Animal Farm paper about to much power

Essay by SkylineGTRHigh School, 11th gradeA, February 2004

download word file, 2 pages 3.0

A Little Power is too much

"Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely" is a famous quote that explains a lot. In the book "Animal Farm", by George Orwell, corruption of power is seen in many different ways. In the story Napoleon is seen manipulating the animals by changing the rules for his benefit, taking the things that are not only for him, taking power by force, and taking advantage of the animal's stupidity.

The milk and apples are a perfect example of Napoleon and the pigs taking advantage of the other animals. By Napoleon wanting the milk and apples he decided that it was for him and the pigs without even telling the other animals that they were consuming them. But when the animals started to notice the milk and apples were gone every day they asked the pigs and Squealer simply said: "You do not imagine, I hope, that we pigs are doing this in a spirit of selfishness and privilege? Many of us actually dislike apples.

Our sole object in taking these things is to preserve our health" (52), and with this quote Squealer is trying, and is, outsmarting the other animals for the advantage of the pigs.

Napoleon wanted all the power for himself and saw that the only thing stopping him from all the power is Snowball and the other animals rebelling against him. He needed a way for Snowball to leave and the other animals to listen to him so he took Jessie's puppies and trained them to listen to him and nobody else. The first time when the dogs were seen was when the ran out Snowball by the order of Napoleon. Orwell describes this as: "At this there was a terrible baying sound outside, and nine enormous dogs wearing...