When used properly, propaganda which is an opinion or belief can be very useful and powerful in persuasion. In the novel Animal Farm propaganda is the very visible to the reader and is used frequently in the book There are three types of propaganda used in this novel, which are misinformation, sloganizing, and scapegoating. These three types are used throughout the book and play an important part in the novel. When used these three types of propaganda get Napoleon and the rest of the pigs what they wanted. Without these forms of propaganda the pigs would not have been as successful as they were in taking over and ruling the Manor Farm Misinformation was used to lead the animals into believing the lies of the pigs. The animals were always being told vague lies and they did not know better than to believe. The pigs were frequent uses of misinformation they double talked the animals all the time.
Werner Erhard and Associates v. Christopher Cox fo...
Napoleon Crossing the Alps
The Scapegoat by William Holman Hunt (1827-1910)An example of this would be when the pigs told all the animals that they cannot eat any apples or drink any milk (pg 23) This is because the pigs convinced the rest of the animals that the apples and milk helped them think and organise better, so the animals agreed to give all the milk and apples to the pigs. Misinformation was used and worked very well on all the animals, this was definitely an effective form of propaganda.
Sloganizing also played a big role for propaganda in this novel. Everything the animals did referred to slogans, songs, or just phrases the pigs would tell them. The seven commandments made up by the pigs, was a huge guide for all the animals. The animals lived their lives making sure to obey all the commandments and to prove to themselves that they did not need humans to survive. An example of one of the commandments is "two legs bad four legs good."ÃÂ ( pg 15) This commandment as well as the other six commandments were repeated over and over by the animals in efforts to please the pigs and to stay true to their farm. Boxer repeated over and over to himself the phrase " I will work harder, "ÃÂ this was told to him by one of the pigs and when they told him that he always referred to it. This phrase was like his energy, and it worked well because it made him work hard at all times. Slogainizing started at the beginning of the novel with the song "Beast of England"ÃÂ and ended the book with the phrase that Squealer taught the animals when they were forced not to sing Beast of England anymore, and was used constantly and successfully throughout rest of the book.
Finally, Scapegoating was used as a form of propaganda, and once again used mainly by the pigs in brainwashing the other animals. Scapegoating is placing the blame on someone else and this was done again and again by Napoleon. An example of this was placing the blame of the destruction of the windmill on Snowball (pg 52). When Snowball was forced off the farm, Napoleon blamed all the problems and things that went wrong on him, the animals without hesitation believed every word he said. Napoleon found scapegoating to be the way out of all his problems which is the reason why he decided to blame all the things that went bad, on someone else. This form of propaganda was very useful to Napoleon and to the rest of the pigs.
In conclusion, propaganda plays a major role in this novel. The pigs which are mainly the leaders of the farm, use scapegoating, misinformation, and sloganizing forms of propaganda techniques to brainwash the other animals and in the end, because of this they gain total control of the farm.
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Cover to the propaganda comic book "Is This Tomorr...