The Struggle For Power In George Orwell's Animal Farm

In Animal Farm written by George Orwell, direct parallels are made between the complex characters and events with the Czarist Russia and the life of the Russian peasantry. Life was not easy for the peasants in Russian and in the novel the characters show the peasant's point of view on the government. The novel also shows the mindset of those in authority as well as the complicated struggle for power. The mistreatment of the lower class was a prevalent problem in this time because of their lack of education and ignorance. Since the lower class and peasants were ignorant the leaders had the ability to manipulate them and completely control their lives. Also Orwell displays his feelings of czarist Russian through the vivid description of the setting …show more content…
Snowball was one of the leaders of the rebellion alongside Napoleon. Snowball is more clever than Napoleon and is one of the few characters that is aware of what is happening (G.). Napoleon needs Snowball because he is a good speaker while Napoleon is not. Snowball’s goal is to make life truly better for those on the farm but when he starts to realizes Napoleon’s plan for complete control he is forced off Animal Farm and is never seen again (Rodden). Snowball parallels Leon Trotsky in that he also wanted to genuinely improve the life of the people. Unfortunately, he is ran off just as Snowball was by the KGB (Lamont). Napoleon is the new leader of Animal Farm and has essentially brainwashed all of the animals on the farm. He is not ethical and is only a power seeking pig. He uses his wit and status to manipulate the other animals. “Throughout the spring and summer they worked a sixty-hour week, and in August Napoleon announced that there would be work on Sunday afternoons as well. This work was strictly voluntary, but any animal who absented himself from it would have his rations reduced by half ” (Orwell). Napoleon created new rules for the animals to follow that ultimately just benefitted himself. He lets the animals know that the extra work is voluntary to give them a sense that it is their choice but in reality they have to do the extra work because if not they would have less food than they were already getting. All of this happens while Napoleon and the other pigs in charge are not doing the manual labor the other animals are but they still end up getting more food because they have the harder job of being the brains of the farm. They tell the animals this to make them think that Napoleon and the other oigs really have it harder then them but in reality it is the opposite and Napoleon is just deceiving all of