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Example research essay topic: Nineteen Eighty Four Snowball And Napoleon - 2,028 words

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Usage of Propaganda and Logical Fallacies as Means of Control in The Animal Farm George Orwell opposed Britains involvement in the early stages of World War II, but as German aggression increased in 1940 he attempted to enlist in the military. He was refused because of his ill health. He instead enlisted in the British Home Guard, and also worked for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). Orwell's book, the satirical allegory The Animal Farm (1945), took direct aim at Stalin's takeover of the fledgling Soviet Union in the 1920 s.

The book at first glance looks and reads like a childs fable, but in reality this is a book that has implied propaganda and logical fallacies that criticize the Revolutionary events that took place in the world during the early 20 th Century. The writer portrays major revolutionary figures of his time as animals among which it is easy to recognize some figures but others take a while reading in order to see who it is. (Pearson) Right from the beginning of the book Old Major, the old, wise pig leader, informs all the animals of the farm about a dream he had. He tells them that animals do all of the work, produce all of the products, get treated unfairly, and get slaughtered when they prove to be no longer useful. This is all because animals are enslaved by Man the only creature that consumes without producing. Old Major soon dies, but his mission lives on. Old Major represents Karl Marx, whose ideas set the Communist Revolution into motion.

The animals start to prepare themselves for the rebellion, or the revolution. This shows how in a political world, the people are getting fed up with the way the government is being run and want a change. One day Mr. Jones, the human owner of the farm, gets drunk and forgets to feed all the animals. So the animals go into the shed and help themselves to all the food they want. Mr.

Jones and his men come into the shed and try to kick the animals out, but all the animals fight back and drive Mr. Jones and the humans out of the farm. Mr. Jones symbolizes the Czar, whose government declines through its own corruption. This symbolizes the beginning of the revolution. After Old Major dies, two pigs, Snowball and Napoleon take over because the pigs are thought to be the smartest of all the animals on the farm.

The pigs have taught themselves to read and write so they change the name of the farm from Manor Farm to Animal farm. Despite being new to running a farm on their own, the animals manage to do a great job and do it in less time than it took them under the leadership of the humans. Every Sunday, the animals come together and have meetings about the work to be done, and to celebrate the rebellion. This is similar to what people would do once the government they hated was overthrown, everyone is happy right away and does good work and things are going well. But of course, this can never last, as it will not on Animal Farm.

After the animals get back from working in the fields, they notice all the milk is gone. When questioned, Napoleon replies to not worry about it and to focus on the harvest. This foreshadows how Napoleon will turn out to be towards the end of the book. Snowball and Napoleon write up seven commandments that get posted on the barn wall, and start to teach the animals how to read. For those that can not learn to read, like the sheep, Snowball gives them all of the commandments in one easy line: FOUR LEGS GOOD, TWO LEGS BAD. Now Squealer, another pig who is a very persuasive talker, tells the animals the pigs need the milk because of all the brainwork they do, and that they need the new litter of puppies to train and educate.

None of the animals think anything of this and go about their business. Squealer would be the person who spreads propaganda to the people and makes them believe it. Mr. Jones and his men come back and try to take the army, but it does not work.

Snowball has trained the animals to protect the farm. Now the two leaders, Snowball and Napoleon start to argue more and more. Snowball wants a windmill to be built for labor saving power, but Napoleon wants nothing to do with it. After Snowball gives a speech as to why it should be built, Napoleon gives a sign and the 9 puppies he raised went after Snowball and drove him from the farm barely keeping his life. Now Napoleon tells the animals that there will be no more meetings, just a special committee of pigs chaired by himself to hand out the work assignments.

A few days later, Napoleon announces that the windmill will in fact be built. This takes great time and pain by all animals involved, and some food is even sold to buy materials. But one night a storm comes along and topples the half-built windmill, and Napoleon blames Snowball. Other things start to go wrong on the farm, and Napoleon knows its Snowball behind it all. One day he calls all the remaining animals on the farm to a meeting, and sends his guard dogs to drag four pigs in front of Napoleon.

He accuses them of working for Snowball to destroy the farm and give it back to man. After the pigs confess, the dogs rip their throats out. This shows how Napoleon has turned into a dictator of the farm; much like another man did with the same name in France. Some animals think they remember that it was against a commandment to kill other animals, but one by one they start to notice that they commandment have all been changed by someone adding additional words to the end of them. (Lenhoff) Things start to decline, showing how the revolution is starting to fail. The windmill must be rebuilt but food rations are short, and times are tough. The animals are getting older and things are getting harder.

