Old Major had arranged his speech in the evening because this is when people are more suggestible to persuasion. George Orwell makes Old Major speak after everyone as arrived and he also waits for silence to build up anticipation. Old Major begins his speech by clearing his throat and son he beings with the classical inclusive language by saying ‘ comrades, you have already…’ This proves that he is trying to involve the audience. Comrades are Old Major’s main word in the speech to attract the audience to him.
Before he starts the speech on his dream he does an intro on his and says he will die soon. He convinces the audience that they understand his concerns and that the animals and him share interests in common and one of the interests Orwell states is that ‘our lives are miserable, laborious and short.’ The point of this line is that Old Major is trying to tell the animals everyone dies and that it is nature. In addition he establishes his expertise or personal experience to convince his fellow creatures that the farm will be able to ‘support a dozen horses, twenty cows, hundreds of sheep.’ This is also an example of using the list of 3 on a rhetorical device.
Another well thought of persuasive technique is that Orwell makes Old Major use repetition when he says the seven commandments ‘No animal must ever live in a house, No animal must ever sleep in a bed, No animal must ever wear clothes, No animal must ever drink alcohol, No animal must ever smoke tobacco.’ Old major’s employs a lot of rhetorical questions that he answers afterward one of them was about a fellow animal called Clover here is the rhetorical question ‘where are those four foals you bore, who should have been support and pleasure of your old age?’ This make the animals think as well as listen.
Old Major has another persuasive technique and that is to use statistics to support his argument. One of his statistics is when he states the farm only ‘support a dozen horses, twenty cows, hundreds of sheep.’ He also makes sure his statements are short, clear, direct and punchy to the point. To my assumption he uses about eight words in his sentence to point the audience in the right direction.
Here is the evidence to support my assumption ‘Man is the only enemy we have.’ One of Old Major’s techniques is to identify a common, uncreated enemy and paint him in the worst light. Old Major picks ‘MAN’ has his enemy and the animal’s enemy. He paints man in the worst light by saying he is their answer to their problems and if we get rid of man animals can leave in peace. The main evidence Orwell gives is when he makes Old Major say ‘Man is the only creature that consumes without producing.’ This makes man the evil traitor to the animals and Old Major goes on about man and saying we should not follow him and he causes starvation to the animals.
Old Major keeps his argument uncomplicated and simple by employing a topic on thing and in this case it is man. He also uses emotive words to excite the audience by saying, ‘tyranny.’ In addition this will create feelings of anger, bitterness and injustice. The middle white boar has laid this speech out and gives his fellow comrades alternatives like ‘such as rats and rabbits-are they our friends or our enemies let us put it to the vote.’ See statement gives the animals chooses and makes them more enrolled into the speech. In addition it makes the creatures feel each part of something bigger than being an individual.
The attainable and definite goal that Old Major gives his fellow comrades is to rebel against man and take over the farm. The goal set was to have a rebellion. And follow the seven commandments. Old Major makes each individual feel a sense of belonging to a movement or organisation or group and he does this by stating names. E.g. ‘Boxer, the very day that those great muscles of yours lose their power, Jones will sell you to a knacker.’ This makes Boxer feel that he is a part of the group. Old Major had a slogan, which every animal followed and that was ‘two legs bad, four legs good’ and ‘all animals are equal.’
Additionally Old Major concocts a music that is catchy to the animals and it was called ‘Beasts of England.’ The animals sang this. The middle white boar didn’t evolve any great names of history or god, but only stated that his mother helped his in his life. So this is saying his mother is an important idol. To wrap up his persuasive speech Old Major set a goal for the animals and that was to start the ‘Rebellion’ and I believe this also could be used as a personal address to his comrades.
The speech finishes when the animals sing the song ‘Beasts of England.’ And with the racket Mr Jones shoots his gun into the and with the panic all the animals go to sleep. After a few months Old Major dies. Old Major had employed about 25 points on the art of persuasion in public speaking and he also put a point across. So now you see how people and Old Major use such clever techniques to persuade the audience to follow. Lastly Orwell made Old Major have analytical powers and influential abilities.
