The second commandment was not thought up simply, a lot of thought and argument was put into it. The original commandment is that four legs are good and two legs are bad. Then the chickens ask why they are classed as bad. From this mini debate we can tell that this society will never work. Right at the start of the revolution the animals cannot agree. What hope is there later on in the revolution period? Mollie the pony, representing the Russian aristocracy, complains bitterly about commandment three. She enjoys wearing ribbons that are put on her by man. When they are forming the commandments she asks about her ribbons and they tell her that they are classed as clothes meaning that she can no longer wear them. We can see that Mollie is unhappy right from the start so it is not surprising when later on in the story she runs away. However, Napoleon is quite hypocritical. In the middle of the book a new generation of Napoleons are born. He awards them special status. They have the “privilege of wearing green ribbons on their tails.” The fourth commandment is different to the previous commandments. Instead of simply being broken it gets edited. The new commandment changes to “No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets.” The reason for this change is that the animals discover the pigs moving into the farmhouse, which was previously forbidden. Squealer, the master of propaganda, manages to persuade them that they are only sleeping on a bed and that even a pile of hay is a bed. In a way, Squealer is right, the commandment was not written clearly enough. You can easily argue how you are not breaking the rule in one of its loopholes. This commandment should have been written with a few more words to clarify what it meant. The fifth commandment is also changed to “No animal shall drink alcohol to excess.” This commandment changes purely for the benefit of the pigs. When the pigs start to drink alcohol they become like their previous dictator, Jones. The sixth commandment is changed when the executions of the animals take place. It changes to “No animal shall kill any other animal without cause.” This commandment is changed so that Napoleon can kill the animals that disobey him. All of these commandments are edited because they are not written clearly enough. It is inevitable that the ideal of the Rebellion will get undermined because the commandments are not written clearly. It leaves room for argument and debate. The last commandment is changed to “All animals are equal but some are more equal than others.” This commandment was ultimately going to be changed. After all, if you live in a society you need to make decisions. To make decisions you need a leader making some animals more equal. The animals all have different intelligence levels, naturally, making some more equal than others.
For example, when Snowball sets up his little classes to teach them to read, they all cope with reading in different ways. Some of the animals can memorise all the letters of the alphabet but cannot form them into words and sentences, others can only remember as far as the letter “D.” If they all have different levels of intelligence, how can their society be equal? A more intelligent person must be leader. The pigs foresaw this. The day after Old Major delivers his speech they start studying their alphabet. They want to be prepared so that at the time of the Rebellion they can immediately take charge. As readers, we can see that the pigs are scheming and clever and can see that their society of equality is not going to work. The animals all have different strengths and weaknesses. Boxer, the carthorse has the greatest physical strength, this is what makes him a valued member of Animal Farm, until he has an accident and loses his strength. After this accident he is killed. Napoleon only wants people in his community if they are useful in some way. How can all the animals be equal if they have different strengths? Commandment seven was clearly a dream. Squealer also has a very special ability. He has the ability to make anyone believe what he says; he has a way with words. Having this advantage he joins forces with Napoleon and together they overthrow Snowball. Benjamin has the greatest advantage. He is like us, the reader, he has the ability to be an outsider and look in. He never gets excited or enthusiastic about anything because he knows that an unhappy end is inevitable. He was the only animal on the farm that "never laughed."
Napoleon and Snowball are the two smartest pigs on the farm. Snowball is altruistic and Napoleon is a tyrant. Napoleon is very cunning and chases Snowball out of the farm by using newborn puppies, which he took from their mother to train them to be his slaves. At this point in the book when he does this, we first suspect that something suspicious is going on. We also see Napoleon’s true character. After Snowball has been chased out he is used as a scapegoat for all the accidents that happen in the farm. Snowball plays a vital role in the Battle of the Cowshed; he directs the animals telling them where to go and how to attack. During this battle Napoleon is not seen; he lies in the background waiting for it to be over and then comes out at the end taking all the glory. Snowball is a do-gooder but he never thinks about the consequences, Napoleon is selfish and thinks about every little consequence, and knows how to control the animals. Both of them can never be described as one hundred percent selfless and pure. Napoleon’s character is revealed quite early in the novel. As readers, we can see that having a leader that is a tyrant is not going to work. It might at the beginning but in the long run it will be disastrous. The windmill proves to be very controversial with the two of them. In the end Napoleon steals Snowball’s idea and plans and lies to the animals about how he always has supported it.
