Could you please give me feedback on my essay.
Question: Question 1: Describe a key relationship between two or more characters or individuals in the text. Explain how this relationship helped you to understand at least one of the characters or individuals.
Any relationship between polar opposites is bound for failure. The relationship I have chosen to examine is between Napoleon, the leader of Animal Farm, and Snowball, Napoleon’s rival. I have chosen to investigate their relationship, and how it helped me understand Napoleon better.
Napoleon and Snowball are complete polar opposites, they have opposite personalities, opposite views, opposite beliefs; and to top it off, they’re both candidates for leadership of Animal Farm. Napoleon is selfish, power-hungry, manipulative, and stubborn. Snowball is a considerate, intelligent, empathetic, brave, organized, and isn’t afraid to voice his opinion or stand up to Napoleon, these are all excellent qualities of a leader. Being opposites does not bode well in a relationship, especially a political one. The saying, “opposites attract”, is completely incorrect in my opinion, opposites do not attract, they repel. “All men are enemies, all animals are comrades,” was a quote from an animal farm that wasn’t really followed by Napoleon and Snowball. The two did not act like comrades, they acted like enemies.
Since Napoleon and Snowball are so incompatible it is virtually impossible for them to coexist in the same environment. There was an extreme, but inevitable rift between Napoleon and Snowball, when Snowball tries to introduce the animals to electricity and Napoleon lets out a strange whimper, the animals probably didn’t notice this but it was a signal for the nine enormous dogs to charge the barn, attack Snowball, and run him off the farm. The reason for this is because Napoleon did not see Snowball as a comrade, but as competition for the leadership of an animal farm. Napoleon’s greed was the only reason that Snowball was chased off, and that the authority in the animal farm became corrupt. Before Snowball was chased away he was the only animal opposed to Napoleon’s beliefs, and without Snowball the animals became conditioned to Napoleon’s dictatorship, and didn’t realize that what Napoleon was doing was immoral and unethical. And without someone speaking out against him, or advising him, Napoleon couldn’t see that what he was doing was wrong or cruel, he didn’t realize that everything he was doing was going against old Major’s teachings. He thought that anything that was of benefit to him was the best thing to do, because he is purely self motivated and doesn’t care about the well-being of anyone else.
Despite all of the unacceptable things that Napoleon did, him and Snowball’s bad relationship helped me understand his behavior. Before Old Major spoke up, and before the Animals took over, Napoleon never knew what it was like to be in a position of power and how it felt to be responsible for more than just himself. I feel that Napoleon was thrown into leadership too fast and too soon, he didn’t understand what it meant to be a leader, to be concerned with more than just one animal. But once Napoleon had a taste of power and saw how much control he had, he didn’t want any less. That is the real reason why he had his guard dogs get rid of Snowball, because he felt threatened and didn’t want his rule to end. He instilled a toxic social hierarchy, so all of the other animals would be beneath him, “all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.” This is a perfect example of the social hierarchy Napoleon created, it made the animals that weren’t in charge feel inferior, most of the animals knew what it meant but they didn’t speak up because of the fear Napoleon instilled within all of them. I feel that Napoleon 's paranoia intensified over time and that is why he had the guard dogs surrounding him at all times. Especially after his dispute with Snowball I feel like he saw threats everywhere, and it made him feel unsafe. I can understand Napoleon’s personal reasons for doing the things he did, but I can’t understand how he morally justified them. Old Major trusted him to lead, and even gave him a head start by saying that pigs were among the smartest of all the animals.
Snowball and Napoleon’s relationship helped me understand Napoleon more, although Snowball was a better leader and had better morals, their relationship helped understand Napoleons better as a whole. It helped me understand his motives, judgements, decisions, and his reason for being so selfish, which was the obvious reason for Snowball’s distaste towards Napoleon. In some cases, opposites attract might be true, and might happen. But in Snowball and Napoleons case, opposites don’t attract.