Animal Farm With Their New Leader Napoleon example essay topic

The book "Animal Farm" is a very famous political allegory written by George Orwell and first published in 1945. The characters, setting and plot of Animal Farm are an allegory of the Russian revolution of 1917 and the subsequent years of Stalins' totalitarian regime. In this short novel, the author tells a story where animals are used to characterize human behaviour. In this essay, I will discuss and explain the role of two chosen characters and also compare their behaviour with the human types they represent.

The book is about the animals of "Manor Farm", later called Animal Farm, who want their freedom. They rebel against Jones (the owner of the farm) and throw him out. At first Jones tries to get his farm back, but he soon gives up. The animals are so happy, to start with.

Then the animals want to adopt a leader. There are only two animals (both pigs) that really want to be leader and they are Snowball and Napoleon. At first they try to work together co-operatively but this does not work. Just one of the animals must be chosen as leader.

Snowball was the favourite among the animals to adopt the role of leader partly because of his honesty and kindness. Napoleon frequently lies and cheats and wants to control the other animals. He chases Snowball away with the help of his hand-reared dogs. He then tells the animals that Snowball was a spy and a traitor. All the animals believe his story, but it is not true. The animals begin their new lives in "Animal Farm" with their new leader Napoleon.

At first everyone is happy, but Napoleon is a bad leader and things go downhill for the animals. Napoleon gradually changes the rules so they only benefit him. The animal's quality of life rapidly deteriorates until it is no better (if not worse) than it was in the days when Jones ruled the farm. The main characters in this novel are Snowball, who is Napoleon's enemy and the good pig, Napoleon, who is appointed leader, Squealer, who is Napoleons helper and messenger and Boxer, who is a hardworking and loyal carthorse.

Other characters include Clover, who is Boxers lady friend, Benjamin, who is an old and wise donkey and Mollie, who is a very fashion conscious mare. The two characters I have chosen to write about are: Napoleon, the leader and Boxer the carthorse. Boxer is an extremely loyal character. His loyalty is shown throughout the whole story. When Boxer accepts Napoleon as the leader, he is prepared to follow him without questioning. This is illustrated in one of the mottoes he adopts, which is, "Napoleon is always right" Boxers' deep loyalty and gullibility easily allows him to be deceived.

For example, Squealer, instructed by Napoleon, got Boxer to believe that Snowball was Jones' "secret agent" all along. This is all a bunch of lies but Boxer easily believes them. Whilst loyalty is an admirable quality, the way Boxer blindly follows his leader ends up being quite destructive. Boxer is by no means the smartest of animals, in-fact he is quite dumb.

He only properly knows four letters of the alphabet A, B, C and D. "Boxer could not get beyond the letter D. He would trace out A, B, C, D in the dust with his great hoof... On several occasions, indeed, he did learn E, F, G, H but by the time he knew them he had forgotten A, B, C, D" Boxer is dumb but decent and devoted to trying his best. Boxer isn't the dumbest animal on the farm, if you compare him to the sheep he's quite smart. The fact that Boxer is loyal but not very bright proves to be a dangerous combination. It is easy for Napoleon to take advantage of him.

Boxer is very hardworking; his answer to every set back was... "I will work harder" Boxer adopted this saying as his personal motto. Boxer enjoys working very much, partly because he was very good at it. Boxer's strength makes work easier for him. Boxer is huge, compared with most of the other animals.

The size and strength of Boxer was colossal. His huge muscles and sheer strength made Boxer the natural choice to do all the tough work. "Nothing could have been achieved without Boxer, whose strength seemed equal to that of all of the rest of the animals put together". Boxer's power benefited all the animals, as this quote shows"; [They got] everything done quicker with Boxer on their side". Not only was Boxer loyal and a bit dumb but he was also he very strong. So Boxers' hard work under Napoleons' leadership was actually used to support a corrupt regime.

Boxer has good relationships with all the animals, in-fact all the animals admire him. "Boxer was that admiration of everybody". This is quite true; the animals mainly admired him for his big muscles and power. But others like Benjamin the donkey, admired him for who he is. "Benjamin, nevertheless, without openly admitting it, was attached to Boxer".

Clover is also devoted to Boxer and in the same way Boxer has a soft spot for Clover. Both Benjamin and Clover cared for Boxer when he was ill. Boxer thought that hard work was the solution for everything and he nearly worked himself to death. Boxers' great power mixed with his devotion and not to mention loving personality encourages the reader to have a soft spot for him. We are very sad when Boxer is hurt. The most heart rendering part of the novel is when Boxer collapses and is sent to the slaughterhouse.

Altogether Boxer is loyal, hardworking, strong, honest and incorruptible, like every person should be, as with most people, there is usually a weakness. In Boxers' case he is very gullible and he is easily conned into believing lies and obeying rules. Boxers' weakness is that he is not very educated, rather dumb and very trusting. It is easy for Napoleon and the other pigs to take advantage of Boxer because of his lack of intelligence and limited education. He is unable to think things through for himself. He has the physical strength of an army and the devotion and loyalty to follow orders and see a task through, yet his power is sadly used for destruction.

