Animal Farm Essay

Throughout the book, Animal Farm, a great change occurs in the animal’s leaders, the pigs. In the beginning of the book, Old Major, a pig, began the rebellion. He had the idea of a better society and living conditions for animals. Old Major’s ideas were the basis of the story. As the story progressed, though, his rules and laws began to be broken and warped.

When Major died, Snowball took over and continued his dreams. A rebellion occurred, in which the animals took over Manor Farm, owned by Mr. Jones. Snowball was a key factor in this. He established “commandments” and other guidelines for animalism. For a while, the animals were happy and content. They worked hard, but they were rewarded for their efforts. It was easy for the animals to see that they were moving towards a goal. The first sign of corruption was when the animals realized that the pigs had been keeping all of the apples and milk to themselves. The pigs said that they needed this to keep up their strength. The main propagandist, Squealer, would always change any arguments back to “You don’t want Jones to come back, do you?” Since the animals didn’t want this, the discussion was always ended.

At some point, Napoleon, another pig, takes over. He chases Snowball out and pronounces the death sentence on him and anyone who helps him. Napoleon changes how things had been set up. He becomes more of a figurehead and less of a leader. Napoleon begins to stop working with the others. He also sets up a bodyguard, of dogs, and has other pigs that are his close associates. Napoleon also begins to live in the house. While he is living his the house, he begins to break the fundamental rules of animalism. At night, he has Squealer change the commandments so that they fit with what the pigs are doing. They add things like “No animal may sleep in a bad… with sheets,” or “No animal shall drink alcohol… to excess.” By slowly changing these rules, the pigs become more power hungry, more suspicious, and more like the humans.

Eventually, Napoleon becomes almost like a God to the lesser animals, while the smarter animals begin to realize his corruption. At one point, Napoleon pretends to send their hardest worker, Boxer the horse, to the hospital, when he is actually being sent to a glue factory to be killed. Napoleon also kills animals that he claims were aiding Snowball. As this is happening, Napoleon starts appearing in public less and less. He goes out on very few, special occasion, most of which are just used to show what a great, fearless, hard-working leader he is, while Napoleon is really just staying in the house drinking and behaving like a human.

In the end of the book, Napoleon and the other leaders become completely corrupted. They becomes as close to humans as possible. This is shown through their wearing of clothes. The power completely changed their ideas, and they thought of themselves as superior to other animals. The pigs changed the final commandment to say, “All animals are equal… but some are more equal than others” which shows their feelings towards the others. They had completely lost Major’s plan of an ideal society, in which everyone was happy and prosperous. It shows that the idea of animalism/socialism does not work. The leaders change in the process and that much power is never good. It gave them a feeling of supremacy. This shows how the change in the pigs throughout the book, Animal Farm.