George Orwell’s classic novel “Animal Farm” is an allegory, based loosely on the events of the Russian Revolution. It focuses on the ideas and difficulties that the participants in democracies face, and how power can lead to corruption. This essay will focus on the ways power corrupts the pigs and the running of Animal Farm. By the end of the book, the pigs- who, in the beginning, shared the capitalistic ideals of the rest of the animals- have become elite dictators and it is notable that the plot has come around full circle.
Manor farm- a seemingly regular, ordinary farm- is run by a man called Farmer Jones and is home to many different animals. Due to Jones’ careless alcoholic habits, he mistreats his animals and they often go hungry. When the farm’s prize boar, Old Major, tells the other animals of his ideas of rebellion, freedom and a farm run by animals, they adopt his ideals. After Old Major’s peaceful death, the animals put his plan into action and rebel against Farmer Jones. The animals- mainly the pigs, who are the smartest of the animals- come up with a set of commandments that they think all of the animals should live by. The farm’s name “Manor Farm” is adapted into “Animal Farm” and all seems to be going well. It is noticed that the pigs are taking charge, two in particular; Napoleon and Snowball- who always seem to disagree. When Snowball devises a plan to build a windmill to help the farm, all of the animals- excluding Napoleon- agree, and Napoleon surprises all of the animals by calling his vicious dogs and having them chase Snowball away from the farm. From there Napoleon takes charge, his methods resembling those of a dictator. When he decides that the windmill was, in fact, a good idea he claims to all of the other animals that it was his idea from the start, and that Snowball had stolen it