George Orwell’s Animal Farm

George Orwell’s Animal Farm illustrates how both terror and constant use of propaganda are the two major ways Napoleon used to manipulate the animals into cooperating with his deceitful orders. By imprinting false ideas and information into the animal’s minds, Napoleon is able to convince the animals into thinking that his leadership is what’s best for the farm. Orwell shocks readers when the idealistic world of animalism is destroyed as words are no longer enough to keep the animals in check, so Napoleon turns to brutal violence in order to contain leadership.

George Orwell uses Animal farm to demonstrate how Squealer, Napoleons right hand man, represents a totalitarian governments propaganda machine. With an eloquent and well phrased speech, he can make the animals believe almost anything. This fact is especially clear in Squealer’s interactions with Clover and Muriel. Each time the seven commandments have been changed to benefit the pigs, Clover suspects that they have been changed but Squealer manages to convince her that her "memories had been at fault". Napoleon revises these commandments whenever he wishes and as he changes these commandments he slowly converts the animals into slaves. After the executions, Napoleon abolishes the singing of “Beasts of England” in favor of a new anthem, which lyrics contain a promise never to harm Animal Farm. In this propagandist action, Napoleon replaces the meaning of “Beasts of England” with the exact opposite, a promise not to rebel. The most shocking example of propaganda in the novel is the maxim that replaces the Seven Commandments: “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others”. This maxim of “more equal” is mathematically impossible and a nonsensical manipulation of language, but by this time, the animals are too brainwashed to notice and if they did, they would not have had the courage to speak against Napoleon as it was showed that if anyone was against him, it was punishable by death. The idea makes himself supreme rules when he begins to carry “a whip in his trotter” and “walking on his hind legs” raising himself and the pigs above the working class, and making themselves “more equal”, thus shows that the use of propaganda allows Napoleon to gain power over Animal Farm and distracts the animals from what is really happening, the pigs are becoming more and more like their former owner, Jones.

In addition to being a source of manipulation, propaganda is also used as an agent of fear, to spread terror among the animals. Orwell demonstrates this quite clearly with Napoleon’s condemnation of Snowball and his collaborators, Napoleon assurances that Snowball could attack the animals at any minute, scaring the animals that if they don’t listen to him, that they could be back in submission to humans. Napoleon is able to censure Snowball in the latter’s absence, making up lies about how “Snowball has sold himself to Frederick”, discrediting Snowballs good name in a flurry of words whilst scaring the other animals to not go off onto the neighbouring farms. Thus making the animals believe that his return, like Jones’s, is almost upon them if they don’t do what the pigs tell them to. Snowball is even “proved” to be not only lurking along Animal Farm’s borders but also infiltrating the farm, it was “proved” that Snowball “had destroyed the windmill” too and soon “whenever anything went wrong it became usual to attribute it to Snowball”. Napoleon’s public investigation of Snowball’s whereabouts cements the animals’ fear of Snowball’s influence.