The story ends with the animals looking through a window at the men and pigs dining at a table. The animals are not able to tell them apart any more. The pigs start to dress in suits just like men do. They begin to experiment with alcohol just like men do. The pigs think of themselves as superior to the other animals and the men their equals. In the last chapter the last commandment is changed. Throughout the book it is obvious that some animals are more equal than others, for example when the pigs sleep in beds. Yet only now do they feel superior enough to admit it. The farm at the end has undergone a huge cycle. It starts off under a leader who does not care for them and ends with a leader that also does not care. In the last chapter the pigs have absolute control. They can get away with anything. The animals have been saturated with thoughts that are not their own and will believe anything. Almost nothing will shock them. All the animals end the novel being depressed and their spirits taken out of them. The pigs and the men however, end cheering and laughing and drinking alcohol. Napoleon becomes like Jones at the end. He is "seen strolling in the farmhouse garden with a pipe in his mouth". The time and effort is not taken with the new generation of animals. They are all very dumb, just the way Napoleon wants them to be. None of them could learn the alphabet beyond the letter “B.” This was the end that we could all see would happen.
This novel is an allegory of the Russian Revolution. This means that each of the animals represent humans. The end of this novel is inevitable because of the characteristic of human nature. It is in human nature to be greedy. Greed ruins good leadership. Humans always strive to be the best, but most often greed is the barrier and can turn a person with good intentions of improving, to someone corrupt and greedy. Napoleon is a clear example of this. He claims to want to do what is best for the animals but ultimately he gets the best rations, the best lodgings and the best ranking. He is self-centred. The greed goes to such a level that it ends up with the animals living in a life of slavery. Squealer wants popularity and high ranking. This is why he associates himself with Napoleon and not Snowball because he seeks to be with the more cunning of the two. It is in human nature to always be the best and that is why we are all quite competitive. Napoleon and Snowball are too competitive and it is obvious that eventually one of them will have to lead. Both of them want power. Power can be good and useful but only if used wisely. In this novel the pigs prove the human theory, “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Human nature is to want more than equality. We want to be better than the rest. The utopia of Communism will only work in a society that is not human. If we learn from our past we can have a better future. This is what humans and animals must do to maintain a system where equals shall remain equals. The pigs' power corrupted because they had absolute power. If they had been more interested in the well-being of the farm, or took in ideas from their public limiting their power, they would have come out on top in the end. Humans all have different opinions. Animal Farm is meant to be a utopia. However, everyone has a different view of his or her perfect world. Napoleons, and the pigs, manage to get their utopia at the end of the book but none of the other animals did.
In conclusion, it is inevitable that the ideals of animal farm will fail. The first sign, as readers, that we saw was Old Major’s speech. During his speech he uses words such as, “beyond our imagining” and “dream.” These words are suggesting to us that it is beyond our world, only a dream, not real. Everything that Old Major says is awful in the beginning, eventually come back to haunt them. The next mistake the animals did was to let the pigs take charge. No animals ever argued against the pigs leading. The animals did not vote on whether the pigs could take charge and be their leader; the pigs assume that since they are the smartest they will be the bosses. From the very first day of the rebellion the pigs saw themselves as better than the rest because they were never challenged. They become greedy and power gets to their head. The seven commandments, which are meant to keep order in the farm, actually prove to be a nuisance and eventually they are ignored. The animals could not have all been equal if the pigs took charge. In a world of Communism it is not right to have a leader. The animals all have different levels of strength, intelligence and are all different ages. Snowball and Napoleon are very different and have an important role to play throughout out the book. Napoleon makes good use of Snowball when he has left and in some way one of his good characteristics is resourcefulness. In the last chapter we see animals complete the cycle and apart from the pigs, they are in the same conditions they started off with, if not worse. The pigs are too self-centred and selfish for Animal Farm to work. Within any form of government world wide, we can see leaders struggle with selfishness and greed. Ultimately everyone suffers.