In the allegory "Animal Farm", Boxer, the overworked, incredibly strong, dumb horse represents the common worker in Russia. He is a member of the ignorant working class, who is manipulated and exploited. Boxer can be seen as the victim. He gives his life for the cause, in this case animalism, without realising the corrupt nature of the regime, which he has been working for. Boxers' character also represents the stereotype of the obedient and courageous soldier who obeys his masters' every command without questioning it. Napoleon could not be more different in behaviour from Boxer.

He behaves like a fierce dictator who is only interested in his own needs and desires. He constantly changes the rules to suit his selfish purposes. For example, Napoleon changes the commandment "No animal shall drink" to "No animal shall drink in excess" when he wants to justify his own drinking. Napoleon eventually becomes the new leader of "Manor Farm", but in order to become leader, Napoleon cheats and makes up lies about his honest rival Snowball.

Once Napoleon has control of the farm he wants a life of luxury. He changes all the original rules, which he and Snowball and all the other animals had previously agreed on. The law "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need" breaks down until eventually all seven commandments are replaced with just one which reads. "All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others". Napoleon does not speak to the animals directly, but uses Squealer as his messenger. Squealer is a very persuasive and intelligent pig.

Sometimes it seems as if it were Squealer who was the brains behind Napoleon as Squealer does all the work of explaining new rules and circumstances. Squealer does a good job as all of the animals accept the various new conditions. Napoleon is greedy. He is happy to grab more of everything for himself. He and the other pigs, for example, get extra food. Almost every week, Napoleon announced a new policy.

"Napoleon announced that he had decided upon a new policy" These policies, however great they were made out to be (by Squealer & Napoleon), never appeared to make anything better for the animals. In-fact as things got better and better for Napoleon they got worse and worse for the animals. But Napoleon, with the aid of Squealer, convinced them that the conditions were far worse in the days of Jones. Although Napoleon is greedy, selfish and fierce, he is also clever. How else would he get the animals to believe his every word? He is also clever in the choice of words he uses, as can be seen clearly in the following quote.

"For the time being, certainly, it has been found necessary to make a readjustment of the rations" Squealer (instructed by Napoleon) always spoke of it as 'readjustment', never as reduction. This proves his persuasive capability. Without the aid of Squealer, Napoleon would not have been as successful. Napoleon was willing to exploit and sacrifice others for his benefits. Here is just one example of this. When he wanted to be leader he chased Snowball away with his dogs.

Napoleon, to get everyone to trust him after what he did, made up lies about Snowball being a criminal and traitor. He said: "Snowball, who, as we know, was no better than a criminal?" Here Napoleon uses yet more persuasive language, influencing the other animals by using convincing phrases such as 'as we know', unconsciously forcing them to believe that his statement was the general view and not just his opinion. Napoleon yet again makes the animals think less respectfully towards Snowball, by claiming Snowballs' helpfulness was mush exaggerated. "And as for the 'Battle of Cowshed' (a battle of the animals and humans where Snowball helped save them), I believe the time will come when we shall find out that Snowball's part in it was much exaggerated". Here Napoleon is trying to diminish the importance of Snowballs' role making him out to be incidental and not the hero, which the other animals remembered him to be. There are not a lot of good things that can be said about Napoleon.

We have seen with Boxer that his lack of brainpower enabled his good intentions to be misdirected for evil. With Napoleon, he is not simple-minded but clever. Just as stupidity in the wrong hands is dangerous, being clever or smart in the hands of a selfish, egoist dictator like Napoleon is even more dangerous. He has the brains as well as the desire to do evil. Napoleon seems to be so cold-hearted that he doesn't care for the welfare of the other animals. We see this when he pretends he is sending Boxer to the hospital when in fact he is sending him to his death and is only interested in the money he will get for his dead body.

Napoleon seems to take pleasure in the misery of other animals probably because he likes the feeling of power he has over them. Napoleon always uses rhetorical questions, when he is in any doubt or when he thinks some of the animals don't agree with what he is saying. Napoleon and Squealers favourite rhetorical question is: "Surely comrades, none of you want to see Jones back?" Of course once again that question was unanswerable. Overall Napoleon was, fierce, power-mad, selfish, sinister, deceptive, dangerous and always willing to exploit and sacrifice others to benefit himself. Napoleon is the mad, dictator pig whom, in the allegory "Animal Farm, represents the Russian leader Joseph Stalin. In fact, Animal Farm was written by Orwell to criticize the totalitarian regime and Stalin's rule in Russia during and after the 1917 revolution.

The satire Animal Farm parodies the struggle between the classes in Russia. Napoleon could be said to represent the governing body or ruling class and also the upper class. Boxer represents the ruled class or exploited working class. In Napoleons' brutal, totalitarian rule, the pigs evolve into the capitalists, which they originally despised. By Julian Barr able.