What Were Some Things Napoleon Did In Animal Farm

Napoleon (a hog)

Don't Look Now

Napoleon is smart—smart enough not to play much a role in the initial rebellion. It'due south only after the animals take rebelled that he takes a leadership office. When we meet him, we learn that he's "a big, rather fierce-looking Berkshire boar, the merely Berkshire on the farm, not much of a talker, but with a reputation for getting his mode" (2.2). In other words: Snowball may win Miss Congeniality, merely Napoleon wins the crown.

Not that Napoleon is into democratic elections, or anything. Nope. He operates through cruelty and treachery. Have his little private army: when Napoleon takes 9 puppies from their parents and begins raising them himself, no one knows why… until then the dogs of a sudden appear, fully grown, to chase Snowball off the farm. What do these dogs do? They "wagged their tails to him in the same way every bit the other dogs had been used to do to Mr. Jones" (5.fifteen). Napoleon may non have as many ideas as Snowball, but he'due south got enough of them.

With Snowball gone, Napoleon is the big man on campus. He doesn't need to talk, considering he has the aptly named Squealer practice his speaking for him. He doesn't need to worry almost protests, because he gets rid of public meetings. He doesn't need to worry about sharing ability, considering he names himself head of every commission. He doesn't need to worry well-nigh being popular, because he's got a smashing PR plan:

In these days Napoleon rarely appeared in public, only spent all his time in the farmhouse, which was guarded at each door by tearing-looking dogs. When he did emerge, it was in a ceremonial way, with an escort of six dogs who closely surrounded him and growled if anyone came also well-nigh. (7.5)

But why doesn't anyone protest? (Well, bated from those dogs, of form.) Well, a lot of the animals are just dumb. Information technology'southward true. When Napoleon re-writes history to brand Snowball into a villain and himself into a revolutionary hero, most of the animals—like Boxer—are gullible plenty to believe him. And the ones who don't, like Benjamin the donkey, just can't be bothered to intendance.

Oh, and at that place's as well the thing where he has a herd of sheep chant loudly whenever anyone questions his version of history.

Socio-Pig

Napoleon's kickoff eyebrow-raising act comes when he unleashes his private dog army on Snowball. The second comes when he squashes the hen rebellion by cutting off their food rations, causing a number of hens to die of starvation.
And and so the false confessions start.

What happens is, Napoleon demands that diverse animals brand faux, public confessions near how they're traitors or how they used to be in league with Jones. And in that location's no such affair as forgive-and-forget on Animal Farm: after these false confessions, "the dogs promptly tore their throats out" (7.25). (Well, you lot take to acknowledge that it'due south an constructive way to become rid of your enemies.)

In this way, Napoleon knocks off his 4 sus scrofa rivals and the hens who acted equally ringleaders in the rebellion. Information technology's pretty gruesome:

And and so the tale of confessions and executions went on, until at that place was a pile of corpses lying before Napoleon's feet and the air was heavy with the smell of claret, which had been unknown in that location since the time of Jones. (7.26)

So, what's this encarmine pile of corpses doing in the heart of Orwell'southward "Fairy Tale"? The whole episode alludes to the 1930s Great Purge, a.k.a. the Swell Terror (nosotros'll say). During the Great Purge, Stalin cleaned house. Thoroughly. Some people merely disappeared; others were sent to the Gulag prison camps; others had to confess publicly to crimes they'd never committed. Officially, he was getting rid of "counter-revolutionaries"; unofficially, he was getting rid of anyone who disagreed with him. (Bank check out "Symbols, Imagery, Allegory" for more than details on the hen rebellion and Stalin's purges.)

Key fact: Napoleon'south preferred method of execution is to have his dogs tear out throats. Aside from being totally barbarous and gross, this is Orwell'due south way of getting in a niggling extra dig at Stalin. Encounter, Napoleon forces the animals to tell lies almost themselves earlier they dice and he makes them afraid to speak the truth—he robs them of free spoken language. That sounds a lot similar tearing out their throats, no?

One affair: dictators ofttimes do horribly violent things. That's kind of in their task description. What'due south baroque well-nigh Stalin is just how horrible his actions were. He seems to have been fueled past paranoia rather than any want—at all—to work for the skillful of his land. By making Stalin into a pig, Orwell shows united states of america just how horrific—and absurd—these purges were.

Money or Power? Why Choose!

