Animal Farm as an Allegory Essay

Throughout the allegory Animal Farm, written by George Orwell, three distinctive thesis ideas became relevant. Power corrupts those who possess it., Peoples ignorance contributes to their oppression., and All societies contain individuals who will seize power for their own ends. are these ideas that grow on the characters through this novel. All of which can be contributed to the hunger for power thats in most of us.

When Manor Farm was run by Mr. Jones all of the animals believed that man was the root of all evil. Jones was corrupted by the power he had. He let the ignorance of the animals lead to their oppression. His power allowed him to do things that totally neglected the animals of the farm. When the animals were fed up with this they spoke of rebellion. Their leader, Old Major, fueled the rebellious attitude towards man. He wanted to destroy their oppression and live freely with the other animals. One night the animals ran Jones and his family off the farm and finally had it all to themselves. Even though this rebellion was after Old Majors time he was still in the heart of everyone when they started their attack.

Now that the farm was run by the animals they needed to set some rules down so no one would get out of hand. They basically read that no animal should ever act like a human would, no animal should ever kill any other animal, and all animals are equal. In the beginning everything was going well, but some things didnt seem to be how they should. Most animals were pulling their weight, doing whatever needed to be done, yet some looked like they were sitting back and smelling the roses, like the pigs. This landed them with a lot of skeptic stares.

The leaders of the uprising were at first Napoleon and Snowball, the two head pigs. Because Napoleon wanted power for himself he led a team to exile Snowball from the farm. Once he had control of the farm he used his power and the other animals ignorance to influence every aspect of life there. He had Boxer, the old horse, killed and made into glue, yet the others were told he was kept in the hospital. He took Jesses puppies away from her and made her believe they would have a better life. Then he corrupted the dogs so they would basically become his posse, and would intimidate the animals into obedience. He took the rules laid down by Old Major and changed them only to benefit the pigs. He did this all because of the position of power he possessed, which was a horrible sight to see.

To truly see the corrupting force the pigs had on them is to see them dressed as humans near the end of the novel. They even walked and talked like humans in the last scenes. This absolutely shows the relationship between the plot line and the three thesis ideas stated in the above paragraphs. Power corrupts. Ignorance leads to oppression. Individuals will seize power for their own ends.