Mistaken Power: How Animal Farm Reflects This
Why is it that people with high authority make so many mistakes? Well that is what the story looks at. In Animal Farm by George Orwell, the author studies the topic of power. Indeed, the story suggests that power can always be corrupt. Firstly, power can corrupt in the way that one is not capable of its management. Another way power can corrupt is that when one has high authority, they abuse it. Power can also be corrupt in the way that one lies and manipulates others in order to gain even more dominance. As a result of this, the power a person withholds is often corrupted.
Initially, power can be corrupt in the way that one is not capable of its management. This paragraph …show more content…
This paragraph will show how power is abused and corrupt within Animal Farm. This is shown around the time that Snowball was banished from the farm. The quote was directed at the animals of the farm: “Throughout the spring and summer they worked a sixty-hour week, and in August Napoleon announced that there would be work on Sunday afternoons as well. This work was strictly voluntary, but any animal who absented himself from it would have his rations reduced by half.”(Page 40) This shows that Napoleon has abused his power by saying that the work is “voluntary” but if the animals do not do it, then their food ration will be halved; basically stating that the animals must work on Sundays if they want to eat. Power becoming abused and corrupt is also shown around the time the windmill is built, and Snowball comes and destroys it. The quote was about Squealer trying to get the pigs a better workplace: “It was absolutely necessary, he said, that the pigs, who were the brains of the farm, should have a quiet place to work in. It was also more suited to the dignity of the Leader (for of late he had taken to speaking of Napoleon under the title of "Leader") to live in a house than in a mere sty. Nevertheless, some of the animals were disturbed when they heard that the pigs not only took their meals in the kitchen and used the drawing-room as a recreation room, but also slept in the beds.” (Page 45) This suggests that the pigs thought that because they had higher authority than the other animals, they had the right to a better workplace environment. As a result, when one has high authority, it is often abused, and power is