The Struggle For Ignorance In George Orwell's Animal Farm

Animal Farm written by George Orwell tells the story of how mistreated farm animals decided to rebel against their owner, Farmer Jones, and later on face the struggles of maintaining total equality amongst themselves. After the Rebellion, it appeared to the animals that they are finally left in peace, but that relaxation becomes a memory as soon as the determined pig Napoleon comes into the picture. Napoleon’s search for absolute power is shown by him constantly manipulating the animals of the farm with fear, lies, and taking advantage of the animals’ ignorance in order to maintain his control, all of which affect the animals’ lives negatively. It has become the norm for Napoleon to regularly twist the farm’s commandments for his own
To explain, Napoleon determined that he had to banish Snowball, a former comrade, out of the farm by using the dogs as a threat. Not only was Snowball mortified, so were the animals by seeing this display of authority, much like they had experienced with Farmer Jones. The author states, “Silent and terrified, the animals crept back into the barn. In a moment the dogs came bounding back… Though not yet full-grown, they were huge dogs, and as fierce-looking as wolves. It was noticed that they wagged their tails to him in the same way as the other dogs has been used to do to Mr. Jones” (pg. 53). Napoleon uses the dogs as a way to scare the animals and this represents how desperate Napoleon was to gain power, and how desperate he is now to change the animal's’ point of view into seeing Snowball as a bad influence. This is shown by how Napoleon uses the scare tactic against the animals and their beliefs. As a way to influence the animals to think against Snowball, Napoleon decided to have a ‘show’ of various animals owning up to horrendous crimes that all tied back to Snowball. This ‘show’ leaves a scene that is cold-blooded, all caused by his nine dogs. Orwell writes, “Napoleon stood sternly surveying his audience; then he uttered a high-pitched whimper… When they had finished their confession, the dogs promptly tore their throats out, and in a terrible voice Napoleon demanded whether any other animals had anything to confess” (pg. 83-84). The pig turned to horrible acts of violence in order to remind the animals of his control and to prevent rebellions against him. Such a decision caused mixed feelings of doubt and hurt among the animals, and such feelings can even influence Napoleon into taking possibly more drastic measures and induce more harm to the citizens of the farm. Furthermore, after the hens refused to cooperate with Napoleon’s request of taking their eggs