Kevin Lumowa

Dr. Katz
ENGL 101-06
10/26/15
Title here

In George Orwells Animal Farm, the animals of Manor farm are

struggling under the control of their farmer, Mr. Jones. During this time of
sadness, the prize-winning boar, Old Major, serves as the leader of the
animals. As the leader, he tells the animals his dream of where all animals
live together with no humans to control or harass them. This dream was the
driving force of the rebellion that the animals were starting to form against
the farmer. Sadly, Old Major dies shortly after he tells the animals of his
dream. Immediately right after, three smaller and younger pigs- Snowball,
Napoleon, and Squealer- take the main principles and ideas of Old Major and
form them into a philosophy called Animalism. With the creation of this new
philosophy by the pigs, they assume leadership of the animals. One of the
things the pigs do to maintain their leadership is they learn how to read,
speak, and write; they educate themselves and become intelligent. The pigs
use language and knowledge as an instrument of social control and
manipulation to gain power over the other farm animals.
Going back to the start of the rebellion after Old Major died, Snowball
and Napoleon step forward and show themselves to be important figures
for the planning of the rebellion against Mr. Jones. When the time came to

strike, the animals struck back against Mr. Jones and the other farmers. After
the revolution, the farm animals are victorious and Mr. Jones and the farms
are chased off the farm. As part of the celebration of this victory, Manor
Farm is renamed to Animal Farm, and the seven main commandments of
Animalism are painted up on the wall of the barn. Following the celebration,
the animals get to work. Snowball works to educate the animals on how to
read, but Napoleon instead works to educate a group of nine puppies about
the principles of Animalism. At first the animals seemed to be totally fine
with Snowball and Napoleon being the leaders, but Napoleon starts to appear
as a power-hungry and maybe self-driven leader. Napoleon starts to steal
the cows milk and quite a bit of apples to feed himself and the other pigs.
After a while, this started to make the farm animals upset. In response,
Napoleon enlists Squealer to help him with this problem. Squealer uses his
ability of persuasion to tell the farm animals that what Napoleon and the
other pigs are doing is always morally correct and their decisions are right.
This becomes the start of the start of some tension between the pigs and the
other farm animals.
Later on, Mr. Jones and the other farms reappear in an attempt to take
back their farm. The animals fight against the farmers again in what is
known as The Battle of Cowshed. Ultimately in the end, the animals triumph
again over the humans. With another victory under the belt of the animals,
theyre feeling pretty confident in themselves. As time passes on, Napoleon
and Snowball increasingly fight and butt heads with each over about what

the future of Animal Farm will be. They also fight over power and control
over the other farm animals. Snowball wants to build an electricitygenerated windmill for the farm, but Napoleon fully opposes the plan. As a
result of this conflict, a vote is held during a meeting on whether to do the
project or not. Snowball gives a powerful and passionate speech. Snowball
wants to construct the windmill in order to provide electricity and automate
farm tasks to make lives for the animals easier overall. Although Napoleons
speech was very short and brief, he ultimately ends up chasing Snowball off
the farm with the nine dogs that he raised since they were puppies. Now
with Snowball gone, Napoleon calls an end to the meeting and says there
wont be any more discussion or further debates about the windmill. After
seeing this, many of the animals are scared and confused. But then Squealer
comes and explains to the animals that Napoleon is making a great sacrifice
in taking leadership responsibilities upon himself and that he ultimately
serves the best interests of everyone. Once again, the animals are ok with
this, but in the back of their heads they still question about how Snowball
was dealt with. A few weeks after, Napoleon announces that the windmill
will be built and that it was originally his idea and it was stolen by Snowball.
With the help of Squealer and his use of language for manipulation,
Napoleon continues to blame all the hardships of the animals on Snowball,
saying hes a traitor and criminal. Squealer also tells the animals that
Napoleon never really opposed the idea of the windmill, and that he actually
used his opposition to Snowball as a maneuver to expel out Snowball.

Much of the next year is spent building the windmill. The pace at
which the animals are working is back-breaking and tough. The leadership,
Napoleon and the pigs, cuts the rations of the animals. The animals are
outraged at this. Yet again, Squealer explains to them that all the pigs have
done is simply readjust the rations and that the animals wont receive food
unless they work on Sunday afternoons. Unfortunately, one day, a storm
topples and destroys their half-finished windmill. And of course, although the
animals thought it was the storm or a neighboring farm, Napoleon
predictably blames Snowball for the destruction and immediately orders the
animals to begin rebuilding it. At this point, Napoleons lust for power is
becoming overwhelming and dangerous. Napoleon would even kill other
animals who would dare to stand up to his authority. Along with this new
cruelty and reign of fear, Napoleon and the pigs actually move into Mr. Jones
house and begin sleeping in beds. Although all the farm animals, including
the pigs, know that the actions of the pigs are breaking the seven
commandments of Animalism that the pigs originally wrote themselves,
Squealer still finds a way to excuse this with his use of language.
The pigs continue to break even more of the original seven
commandments of Animalism. But as the pigs are breaking more
commandments, the language of them are revised. One example of this is
that the commandment, No animals shall drink alcohol is changed to, No
animal shall drink alcohol to excess. Since the pigs were the smartest

animals on the farm, it was easy for them to just use language to manipulate
the other farm animals, make things go their way, and get what they want.
Throughout Animal Farm, the pigs constantly use their intelligence and
language to manipulate and control the farm animals. At first it seemed
exciting to see the pigs getting educated and educating the other farm
animals. But later on, the pigs take advantage of their knowledge and use
against the farm animals to get what they want and make things go their
way. Can knowledge and intelligence make people this strong?