Equally shortly as Napoleon seizes power, we realize that he has very niggling involvement in Old Major'southward prophecy. Napoleon doesn't care much if all animals are equal or if they control the ways of production, then what keeps him ticking? The same things that motivate nigh evil dictators: power and greed.

Almost as soon equally Napoleon and Snowball seize power, Napoleon starts squirreling abroad the cows' yummy milk all for himself. And and so the pigs start sleeping in the humans' beds. And and so they start drinking whiskey and having rowdy parties. By the end of the novel, Napoleon and Grunter habiliment human being clothes and walk around on 2 legs.

To make certain all of this floats with the other animals, Napoleon keeps shifting the Commandments to make them say what he wants them to say. Squealer explains that the commandment didn't say that you couldn't slumber in a bed, only that y'all couldn't sleep in a bed with sheets. And it's not that you can't drink booze—you but tin can't drinkable it to excess. But only if you're a hog. For all the other animals, Napoleon says, "the truest happiness lay in working difficult and living frugally" (10.four).

In other words, Napoleon has taken the thought of prosperous living and kept information technology all for himself. Hmph. Some pig.

Non Just A Pig: Napoleon every bit Joseph Stalin

If all this is sounding a lilliputian familiar, it should: Napoleon is a double for existent-life dude Josef Stalin, who served equally the General Secretary of the Russian Communist Party from 1922 until his expiry more than 30 years later. In other words, Stalin was the big man on campus. Er, Russia.

Let's check out some parallels:

Like Napoleon, Stalin was a primary at pulling strings behind the scenes. Similar Napoleon, he had his ain little secret law force, the NKVD (subsequently the KGB). The NKVD assassinated Stalin's rival Leo Trotsky, a.k.a. Snowball, a.1000.a. the guy who really was trying to wait out for the working class.

Like Napoleon, Stalin kept tight control over the media. Napoleon could take lessons from this guy. He commissioned paintings of himself surrounded past adoring children. He substantially re-wrote Russian history, inserting himself into the Russian Revolution of 1917 and afterwards suggesting that he was solely and personally responsible for winning World War II. And, at the same time he was making himself into Russian federation's #ane Savior, he wanted to brand sure that he was remembered for his modesty.

Lol, Stalin. You impale us.

Similar Napoleon, Stalin basically destroyed Russia'southward economic system. Animal Subcontract'southward productivity nose dives when Napoleon's in control, so he decides to fill the granaries with sand to hide the smaller harvest. In 1928, Stalin disrupted agricultural production with his Five-Year Plans. When the Plans acquired widespread famine across Russian federation, Stalin covered up the famines to convince people that everyone that A-OK. (Run across "Symbols, Imagery, Allegory" for more details about this little disaster.)

Similar Napoleon, Stalin lived a lavish lifestyle while everyone else was starving. By constantly changing the rules then that he and his friends are exempt, Napoleon totally makes a mockery Old Major'due south ideas—just like Stalin messed up Karl Marx's ideas. The "worker'due south state" that actually existed nether Stalin was more like a horrible, dark parody of what Marx thought a communist state would be.

In fact, it looked a lot similar the exact opposite of communism: fascism.

A Pig By Any Other Name

Some people proper noun their pigs Wilbur and Babe. Other people (ahem, Mr. Jones) plainly proper name their pigs subsequently monomaniacal dictators.

Napoleon Bonaparte is kind of a big deal. He fought in the French Revolution (1789-1799), and then consolidated power for himself by constructing a French Empire that looked suspiciously like the monarchy that French republic had just overthrown. (Oh, then he tried to take over all of Europe in the bonus round.)

When Karl Marx was writing The Communist Manifesto (1848), he was inspired by the ideas at the heart of the French Revolution: liberty, equality, and fraternity. (Liberté, égalité, fraternité, if you're feeling fancy. Or French.) He really believed that communism would create a utopia with all those nice qualities. Unfortunately, no communist country has quite pulled it off—and the French Revolution didn't quite pull it off, either. (In that location was a trivial hitch with the guillotine and a lot of nasty executions.)

So, with Napoleon the pig, Orwell seems to exist maxim something along the lines of, "Hey Marx, didn't y'all discover how the French Revolution ended?" In other words, Orwell seems to be arguing that idealist thinkers can dream all the dreams they want, only some cocky-interested pig is e'er going to come forth to ruin it for anybody.

Thanks, Napoleon.

Source: https://www.shmoop.com/study-guides/literature/animal-farm/napoleon-pig

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