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How Does Joseph Stalin Use Power In Animal Farm

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How Does Joseph Stalin Use Power In Animal Farm
Leaders use many tactics to withhold power and maintain control over the ignorant people. Joseph Stalin, the leader of the USSR from 1922-1952, used many clever and sometimes gory techniques to keep his power over the Soviet people. These strategies are shown in George Orwell's allegory of the Russian revolution, Animal Farm. Napoleon, the self-proclaimed leader of Animal Farm and allegorical representation of Joseph Stalin, has quite a few crafty and cunning ways to retain his authority over the animals. For example, by only educating the piglets and dogs, Napoleon keeps the majority of the animals uneducated and ignorant and therefore easier to manipulate. By blaming mistakes and wrongdoings on Snowball, an exiled pig who is an allegorical …show more content…
For example, after Napoleon murders many of the animals who are supposedly in league with Snowball, the animals are a bit uneasy because they recall a Commandment that states, "No animal shall kill any another animal" (Orwell 58). Muriel, a literate goat, reads the Commandment after the massacre, and it says, "No animal shall kill any other animal without cause" (151). She thinks that “somehow or other the last two words had slipped out of [her] memory. But [she] saw now that the Commandment had not been violated; for clearly there was good reason for killing the traitors" (165-166). Because Napoleon only educates the wealthy, the rest of the animals are oblivious to what is going on and believe everything that they are told. When Napoleon changes the Commandments, the animals blame their own faulty memories and proceed to believe whatever is written in the commandment because "Napoleon is always right"(111). Napoleon exploits the animals' gullibility when he modifies the Commandments to justify his atrocities and garner even more power. Since the animals only believe what they are told by Napoleon and the media, he is able to maintain his control over the farm. By limiting education to only a select few, Napoleon is able to manipulate the masses and get away with changing things to his

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