Question:
Describe at least one way that a character or individual changed in the text.
Explain how this change was important to the text as a whole.
Napoleon (Josef Stalin)
A character that changed in George Orwell’s ‘Animal farm’ is Napoleon, he is a large Berkshire boar who fights for power which represents the real life of Josef Stalin, the leader of communist Russia. He changed because he wanted everything for himself whilst his rival Snowball (Trotsky) was fighting for the good of the other animals, Napoleon abused his power and got leadership for himself using force.
George Orwell wrote ‘Animal farm’ to serve as a warning against totalitarianism. He did this after the major events of NAZI Germany and communist Russia - Totalitarian starts with abuse of power that led to the death of millions of innocent people.
A character that changed inside the novel was Napoleon (Stalin) where he set off at the beginning where he was a good guy. During the time of Old major’s (Karl Marx) death, Napoleon started to act differently and more apart from the other animals and made one of the rooms inside animal farm his private space where Napoleon and Squealer (Pravda) would talk alone about there plans on manipulating and controlling the other animals with lies and force which is seen through the whole novel but grows rapidly and makes us think about how easy it is for someone to take power over you when you either don’t care or you just follow everyone else due to the lack of knowledge or being too shy to say something.
During their time hiding, Napoleon (Stalin) and Squealer (Pravda) planned to uphold different commandments from the 7 commandments that Snowball (Trotsky) came up with from what Old Major (Karl Marx) had to say in his speech before passing away due to old age. Napoleon (Stalin) didn’t like the idea of all the other animals looking up to Snowball as their leader, Napoleon wanted the leadership role and the first sign of this was taking the 9 puppies (KGB) away from its mother to corrupt their minds and manipulate them into thinking Snowball is an enemy, by doing this Napoleon and Squealer forced leadership with chasing Snowball out the gate with the 9 puppies as fear so the other animals won’t temp him because the power he forced is now the power he is going to force onto the other animals and there’s no going back now apart from a long road to hell.
As the lies and stories go on, Napoleon grows bigger and stronger with him becoming more like a man with trades, drinking alcohol, and carrying a whip that symbolizes slavery. Napoleon (Stalin) teaches all the piglets at their own private school to become the dominant ones to the other animals that didn’t get to see the way of education, Napoleon taught them to stand like him and to carry a whip-like him. This shows that the piglets have been manipulated (Brainwashed) into following the life of Josef Stalin (Napoleon). Each day the piglets would watch over the animals and whip them if they slack off or go against the leader’s word. Napoleon took a massive jump from the start of the novel to the ending of the novel by breaking all 7 commandments the top 3 commandments that should be kept are; “whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy”, “No animal shall kill any other animal” and “All animals are equal” Napoleon (Stalin) broke these commandments and changed them to suit himself and the piglets, Napoleon never wanted the other animals to have a say or what they want without being controlled by jones. Napoleon made everything clear that he wanted the fame and to keep this was to keep the animals ignorant and not knowing the outside world like what North Korea where the people think they have the best life and have no knowledge on the world around them cause they’ve been so caught up with trying not to oppose the leader and end up disappearing as millions did in 1920-1953 when leader Josef Stalin took power.
The novel ‘Animal farm’ is still relevant in today’s time is because people like Josef Stalin we need to look out for, we specifically need to understand how power corruption is easily taken and if you don’t stand up for something you stand for then you’re gonna wish you had said something because even though you think it’s a dumb idea, it could actually be a life-changer for you and for many. I believe that schools should be learning this novel and those countries that burn the book are the countries we should be mindful of.
In conclusion, George Orwell’s ‘Animal Farm’ is a novel about abuse of power and how characters change from good to bad, the publisher makes us think about our world and how people change with a snap of the finger, the novel teaches the readers that people do change and if you play along with them, in the long run, you’re affecting many civilians and lives are in danger just like they were back when Josef Stalin abused his power.