Once Napoleon had power, he did everything to try keeping it which meant going to great lengths including killing any supporters of Snowball. Examples of this include: the fours pigs that were alleged to have secret meetings with Snowball, the hens who said that they were told in a dream to disobey Napoleon and other animals said to have a link with Snowball. After the exile of Snowball, anything bad that happened was blamed on him this is shown when the cows “unanimously declared Snowball milked them in the middle of the night”. The windmill was an important scheme of Snowball to benefit the other animals by reducing the workload. When it was built under Napoleon who stole his idea, it was soon destroyed. This led to Napoleon blaming everything bad on Snowball, using him as his scapegoat to further discredit him. In an important battle, the battle of Cowshed, Snowball was the hero because of his courage but once he was exiled Squealer persuaded the other animals that Napoleon was the real hero and Snowball was “Jones ally” thus an enemy. ( Quote) The stiff competition for power led Napoleon to do everything he can to keep it and this included belittling Snowball and giving himself all the glory.
When Napoleon acquired power, he took advantage of it and abused it. At first there were seven commandments which were unaltered. The dominant group of animal, the pigs under the orders of Napoleon however slowly alters them with words such as ‘to excess’, ‘without sheets’ and ‘without cause’ by taking advantage of the other animals being illiterate. This take is performed by Napoleons right hand man Squealer. Napoleon also encourages the pigs to use their powers to give them privileges such as being able to drink alcohol, eat more food and wake up an hour later than the other animals. When the animals attempt to question this, Squealer uses propaganda by keeping the threat of “if we fail our duty, do you know what will happen, Jones will come back”. Mr. Jones was the previously the cruel human owner of the farm who was driven out. By using the threat of Mr. Jones, Napoelon is able to keep the other animals in line.
The pigs encouraged by Napoleon use their power to do trade with the humans despite many animals protesting against this and the speech of Old Major, the pig who founded the revolution opposing this. Through this action, we are able to see that the pigs under Napoleon are corrupt with power and they make their own decisions. This rule is first broken when Mr. Whymper is invited onto the farm. At first Napoleon justifies this by saying, ‘we are only trading for necessities’. However as time passes by Napoleon doesn’t even bother to comply with this rule and start becoming more human-like. This is shown when the Napoleon and the pigs start trading for alcohol, forcing the hens to give up their eggs, (a rule against anamalism which old major described as important to keep after the rebellion) and trading their most loyal worker Boxer for a crate of whisky when he is no longer needed with Napoleon having even more privileges which include having sugar to eat. By the end of the book, the pigs are wearing clothes and carrying whips which shows they were no better than Mr Jones. Mr Pilkington a neighbouring farmer when he is invited onto the farm says to Napoleon“I congratulate you for running a farm crueler than I can”. Clover is the mare in the book that prevents it from turning into a dry satire; by the end through her thoughts we are able to see “there is no difference between the humans and the pigs”.
At first the Napoleon has limited power over the other animals due to Mr Jones being in charge of the farm. However after the revolution on the farm, the pigs under Napoleon are then able to seize advantage of the situation, they also use their vast knowledge and education to control the other animals and become more and more dominant as time passes by. Napoleon and the pigs not only break the laws of Anamalism set by old Major but they also do everything they can to attempt to keep the power they gained. This shows that power is able to corrupt those individuals or groups with too much of it.
