Power: Leadership & Corruption
Power in the context as it relates to people, and Animal Farm, is when someone has control over the actions of other people. Power is occurs most in leadership positions, where a single person, or organization maintains the well being of many. This power can be used for personal gain and this selfishness is common with corrupt leaders.
In the story Animal Farm Napoleon uses is power at first to become respected among the animals as leader, this is easy since Napoleon was an important figure in the revolution. Napoleon keeps building power and up until chapter 5 Napoleon hasn’t done anything extremely drastic that the other animals might question. Now in chapter 6 Napoleon starts to make bigger steps in singling out the intellectuals in the group(him and the other pigs). Napoleon begins by allowing the pigs in the farmhouse insisting that it helps them do their brain work which seems to be getting more difficult all the time. This goes against what the animals discussed after their revolution about keeping the farmhouse as sort of a museum not to be used by anyone. This got the attention of the animals but when they were uneasy Squealer was of course there to put their minds at ease, like he has in previous chapters. But when the pigs begin to use the beds the animals start to question the pigs actions, recalling that there was a commandment against these actions. Clover was described as being suspicious of this saying “read me the Fourth Commandment. Does it not say something about never sleeping in a bed?”(67). This question Clover asked Muriel, who would read the commandments to her. This was only to find that the fourth commandment was changed to beds with sheets couldn’t be slept in. This leads to another demonstration of power in Animal Farm being the power Squealer has over the other animals because of how he can persuade them into thinking the decisions that Napoleon makes are just, this most likely makes Napoleon trust Squealer more. So the corruption in Animal Farm seems to be mostly with Squealer and Napoleon who are using the other animals for personal gain. Napoleon doesn’t do everything for personal gain, at least not entirely he also uses the animals willingness to work against them. Napoleon works the animals extremely hard to give them little time to think about their situation, and the leadership decisions Napoleon makes. Napoleon also uses Snowball as a way to make the animals work harder for their cause.
The idea of power is seen everywhere in leadership, but the places it stands out most are in nations with very powerful governments, such as Russia and North Korea. North Korea’s ideals might be socialist, but some of their leaders are corrupt and don’t support that idea. Leaders in nations like this demonstrate their power with propaganda, and with how they rule their people. For example some rulers may be lenient while others may force their people into submission. In the case of North Korea it seems to be more like Animal Farm where they are subtle making sure they have reasoning behind their actions that the people will understand even if it isn’t good reasoning. This may or may not be the case for North Korea, but it seems that North Korea’s leaders try to manipulate and brainwash their citizens. Which I believe makes North Korea what it is today, a strict and ordered society.
