Essay/Term paper: Propoganda in animal farm

Essay, term paper, research paper:  George Orwell

HOW PROPAGANDA WAS USED IN ANIMAL FARM



Propaganda is used by people to falsify or distort the truth. In the book Animal

Farm, many things happened to Napoleon and the other pigs because of using propaganda.

First of all, Napoleon and the pigs used propaganda to tell lies the animals would

believe. For example, when Boxer was taken away in the knacker truck, Squealer got all

the animals to believe that the truck had been bought by the hospital, but they hadn"t taken

the stickers on the side off yet (pg. 115). Also, on page 61, when Napoleon first drove

out Snowball, Napoleon told the animals that the windmill was his idea and he just

pretended not to like it to get rid of Snowball. The animals all believed him because they

were ignorant. And finally, when the windmill was first destroyed, on page 72, Napoleon

used propaganda to make all the animals believe that Snowball had destroyed the windmill

himself and had been a traitor from the beginning. He even had them convinced that

Snowball had actually tried to sabotage the Battle of Cowshed but failed (pg. 79).

Secondly, all the people that were lying and using propaganda were gaining power.

The pigs were given larger amounts of food, and even lived in better conditions than the

other animals. They were able to do this because they told all the animals that, since they

were the real brains behind Animal Farm"s accomplishments, they needed to rest better so

they could be in good mental health. Squealer used propaganda more then any other

animal on the farm, and he prospered from it. He became Napoleon"s second hand man by

making everyone believe they remembered wrongly about the commandments (pg. 70),

and made sure everyone always believed Napoleon was a good leader. The best example

was Napoleon; he lied about the windmill (pg. 61), the Battle of Cowshed (pg. 79), and

the changing of the commandments (pg. 69) to get away with many things and gain great

power. He became their unchallenged leader and no one opposed him.

And finally, because of using propaganda, the pigs gained the trust of the animals.

First of all, every single commandment on the wall was changed, and every time the

animals believed Squealer was telling the truth about them, even after they found him one

night next to a tipped over ladder and paint, near the wall (pg. 102). All the lies Napoleon

told the animals were believed, to illustrate, Napoleon convinced all the animals that

Snowball was a traitor from the beginning. Even though some animals very clearly

remember him nothing like that, they trusted Napoleon because they thought he was

smarter and remembered it better. One of the best examples was Boxer, who would

almost constantly say the phrases, "Napoleon is always right," and, "I"ll work harder" (pg.

69). Boxer was probably one of the most ignorant animals on the farm and always

believed Napoleon.

Therefore, you can see how many things happened to Napoleon and the pigs

because of using propaganda. I wonder if any animal on the farm figured out that almost

nothing was true.