Ignorance Enables Corruption Who is at greater fault? If a tyrant is given the power, albeit to abuse, is it his fault to utilize the power given, or the fault of those who bestow the power on them? Failure cannot be pinned on just one person, but the people involved as a whole. Therefore, by indirectly causing the collapse of one's own community, it is the community's fault for acting as catalyst to the events to come. Although unintentional, it is the passiveness and ignorance of the farm animals that leads to the utter failure of their ideal society. A necessity to ensure an ideal and functional community, as demonstrated in George Orwell's 1945 novel Animal Farm, is the ability to detect and prevent corrupt conduct, read, and the will
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“Clover, who thought she remembered a definite ruling against beds, went to the end of the barn and tried to puzzle out the Seven Commandments which were inscribed there. Finding herself unable to read more than individual letters, she fetched Muriel” (Orwell 45). The inability to read proves to be a significant liability to the advancement of Animalism, the philosophy of the animals residing in Animal Farm. This makes the animals easy to cheat, and easy to convince. With Squealer to spread propaganda to further the pigs’ agenda, the pigs take the farm animals’ illiteracy to their advantage by changing the commandments written on the wall. “At the foot of the end wall of the big barn, where the Seven Commandments were written, there lay a ladder broken in two pieces. Squealer, temporarily stunned, was sprawling beside it, and near at the hand there lay a lantern, a paintbrush and an overturned pot of white paint” (Orwell 73). This is to make the pigs seem like they are still abiding by the commandments, when in reality they are exploiting the commandments to suit themselves. They no longer care about Animalism as they cease to benefit from this philosophy. The pigs, who have become the leaders due to their manifest intelligence, have become what they resented from the start. This gradual yet shocking transition from hero to antagonist is what the rest of the farm neglects to
“Clover, who thought she remembered a definite ruling against beds, went to the end of the barn and tried to puzzle out the Seven Commandments which were inscribed there. Finding herself unable to read more than individual letters, she fetched Muriel” (Orwell 45). The inability to read proves to be a significant liability to the advancement of Animalism, the philosophy of the animals residing in Animal Farm. This makes the animals easy to cheat, and easy to convince. With Squealer to spread propaganda to further the pigs’ agenda, the pigs take the farm animals’ illiteracy to their advantage by changing the commandments written on the wall. “At the foot of the end wall of the big barn, where the Seven Commandments were written, there lay a ladder broken in two pieces. Squealer, temporarily stunned, was sprawling beside it, and near at the hand there lay a lantern, a paintbrush and an overturned pot of white paint” (Orwell 73). This is to make the pigs seem like they are still abiding by the commandments, when in reality they are exploiting the commandments to suit themselves. They no longer care about Animalism as they cease to benefit from this philosophy. The pigs, who have become the leaders due to their manifest intelligence, have become what they resented from the start. This gradual yet shocking transition from hero to antagonist is what the rest of the farm neglects to