Control is an important tool for power and is imperative to any leader. That idea is explored in George Orwell’s novel, Animal Farm. One idea that changed the reader’s perspective of the text is the idea of control. It changed the reader’s perspective from thinking it was just another part of leading to thinking that it is the most vital part of leading anything. The Pigs in Animal Farm control the food which in turn controls the animals. The pig Squealer is a metaphor for the media and even though the pigs are the ‘leaders’ they do not do any actual work.
The pigs have total control over the food portions and ratios for each animal. This means that they can skew the amounts each animal gets to control them or slip some extra for themselves. We see an example of the pigs doing this when there is some spare apples and milk leftover after everyone’s portions had been divvied out. “When the animals came back from work, the apples and milk were all gone and the pigs were nowhere to be seen.” This is a quote from when the pigs took the apples and milk and the purpose is to show the reader that the pigs had in fact, eaten all of the apples and milk. This links to the idea of control because there was nothing the animals could do about what the pigs had done. It shows us the pigs controlled the food and had the power to eat it and none of the animals to question them. This changed the reader’s perspective because they see that through control, the pigs can do whatever they want.
In the novel, the pig Squealer is a metaphor for the Pravda. The Pravda is a newspaper run by Joseph Stalin during the Russian revolution and was incredibly important to his success. Squealer is one of the most vital parts to Napoleon’s success because he convinced the animals that what the pigs were doing was all in the best interest for the farm. When the animals start to question the pigs about what they do all day, the squealer says, “We have to gather lots of stats and figures.” The animals eat this up and there are no further questions. This is how Napoleon gained control, through Squealer the pig and his convincing ways. This links to the idea of control because Napoleon can make the animals believe anything he wants Because they believe everything Squealer says in its entirety. This changed the reader’s perspective because they see how they trust Squealer which is ultimately the common animal’s downfall.
The pigs command around all of the animals on the fields but never actually do any of the work themselves. They control all of the labour that the animals do and this means that they can get away with doing no work themselves. “The pigs did not actually work, but directed and supervised the others” from this we can see that the pigs labelled themselves with the titles of ‘directors and supervisors’ which really meant telling the animals to work harder. This links to the idea of control because the pigs controlled the other animals’ workload and got away with doing nothing themselves. This changed the reader’s perspective because they learned that control, once attained, was all you needed to just sit back and watch everything else unfold in front of your eyes.
In conclusion, control is an important tool for power and is imperative to any leader. The reader’s perspective is changed from thinking that control is just another part of leading to thinking that it is the most vital part of leading anything. We saw this because the pigs controlled the food, Squealer was a metaphor for the media and the pigs did not actually work but got away with it through their control over the animals.
