“Not much of a talker, but with a reputation for getting his own way”
But he describes Snowball, the noble character as:
“ Snowball was a more vivacious pig that Napoleon, quicker is speech and more inventive.”
Orwell uses Snowball and Napoleon so that he can show that revolutions leaders used more tactics than other possible candidates that were more resourceful, sensitive and intelligent. An example of the hatred of Napoleon on Snowball is when Napoleon urinated on Snowball’s blueprints of the construction of the windmill. Napoleon did this because of pure jealousy. He knew it was a good idea but he tried to destroy the idea.
Napoleon was used to represent Stalin. His character focuses his mind on other dictators such as Hitler and Mussolini. Orwell uses the name ‘Napoleon’ because Napoleon was a dictator himself.
Napoleon is the only character that changes slightly in the story. He becomes more and more corrupt and he orders Squealer his partner, to change the 7 commandments. He told Squealer to change the commandments because Napoleon and the other pigs were breaking the commandments one by one.
Squealer’s name is significant to his character because he was Napoleon’s messenger. He gave all the messages to the other animals fro Napoleon. Squealer uses propaganda because whatever the animals say he uses an excuse. He also used the sheep to start chanting so the animals couldn’t talk.
“Napoleon is always right”
Squealer uses this because he doesn’t want the animals to argue with him or Napoleon’s decisions.
Boxer is an enormously strong horse, which the survival of the farm depends on. He is exploited first by Mr. Jones then by his own kind, the pigs. He worked harder for the pigs than he did for Mr. Jones, but he didn’t get any rewards. Boxer represents the ordinary, decent worker; it could be argued that his character is essential to any social system. Boxer’s favourite phrase were:
“ I will work harder” and
“ Napoleon is always right”
Boxer has always believed in Napoleon because he wasn’t educated enough to understand Napoleon was just inflicting cruelty on the animals. Boxer was so devoted to Animal Farm he never understood the whole system was corrupting. He worked to hard it drove him into his death.
The language used by the narrator is not complex it is easy to understand. Orwell makes it easy to read because it is aimed to be like a fairy storybook. Orwell tries to make it into a fairy story because they are childish images there is also anthropomorphism. It is not entirely a fairy story because all fairy stories have happy endings but with Animal Farm there is not a definite ending because the pigs are happy but the other animals are sad. The animals are sad because they are homeless.
The seven commandments that were written on the wall were strange because they were the same as the Christian 10 commandments but the opposite in the way they were written. Old Major left these commandments for all the animals to follow. These rules were left to the animals to better their lives but it just made it worse due to the pigs.
The commandments are similar because they are addressing different creatures of mankind. There are a few commandments that are similar like in the animals 7 commandments “ Do not kill any other animal” this is the same but opposite to the humans. This shows how similar the two different creatures of mankind are.
The pigs change the commandments because they realise that they were breaking the rules and they knew that the other animals weren’t educated enough to pick the changes in the commandments. The pigs changed the commandments so it was not to obvious like;
“ No animal should sleep in a bed” and this was changed to;
“ No animal should sleep in a bed with sheets”
This shows the pigs manipulated the animal’s minds and they changed the commandments to suit themselves.
Boxer is the main and unfortunate animals that can’t be educated because he can’t cope with the information that is going thought his brain. In the story Snowball tries teaching him the alphabet but Boxer only got beyond the letter D.
“ Boxer couldn’t get beyond the letter D”
The pigs took advantage of Boxers uneducated mind because when Boxer got injured in the fields the pigs told him that him will be taken to a hospital to get treatment, but it was another scheme of Napoleons so he could get money to buy some whisky. If Boxer could read he could have seen the sign o the van and he could of escaped.
Napoleon came more and more of a dictator because he knew the other animals didn’t have a clue about what was happening in the farm (Present and past).
Napoleon didn’t teach the animals after he scared Snowball away; Snowball was the person that tried to teach the animals. Napoleon only taught his dogs to enforce treats to the other animals and he used the sheep’s to chant on command. The dogs remind the animals that if anyone steps out of line Napoleon will use fear/ terror to rule.
Napoleon destroys Old Major’s ideas one by one because he knows that humans use good objects for their everyday life and so Napoleon uses the human’s resources to rule the farm. Squealer is told to change the commandments literally so that the other animals don’t suspect anything.
“Muriel read the commandments for her; it ran; “ No animal shall kill another animal without cause”
The animals found the last two words confusing but they just ignored it and carried on working. Napoleon makes fun out of Old Majors ideas of animalism and Napoleon and his allies had betrayed animal revolution.
The pigs were wrong to take over the farm and destroy Old Major’s dreams off making all animals have equal rights and equal respect. Snowball was ominous about Napoleons ideas to take over the farm, but when Napoleon sent his dogs after Snowball, Snowball was shocked and he ran and was never seen in Animal Farm again.
Our society should always try to follow the rules and the Christian 10 commandments. If we take advantage then our world will be like Animal Farm and it will be a world of democracy and totalitarianism. The pigs destroyed the animal’s lives because the animals left Animal Farm and pig were left at Animal Farm as a personality of a human.
I think this story shows us that when you get the power to do what you want you get excited and you loose control and you hurt other and you cant see you are hurting them. This is what happened to Napoleon, Napoleon tired to shutout the way humans daily life involved but he wanted it, but he didn’t discuss the issue with the other animals.
I didn’t particularly like this story because it is a childish book and it doesn’t get me interested in the book. I did learn that everyone should get heard and everyone should be treated equally.
My favourite part in the story is when there was the Battle Of Cowshed. Where it involved the humans and the animals. I liked this part because the humans thought they had defeated the animals but the animals out smartened them because Snowball planned this so the humans would be off guard and then he launched the attack, which involved all the big animals. This shows you don’t need weapons to defeat your opponent you need the brains.
The saddest part in the story is when Napoleon said to Boxer that he would be sent to a hospital but it was a lie. This really showed Napoleons character because he would sacrifice an animal so that he can do some business with Mr. Pilkington to buy some whisky.
The novel teaches us that the animals don’t have a choice; they don’t get treated fairly because Napoleon and Squealer uses propaganda. I think everyone should get their say no matter if they are rich or poor, social class shouldn’t matter. The pigs seize power by using totalitarian regime.
I think we should live in a democracy because it is the way humans are living at the moment and everything is going good. People can have their say and people will get heard. By changing the way we live to a totalitarian regime could effect everyone and this could make the world corrupt.