Animal Farm.” Squealer is the most powerful weapon which Napoleon possesses to control the other animals in the farm. He is the parallel of a propaganda chief in dictatorships like Soviet Russia where propaganda was needed in order to keep the people under control and make the believe in the dictator and whatever he does or may be planning to do.
Squealer takes advantage of the other animal’s ignorance and exploits it to an unimaginable level. He has excellent talking skills and was believed to be able to turn black into white, and indeed he did.
In the early days after the revolution he used to manipulate the animals into thinking that if they should not listen to the pigs, somehow Jones would return. When the pigs wanted to have the milk and apples he convinced the animals that the pigs needed them because they were “brain-workers” and it was “proved by science” that it made them think better. He claimed that this was for “their own sake” as the pigs “were watching over their welfare.” And finally the question “surely there is no one among you who wants to see Jones come back?” assured them. In other cases he used graphic descriptions to make the animals believe something. For example when the animals thought that Boxer sold and sent to his death, he explained that the clinic had just bought the knacker’s van and had not painted out the writing. He then described Boxer at his death bed and made up Boxer’s last words, and so the animals were assured.