Examples Of Abuse Of Power In Animal Farm

Power in the world today is most commonly used in one of two different fashions, it is either embraced or abused. In George Orwell’s, Animal Farm, the many farm animals are successful in liberating themselves from their horrid owner, Mr.Jones, only to find themselves led by one of their counterparts named Napoleon. Napoleon is an intelligent pig who abuses his given power in many instances such as his hatred shown towards his comrade Snowball, changing the commandments in order to benefit himself, and making others feel inferior to himself. The expression “rules are meant to be broken” was shown to be true soon after Napoleon was put into power following the extraction of Mr. Jones from Animal Farm. Napoleon abused his power on numerous occasions by changing the original commandments which he and his counterparts, the pigs had …show more content…
Around the farm, rumors spread saying that Napoleon was sleeping in a bed inside the farmhouse, and when questioned about this it was noticed that Napoleon had the rule changed to “no animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets” (79). This is the first instance where Napoleon single handily changed a commandment in order to enhance his own lifestyle and make himself more comfortable on the farm. After finding a case of whisky in the basement of the farmhouse, Napoleon and his fellow pigs took the pleasure of treating themselves to a party. As it is not healthy for animals to consume alcohol, Napoleon changed the commandment to say that the consumption of alcohol shall be punished by death. About a week following this announcement when Napoleons good health returned to normal, he changed the commandment so that it read “no animal shall drink alcohol to excess” (113). By doing this once again the animals of the farm