Animal Farm

Snowball is a deeper thinker and more visionary leader than Napoleon. Devising plans for improving farming on the property and planning for a windmill and an electricity-producing dynamo, Snowball wishes to modernize the old-fashioned farm, freeing up the animals’ time to pursue a life of learning and leisure. Napoleon, by contrast, presents no plans of his own but merely disparages Snowballs’.

Napoleon’s dictatorial takeover of the farm, which resembles the actions of such totalitarian leaders as Hitler and Stalin, is a turning point in the novella. Whereas in the past the animals held a meeting every Sunday to discuss issues and express their Hope for Equality, now the animals simply file into the barn where Napoleon gives them orders. In these meetings, Napoleon surrounds himself with yes-men and sycophants like Squealer and Minimus, a pig who writes laudatory poems and songs. To drown out any objections to his certain policies, Napoleon has his trained sheep to chant, “Four legs good, two legs bad!” (47).

Leaders now reserve the right to reverse previous policy with no warning or explanation (for example, on building the windmill, or engaging in trade); they do not keep written records of their decisions, and thus they cannot be pinned down. The pigs’ scapegoating and demonization of Snowball is another sign of their corrupt leadership. Napoleon relies on PR and spin to cover his tracks and justify his actions to the other animals. He and his leaders adopt a life of luxury (living in the farmhouse and sleeping in the beds) on the backs of the other animals, signaling The Temptation of Corruption. Many of these changes are so incremental that the animals are barely aware of what is happening.

Freedom on Animal Farm has completely evaporated. The other animals are simply there to serve Napoleon, who now behaves like a human—like human farmers, Napoleon “serves the interests of no creature except himself” (8). Significantly, the attack dogs that Napoleon trains to protect him wag their tails to him “in the same way as the other dogs had been used to do to Mr. Jones” (40). This foreshadows Napoleon’s eventual compromise with the human system. Napoleon falsely depicts himself as a martyr and savior: To spare the animals any contact with humans, he decides to “take the whole burden upon his own shoulders” of doing business with Mr. Whymper (47).

Like a typical dictator, Napoleon brutally crushes any opposition. For example, he quashes the hen’s rebellion even though selling their eggs goes against the original visions for the farm. This episode resembles Stalin’s response to the widespread famine and starvation in the Soviet Union in the 1930s—a famine that was the direct result of his policies.

Yet despite all this, the animals dumbly go along with Napoleon’s policies and plans, seemingly unaware that their freedom is being taken away from them. At best, they are “conscious of a vague uneasiness” (47). The animals are confused by shifting allegiances, incremental corruption, deception, and propaganda; they fear invoking the wrath of Napoleon and his dogs. Orwell does not blame the animals but instead draws attention to The Power of Education and what happens when people are not given enough information, since his goal is to convince readers to denounce Soviet-style tyranny but at the same time uphold socialist values giving the people power over the government.