Animal Farm Propaganda Research Paper
Propaganda
Devin Kim English Per. 1
During wartime, leaders need both domestic and foreign support. To achieve this, they use propaganda. “Propaganda is the deliberate, systematic attempt to shape perceptions, manipulate cognitions, and direct behavior to achieve a response that furthers the desired intent of the propagandist,” according to Garth Jowett and Victoria O'Donnell, the authors of Propaganda and Persuasion. Propaganda is commonly believed to be most used during war, but there is a deluge of propaganda even in times of peace. Propaganda can range anywhere from recruitment posters to television ads for politicians. Some characteristics of propaganda are using truths, half-truths, or lies, omitting information, playing on emotions, …show more content…
In Animal Farm, Squealer uses this by lying about the amount of food available. In Animal Farm, it states, “On Sunday mornings Squealer, holding down a long strip of paper with his trotter, would read out to them lists of figures proving that the production of every class of foodstuff had increased… The animals saw no reason to disbelieve him, especially as they could no longer remember very clearly what conditions had been before the Rebellion. All the same, there were days when they felt that they would sooner have had less figures and more food.” (pg. 99) The animals believe him, even though they feel the effects of the food shortages. This type of propaganda is successful because the animals are not very knowledgeable and are easily manipulated by the pigs. However, someone who is well-informed on the subject will see through the propaganda. This is what happened in World War II. The Soviet Union massacred about 120 people in Nemmersdorf, Prussia in October 1944. The Germans inflated this, saying more than 600 people were killed. To combat this, the U.S. put out counterpropaganda, saying that the Soviet Union denied the massacre. This card stacking failed, because there was clear evidence that the Soviet Union did murder an entire …show more content…
In Animal Farm, everything bad that happens on the farm is Snowball’s fault, which is transfer propaganda. The novel states, “Whenever anything went wrong it became usual to attribute it to Snowball… and when the key of the store-shed was lost, the whole farm was convinced that Snowball had thrown it down the well. Curiously enough, they went on believing this even after the mislaid key was found under a sack of meal.” (pg 88). This shows that propaganda is a powerful force. Nonetheless, transfer propaganda will fail if the audience is knowledgeable about the subject, which shows how important knowledge is if people do not want to be
Devin Kim English Per. 1
During wartime, leaders need both domestic and foreign support. To achieve this, they use propaganda. “Propaganda is the deliberate, systematic attempt to shape perceptions, manipulate cognitions, and direct behavior to achieve a response that furthers the desired intent of the propagandist,” according to Garth Jowett and Victoria O'Donnell, the authors of Propaganda and Persuasion. Propaganda is commonly believed to be most used during war, but there is a deluge of propaganda even in times of peace. Propaganda can range anywhere from recruitment posters to television ads for politicians. Some characteristics of propaganda are using truths, half-truths, or lies, omitting information, playing on emotions, …show more content…
In Animal Farm, Squealer uses this by lying about the amount of food available. In Animal Farm, it states, “On Sunday mornings Squealer, holding down a long strip of paper with his trotter, would read out to them lists of figures proving that the production of every class of foodstuff had increased… The animals saw no reason to disbelieve him, especially as they could no longer remember very clearly what conditions had been before the Rebellion. All the same, there were days when they felt that they would sooner have had less figures and more food.” (pg. 99) The animals believe him, even though they feel the effects of the food shortages. This type of propaganda is successful because the animals are not very knowledgeable and are easily manipulated by the pigs. However, someone who is well-informed on the subject will see through the propaganda. This is what happened in World War II. The Soviet Union massacred about 120 people in Nemmersdorf, Prussia in October 1944. The Germans inflated this, saying more than 600 people were killed. To combat this, the U.S. put out counterpropaganda, saying that the Soviet Union denied the massacre. This card stacking failed, because there was clear evidence that the Soviet Union did murder an entire …show more content…
In Animal Farm, everything bad that happens on the farm is Snowball’s fault, which is transfer propaganda. The novel states, “Whenever anything went wrong it became usual to attribute it to Snowball… and when the key of the store-shed was lost, the whole farm was convinced that Snowball had thrown it down the well. Curiously enough, they went on believing this even after the mislaid key was found under a sack of meal.” (pg 88). This shows that propaganda is a powerful force. Nonetheless, transfer propaganda will fail if the audience is knowledgeable about the subject, which shows how important knowledge is if people do not want to be