Animal Farm:

Traits of a dictator
By: Ella Baptiste
Kajol Sookdeo
Sydney Lezama
Introduction: How Did Napoleon Become A
Dictator?
In Animal Farm, Napoleon became more and more like a dictator because, instead
of trying to run the farm and work with the other animals, he gave into his desire for
power and ended up running the farm and the animals himself.
 
Napoleon went from being an oppressed worker in a capitalist system to framers of
a socialist system in which all animals would be equal, to ultimately being the
oppressors in a system much like the one from which they freed themselves from.

Examples - 
• When Napoleon and Snowball started to fight for power, Napoleon turned
greedy and savage. Napoleon later trained a litter of dogs, belonging to Jessie
and Bluebell, to run Snowball off the farm and try to kill him. This is one of the
first signs of Napoleon turning into man, greed for power. He gets what he
wants, when he wants it.
Cont.
• When Napoleon changed the name back to Manor Farm he was signifying that the farm
was now functioning not as a revolutionary entity, looking to improve the lives of all
animals everywhere, but as a business like other farms in which animals were meant to
profit from.
•
Napoleon behaves like a human by executing other animals for helping snowball during
his "purge." The pigs behave like humans by walking upright and wearing clothes,
similar to their former tyrannical master.
1. Changing of Rules in secret
At the beginning of chapter eight, the animals are confused about what they remember. They
remember one of commandments that the animals lived by, being, “No Animal Shall Kill Another
Animal,” but when they checked, the words, ‘without cause,’ were added. The animals were
confused because they did not remember the latter two words being there, but weren’t confident
enough in themselves to raise a question about it and just went along with it.

Later on, we see squealer with a bucket of spilled white paint and a lantern at around midnight,
on the ground next to two pieces of a broken ladder. This gives the idea that Squealer was the one
changing the commandments.
This is a trait that makes Napoleon a dictator, because he made a set of rules for the animals to
live by to keep order and peace on the farm, but when things weren’t going his way by following
the commandments, he secretly changed them and manipulated the animals into believing that the
rules were like that from the beginning.

This is similar to how a dictator tricks their citizens and followers into believing that things were
like that even from the
beginning even when it is the total opposite.
2. Use of Violence
In the novel, eleven animals were murdered for being in league with Snowball and one committed
suicide after confessing to be aware of the plot. This instils a type of fear in the animal’s hearts
that make them not dare to even think about going against Napoleon and his leadership.

This is a reign of terror. No one dares go against him in fear of being killed which leaves him to do
whatever he wants to do without fear of the animals rebelling.

This is similar to a dictator, because a dictator makes their followers fear them, so they don’t
disobey their orders and strategies of leadership.
3. Brainwashing
Squealer (second in command to Napoleon) brainwashes the animals through the expert use of
propaganda. He uses simple slogans and powerful oratory to create an alternative reality in which
Napoleon is always right and the gains of the revolution are under constant threat from enemies.

With the animals brainwashed, thinking Napoleon is always right, this gives him the power, which
he so much craves, to do whatever he wants and to selfishly enjoy special privileges.

This relates much to a dictator because dictators do not care about others, they use them for their
own selfish gain
4. Isolation
In the novel, Napoleon is the only one who has contact outside of the farm. The messenger pigeons once
did too, but was stopped and all contact to the other farms was cut off. The animals could only glance
and Napoleon and the humans who came to the farm to make deals, they could only wonder what
they were talking about until Napoleon decided to tell them. They also had no say nor could they
have opinions on what happened in the farm.

This is similar to a dictator. Because dictators cut off contact and forbid their citizens to interact with
people from different places. Only they get to have interactions with foreigners and only they make
the decisions on how to run the place they’re in charge of.
They also twist the news coming in to the place, to make it seem that others are having it worse than them
and that they have to obey ther leader and be grateful for what they have.
End.
This is the end of our presentation on
how Napoleon is a dictator!
We hope you enjoyed, and that you
learned something!