The Effects Of George Orwell's Animal Farm

Throughout history, different types of government have been criticized in various ways. During World War II, communist governments were constantly being criticized by many people across the world. George Orwell specifically looked at the Russian Revolution through his novel, Animal Farm. Orwell showed how power was abused by Joseph Stalin while he was controlling the Soviet Union through the character Napoleon and his rise to power. He shows this abuse of power through Napoleon’s abuse towards people, his abuse of his secret police force, and the way he abused his power to make the country strong, all which Stalin also did in the Soviet Union. Napoleon and Stalin both wanted to have complete control over the people of their land. Napoleon …show more content…
He didn 't live up to this promise, however, the animals actually got much less food than what Jones was giving them. Napoleon was nearly starving the other animals without them knowing because he would have the bins “filled nearly to the brim with sand,” then had the sand covered with what remained of the grain to hide that there wasn 't enough feed for all the animals to have a sufficient amount to sustain them properly (Orwell, 75). Napoleon is choosing to slowly harm the animals instead of trying to fix the problem because he wants to seem like he is the perfect leader and can make everything right for the farm. If he didn 't have so much pride in himself, he may not have abused his power in trying to seem like a perfect leader. Historically, Stalin did something similar to the Soviet Union, the only difference being that they were aware of what was happening. Stalin had ordered for a nationwide famine so he would be able to “[continue] to export huge quantities of grain abroad” to help with industrialization (Discover the Networks). The famine caused many to become weaker and many also left the country just to try to find enough food to increase their nutrients. Stalin was trying to help the country by increasing their power …show more content…
Napoleon first used violence in the killing of many of the farm animals who confessed to knowing something about Snowball and his activity on the farm. Napoleon had animals come up to confess their knowings, and if they admitted to knowing of anything of Snowball’s whereabouts, true or made up, then Napoleon had “the dogs promptly [tear] their throats out” (Orwell, 84). This was a very harsh measure of punishment that led to at least seven animals dying even though many of them didn 't know anything about Snowball. The torture these animals went through was violating their right to live based on the “Seven Commandments” that the whole farm had come up with (Orwell, 25). Similarly, Stalin had a major purge on those who he felt weren 't capable of supporting the country or Stalin himself. His “mass execution of Polish nationals” along with the twenty million civilians that were sent to labor camps, where many died, are now known as purges (Gracheva). These purges were very harsh on those being killed, and those in labor camps that survived did not leave the camps very strong or with much energy. Napoleon also showed the idea of sending animals away from the farm with the full intention of the animal not returning. As Boxer, a carthorse, was becoming older and incapable of work, Napoleon told boxer he was going to the