The novel “Animal Farm”, written by George Orwell, was written as a reference to the Russian Revolution during the Second World War. The main characters of the novel were two, Napoleon and Snowball. The animals in the farm were facing bad treatments from the owner of the farm, Mr Jones; therefore, the animals, led by Napoleon and Snowball, decided to raise a rebellion against Mr Jones and his workers. The rebellion succeeded, and the farm became owned by the animals. Throughout the novel, Napoleon and Snowball could never agree in anything.
All of the sudden, one day Napoleon made a dirty move by convincing the animals in the farm that Snowball was a spy, and he was working with Mr Jones the whole time. This forced Snowball to escape from the farm leaving Napoleon the only leader in the farm. One of the most important themes in this novel was that language could be manipulated to manipulate the population. In relation to the book, many characters demonstrated the manipulation of language; three of them were Squealer, Napoleon, and Minimus. First of all, Squealer displayed language manipulation throughout the novel.
For instance, when the animals in the farm discovered that the milk and the apples were disappearing, it turned out that the milk and the apples were gone to the pigs. Later, Squealer started manipulating with words when he said to the animals in the farm, “Comrades! You do not imagine, I hope, that we pigs are doing this in a spirit of selfishness and privilege? Many of us actually dislike milk and apples. I dislike them myself” (Orwell, 23). Squealer was a good imposter, so he was able to convince the animals in the farm that the pigs, including himself, did not like milk or apples, but hey ate them in order to help the animals in the farm. In addition, the instance when Napoleon managed to get Snowball out of the farm, the animals were shocked.
Then, Squealer was sent by Napoleon to the animals to clear everything up for them, Squealer said, “Comrades, I trust that every animal here appreciates the sacrifice that comrade Napoleon has made in taking this extra labor upon himself. Do not imagine, comrades, that leadership is a pleasure! ” (Orwell, 37). Since the animals d small brain capacities, it was easy to a good bluffer like Squealer, to make the animals believe that Napoleon did everything to them. Add to that, when Snowball used to talk about building a windmill, Napoleon was in disagreement with Snowball. However, when Snowball left the farm. Napoleon announced that the windmill was going to be built in the farm, and again Squealer was sent to speak to the animals. He explained that Napoleon had never in reality opposed to the windmill. On the contrary, it was he who had advocated it in the beginning (Orwell, 39).
Napoleon was benefited a lot from the fact that Squealer was a good bluffer, so he used him multiple times to help him talking to the animals in the farm. Secondly, throughout the novel, Napoleon demonstrated the trait of manipulating words. As seen the instance when Napoleon decided that his farm was going to engage in trade with the other farms in the neighborhood, he said to his farm that the windmill was the most important thing to focus on, so they needed to do everything possible to build the windmill.
Then, he said to the hens, “if more money were needed it would have to be made up by the sale of eggs… he hens should welcome this sacrifice as their own special contribution towards the building of the windmill” (Orwell, 43). This example showed that Napoleon was as smart as Squealer, even smarter maybe, because he knew how to use words and organize them in a way that made the animals believe every single word he said. In addition, Napoleon in most of the time urged the animals and encouraged them to follow the Seven Commandments. However, once, Clover noticed that the pigs, including Napoleon, were sleeping on beds, which violated the commandments (Orwell, 45).
This action was ironic because Napoleon always emphasized following the commandments, and at the same time, he violated them himself. It also showed that the language and words that Napoleon said to the animals were full of lies. Another example, when Napoleon observed that some of the animals were planning against him, he decided to kill them, and later, he did kill them (Orwell, 61). Once again, Napoleon encouraged the animals to follow the seven commandments, but at the same time, he violated them himself. Third, Minimus also exhibited language manipulation in some parts in the novel.
In the seventh chapter, although the animal farm was slowly being destroyed by Napoleon, Minimus, the poet, wrote a song that praised the animal farm in which began: Animal farm, Animal farm, Never through me shalt thou come to harm! (Orwell, 62) Minimus was aware that the animal farm was not doing well, but still, he kept writing and telling lies that praised the animal farm. Adding to that, Napoleon was an unfair leader, but Minimus, as usual, wrote songs and poems praising the animal farm and Napoleon. One of the poems was entitled “comrade Napoleon” (Orwell, 63).
This example showed language manipulation because Minimus knew that Napoleon was a bad leader and did not treat the animals properly. However, these factors did not stop Minimus from writing poems and songs about the animal farm and its leader, Napoleon. To conclude, language manipulation was one of the most important themes throughout the novel. Many characters displayed this evil trait including Squealer, Napoleon, and Minimus. Manipulating words and language was the most important reason why the animal farm was destroyed during the period when Napoleon led the farm.