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Introduction

Power Corrupts Therefore Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely By: Vraj Barot 8.01 George Orwell?s satirical fable Animal Farm perfectly puts these famous words first quoted by Lord Acton in a letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton in 1887, into a real life scenario. In actual fact Acton stated in his letter: ?Power tends to corrupt, and absolutely power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.? No doubt that when Lord Acton wrote this letter, he was referring to an event that had occurred during his time as he, like Orwell, is a social commentator and was most probably reflecting on a leader that had let power get to his head. This phrase however, based on a particular event as it is, has gone on and become a timeless and ever resurfacing trait of man. Acton?s Comment is quite vague however it goes into the very heart of the dynamics of political power and its chance of corrupting. George Orwell in his novella Animal Farm warns of this trait of man and tries to teach that man is weak and those in the position of power will give in to corruption if give the chance to. ...read more.

Middle

Another example of this is when, just before and directly after the revolution the color patterns change once again. This time the farm is shown as a bright and colorful place that is full of joy and excitement. This change in patterns is obviously to tell kids that the revolution is a good thing. The only other real change in scenery comes near the end of the movie. This is when the producers switch back again to the dark and gloomy theme implying that the animals have yet again gone into a bad time. The characters that have been included in the movie are corrupted just the same as the setting. I would even say that the characters are even more corrupted then the setting. For starters many of the characters that George Orwell included in his book have been discarded. The two characters that have been corrupted the most are the characters of Snowball and Napoleon. In the book George Orwell says this for snowball: ?Snowball was a more vivacious pig than Napoleon, quicker in speech and more inventive, but was not considered to have the same depth of character.? In the movie Snowball is shows as a vicious pig that has fangs and trotters that look very much like claws. ...read more.

Conclusion

One surprising thing that has been added to the rules however, is Napoleon?s maxim, ?four legs good, two legs bad.? This, like the omitted rules, has no reason, beyond the producers wanting to simplify the movie for the kids watching it. The thing that has been the most corrupted in terms of plot, is the ending. In the original book Benjamin is left ?looking from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.? Whereas is the movie Benjamin sends out a battle cry and leads the animal into a counter-revolution. This obviously happens as the producers believe that having a happy ending would please the children that were watching. The motto ?Power Corrupts, Therefore Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely? may have just been a random phrase, said by a random person, at a random time, but it has become one of the phrases that defines our planet. From the corruption of George w. Bush in the Global War Against Terrorism, to the more serious corruptions of Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi government. One thing is for certain, no matter where we go, where we run, corruption will always follow is there is any power to be gained. ...read more.

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