Power Corrupts in Animal Farm

Power is authority and strength, which is any form of motive force or energy, ability to act, or control. When too much power is given, a dictatorship government can form, in which all decisions are made by one authority. In the book Animal Farm, by George Orwell the author portrays how “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely”. From the death of Old Major, Snowball, Napoleon, and Squealer replaced him. At first things started off pretty well; the harvest was very good the first year and the reading and writing system had helped some, but had limited success on others.

In time, the leaders of animal farm started to have mixed feelings. Snowball and Napoleon were in constant disagreement. An important meeting that was held ended with an astonishing outcome. One decision that was made was concerning the windmill project and the most important decision made was who would be the head animal. Snowball and Napoleon each gave their input on what needs to be done around the farm. “Snowball stood up and, though occasionally interrupted by bleating from the sheep, set forth his reasons for advocating the building of the windmill.

Then Napoleon stood up to reply. He said very quietly that the windmill was nonsense and that he advised nobody to vote for it”. At this time, Snowball jumped back up to convince the people that it was a good idea to build a windmill. Then Napoleon sent his dogs after snowball and they chased him off the farm. Since Snowball had been expelled, Napoleon took over “The Manor Farm” which led to food shortage, hard labor, and deaths. He used his knowledge and education to take over the farm.

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With all the pigs and dogs on his side Napoleon had absolute power. The pigs were the brains of the farm and the dogs were the military force of the farm. Napoleon had complete control over the farm. Napoleon’s power corrupted the whole idea of Animalism & The Seven Commandments, which the farm first started with. The power that the three pigs obtained had corrupted them and, then Napoleon received absolute power, which corrupted the society as a whole. Throughout the story Napoleon’s power continually increases, but he’s never quite satisfied.

Napoleon is always greedy for more power. Napoleon's standards are that he must have complete power and rule over everyone, though he becomes corrupt because he gains absolute power over everyone on the farm. Stalin loses power because he is always hungry for more power, and is never satisfied with the power that he has. As Stalin dies Russia is completely corrupt because the power was not evenly distributed, and the citizens did not count as people. No power is given to the people under Stalin’s rule.

Only him, and a few other privileged individuals live with power and respect in the community. In conclusion, history has proven that power is the root of all evil in a communism style government or congregation. In Animal Farm, the animals tried to be equal, but in time, some animals had certain views and different opinions and some gradually became more powerful. No matter how hard in society we try, equality will never truly be reached by mankind for the reason that “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely” (Lord Acton).

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