The Types to Ruin a Revolution in Animal Farm
There are the infamous examples of Stalin and Hitler in history in which
someone takes abuse of power for their own personal gain. George Orwell emphasizes
this idea of the abuse of power through animals in his novel Animal Farm. The
characters of Napoleon, Squealer, the dogs, and Boxer all symbolize important types of
people in the making and breaking of a revolution. Animal Farm contains the theme that
there will always be some group of people who will contaminate an idealistic revolution
for their own gain.
The main character in Animal Farm who takes advantage of the stupider animals
and completely ruins the Revolution is Napoleon, a pig. Napoleon loves power and
chases away another pig with power, Snowball, so he can be the sole ruler. Napoleon
symbolizes the people of the world who will do anything to be in control. One especially
famous example of this type of person is the character Macbeth from William
Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Macbeth murdered the king, killed innocent people, and
sacrificed his morals in order to become king. This type of person is needed in order for
an idealistic revolution to be corrupted. Through the character of Napoleon, George
Orwell emphasizes that there will always be someone willing to commit heinous deeds in
order to become leader, dictator, or tyrant
The pigs of the farm are much smarter then the rest of the barn animals and take
up the job as the thinkers and planners. The other animals are the workers and
diligently believe anything the pigs tell them. The abuse of power begins when they
notice that the apples and milk start disappearing. Sqealer, the public speaker pig,
explains this to the worker animals:
You do not imagine, I hope, that we pigs are doing this in a spirit of
selfishness and privilege? Many of us actually dislike milk and apples. I
dislike them myself. Our sole object in taking these things is to preserve
our health. Milk and apples (this has been proved by Science, comrades)
contain substances absolutely necessary to the well-being of a pig. We
pigs are brainworkers. The whole management and organization of this
farm depend on us. Day and night we are watching over your welfare. It
is for your sake that we drink that milk and eat those apples. Do you
know what would happen if we pigs failed in our duty? Jones would come
back! Yes, Jones would come back!
(p52)
This is only the only the beginning, as the pigs keep taking more for themselves and
leaving less for the rest of the animals. Eventually the worker animals are worse of then
when they were with Mr. Jones. They are worked to death and on the verge of starvation
because of the greed of the pigs. Orwell uses this suffering as an example of the extent
some people will go to for personal gain.
As any reader can see, Squealer had an important part in this process. Squealer
symbolizes the public relations man who will say anything to get what he wants – kind of
like a lawyer. Squealer is the most handy with words and can convince the worker
animals of anything. He is even able to continually convince them that they remember
things wrong. Squealer alters the past to the convenience of his idol, Napoleon. A
squealer is needed for any man or animals rise to power, to brainwash the public into
believing their leader is god. Orwell uses the character of Squealer to prove that there
will always be a group of people who take a Revolution and corrupt it for their own
personal gain.
And then there are the dogs. Early in the novel , while Snowball is working on
literacy for the entire farm, Napoleon steals some puppies sand raises them to be his
guard dogs. The dogs symbolizes the Secret Police or law enforces that are needed to
force the animal workers, or public, to do as the leader demands. The dogs are
responsible for Napoleons rise to power. They look up to him as an master:
It was noticed that they wagged their tails to him as the other dogs had
been used to do to Mr. Jones. (p68)
The dogs are also the type of people who can be easily brainwashed into believing that
their master is God. They are the ones who do the dirty work. It is partly the terrorism of
the dogs that rule the animals. Orwell uses these dogs to convince the reader that there
are these types of people out there who will use force to work towards the corruption of
an idealistic revolution.
Boxer is an important character in the novel. He is a not very bright old cart
horse whose answer to any problem is I will work harder. Boxer is known for saying
If Comrade Napoleon said it, then it must be right. He symbolizes all the people in the
world whose blind faith allow their leader to take advantage of them. Boxer believed in
the cause but was innocent at heart. There are always simple people who know nothing
else but to follow a leader. The pigs arrange for Boxer to be taken to a glue factory once
he is no longer of any use. This is Orwell’s example of the abuse of the innocent. Orwell
uses the character of Boxer to emphasize that these types of loyal and self-sacrificing
people will always be willing to follow their leader to the end, making it easier for a
revolution to be corrupted with personal gain.
Animal Farm contains many characters which symbolize the types of people
willing to corrupt a revolution for their own personal gain. This has been proven in
many instances throughout history and other novels. Orwell chose to prove this through
the simple story of barnyard animals, making it easy for everyone to understand his ideas.
In conclusion, there are always going to be the power-hungry, the weak and strong, the
followers and the leaders, and those willing to go to any extreme in order to be in achieve
inner profit.
