How does Orwell present Napoleon

Essay by 11lbladesJunior High, 9th gradeA, October 2014

download word file, 3 pages 0.0

Downloaded 1 times

How does Orwell present the character of Napoleon in "Animal Farm"?

George Orwell's Animal Farm is written in the fairy tale style of one of Aesop's fables where it uses animals of an English farm to tell the history of Soviet communism. Napoleon's character is based directly on the communist party leader Joseph Stalin

Orwell's physical description of Napoleon is a 'large, rather fierce looking Berkshire Boar' and his character is said to be not much of a talker, but had a reputation of getting his own way. From the way that this pig is portrayed in these lines means he is going to be a strong ruler because

When Old Major dies a few nights after his famous Rebellion speech, Napoleon and Snowball, both boars, combine together and formulate his main principles into a philosophy called Animalism. A few nights later when they have defeated Mr Jones in battle and changed the farm name to Animal Farm they work together in running the farm.

Snowball teaches the animals to read, whilst Napoleon educates a young group of puppies. It is here where Napoleon first begins to work on the beginning of the Rebellion when he tells Mollie and Bluebell that education was more important to the young than the old as he was preparing for the next generation. However what he was really doing was preparing for the uprising against Snowball, to take charge of the farm, when the dogs would play a pivotal role acting as body guards to him.

Orwell contrasts Napoleon and Snowball in a way that forces them to have contradictory ideas. Snowball wants pure communism where everyone benefits equally, whereas on the other hand Napoleon prefers power. Snowball invents all of the ideas and arranging the animals into committees to help...