Napoleon comes to be the ruler of pigs after succeeding in destroying Snowball’s image to create fear in the animal’s hearts and destroy hope.. Snowball is described as a spy and a traitor.. Thus Orwell reaches his own aim. The whole of Animal Farm, apart from the first chapter is a story of the rise of Napoleon’s power and therefore the leader of all of Animal Farm. Conniving from the beginning, one only realizes how deep his treachery goes as the story progresses.
Then there is squealer, a lesser pig whom delvers messages to the masses of other animals. He’s as greasy as a bacon pan, and one wishes that someone would make him into his breakfast before things are done.
Orwell succeeds in drawing a fierce looking character that gets things done according to his own wish.. Stands for power – Napoleon symbolizes thranny, power, and deception…
Napoleon is the smartest, most corrupt character in the book with a brutal system of ruling Manor Farm that magnetizes an idiosyncratic yet obvious correspondence to Joseph Stalin (A soviet politician).
Napoleon, who is described as, “a larg, rather fierce-looking boar…with a reputation for getting his own way attempts to control the political scene, supervises the youths’ education, and is an ingenious stategist when it comes to organizing patronization for his cause. Throughout “Animal Farm”, he fails to present a single original idea and in actuality, rips off other after they have been exiled. Similarly to Stalin, Napoleon isn’t a pro in oratory and most definitely isn’t as clear as his political rival. However, he has a slight advantage, resident “smooth-talker”, Squealer. He is described by, “a small fat pig…with very round cheeks, twinkling eyes, nimble movements, and a shrill voice…a brilliant talker, and when he was arguing some difficult point he had a way of skipping from side to side and whishing his tail which was somehow very persuasive. The others said he could turn black into white. This gossipmonger sole purpose seems to be to go around telling the animals that Napoleon’s ideas are the best. This also of course was a satire of the perspicacity of politics, with Stalin’s Arliss Michaels (Agent) being represented by Squealer. Why none of the animals would rebel against Napoleon? It was because of two things:
- Napoleon had the dogs that he educated since birth (and practically brainwashed to safeguard himself) that distributed justice as he saw fit (Snowball’s exile).
- None of the animals wanted to go back to the way of Jones which Squealer kept threatening would happen if they didn’t obey Napoleon’s commands at all times.
Looking back, you see how Napoleon gradually instilled a totalitarian hold on Animal Farm. In the beginning of our tale, Snowball was the primary leader with good intention and Napoleon was more self-centered, wanting absolute power. Once they ruled Manor Farm, it seemed that they started to let the power corrupt them. The difference in character between Snowball and Napoleon are clearly illustrated. We see that Snowball occupies himself with tasks of social benefit, writing out the seven commandments, organizing the harvest, while Napoleon shows his greed and self-interest by taking charge of the “five buckets of frothing creamy milk”. Such is the case with the apples and milk. The pigs obviously held a superior rank to the other animals and had gone from being the oppressed to oppressing those inferior to them. Power corrupted and changes them forever as Orwell proved so vividly.
His cruelty and indifferenc towards the rest of the animals “lower classes” from first to last is clear. He only cared for consolidanting his personal power by using cunning and brute force that chase his rival Snowball off the farm. Napoleon now is called the “fountain of happiness” and even “the hero”. The cows give him the credit of increasing the egg production and purifying the water.
We also remember Boxer’s repeated lesson “Napoleon can do no wrong”.
Napoleon originates all the new regulation on the farm which increasas the animal’s hardships, by working for sixty hours a week, while on the other hand and under his protection none of the pigs produce and food or do any manual work. He also improved the pigs living condition by making them live in Mr. Jones farmhouse.
Napoleon keeps away from the other animals at the end of the book. He takes private apartments in the farmhouse and makes a rule that the animals must step aside when he passes.
His dishonesty is clearly seen at the end of the book, when we see him imitation man and walking on his hind leg-the human image here is the symbol of capitalist oppression.
In the end, when Napoleon changed the seven commandments to just one that accommodated himself perfectly:
ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL
BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN
OTHERS
Napoleon’s rise to power corrupted him, which in turn corrupted his society.
In conclusion, Lord Acton was positively correct when he said, “power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely”.