The pigs more and more are starting to change they way they do things. One day, after a few years, the animals are gathered around the farmhouse when all of a sudden Squealer comes walking out of the house on two legs! The rest of the pigs follow. The animals cannot believe what they see.

The pigs no longer try and cover up what they are hiding. They have turned into humans, and one night, the animals see the pigs and neighboring farmers all together at the dinner table in the house drinking and they realize they cannot tell the pigs from the humans anymore, symbolizing the end of the revolution. Orwell's thesis of using the animals to represent political leaders of his time organizing a revolution is proved over and over in his book Animal Farm. It is very clear to see which animals represent the different political leaders, such as Marx and Napoleon. Also, many other political elements are represented such as Mr.

Jones representing a Czar, or any other type of government that has failed due to mismanagement. Orwell's creativity gives the reader an entertaining story to visualize how revolutions come about, and how they die out as well. In writing the novel, Orwell did not mean to suggest that farm animals were capable of chasing a farmer off his farm, taking over the place and running it, and setting up a government. He didnt mean that pigs - the smartest animals in Animal Farm, and the farms leaders- could learn to read, operate machinery, and organize other animals. He wasnt suggesting that real animals are rational. Instead, he was using animals to say something about human beings- and about the tendency of human governments, however good the intentions of their founders, to turn into tyrannies.

Nowhere in Animal Farm does Orwell state that theme openly. That would be telling, not showing, and it would be ineffective. In fiction, a writers ideas make a greater impression on readers if the readers are allowed to figure them out for themselves. Animal Farms animals start as slaves to man, gain their freedom, and then slowly become slaves again- to the dictatorship of the pigs. As this plot unfolds, readers gradually understand Orwell's deeply pessimistic theme. How does Orwell make his point without expressing his ideas directly?

He tells the story in a matter-of-fact way, showing events from the animals point of view. He never interprets those events. But, particularly in several key scenes, he shows how the dream of a society where all animals are equal slips away. Looking at a few of those turning points will demonstrate Orwell's techniques. (Lenhoff) Orwell was very clear about his intentions in writing the book. During the Spanish Civil War, he had seen the effects of the repressions and deceptions of Stalinism at first hand. He wished to open peoples eyes to the reality of the Soviet regime in a story that could be easily understood by almost anyone, even when that regime had become an ally to Britain and the USA in the fight against German fascism.

Such an exposure was essential, Orwell believed, if a true and democratic form of socialism was to be created. Working in London, first as a BBC journalist, and then as the literary editor of Tribune, Animal Farm was written whilst the bombs dropped; one bomb even damaged the manuscript when it fell on the street where Orwell and his wife lived. Certainly the process by which the book saw the light of day was a tortuous one, with publisher after publisher finding reasons for refusing or delaying publication. (Lenhoff) Whilst Orwell was happy to see his book used to attack the Soviet myth, he did become increasingly worried about the way it was being used by the Right as a means of demonstrating that all revolutionary change was bound to fail. Picking out as central the moment when the pigs keep apples and milk for themselves, he makes the point that if the other animals had had the sense to put their foot down then it would have been all right. Majors dream could have been realized. The masses should be alert, ready to chuck out their leaders as soon as they have done their job.

This is rather a different message than that found in the anti-Communist propaganda which so frequently surrounded, and surrounds, the novel. (Peters) For Orwell personally, Animal Farm marked his entry into the halls of literary fame. With the first impression of 4, 500 copies soon sold out, sales in the UK reached 25, 000 within five years, and over half a million in the US within four years. From being a marginal left-wing figure, Orwell became one of the most celebrated writers of the day, with periodic radio and television adaptations of both Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty Four. In 1954, the first animated version of a literary text- a cartoon of Animal Farm- was made.

However, in the last few years of his life, with a newly adopted son to bring up alone after his wifes unexpected death, and with his tuberculosis becoming increasingly serious, the success of what Orwell called his little squib may have been some small comfort. George Orwell, as many readers have done, recognized that the books great achievement was to fuse political purpose and artistic purpose into one whole. For this reason, fifty years on, in spite of the collapse of the Soviet system, in spite of the dilution of democratic socialism into liberalism, and in spite of the habit of literary critics to favor complex texts for deconstruction. (Peters) Bibliography: George Orwell. Animal Farm. Michael Peters. Animal Farm Fifty Years On.

Contemporary Review, Aug 98, Vol. 267 Issue 1555, p. 90. John Pearson. Chapter Three: Animal Farm & Nineteen Eighty-Four. Ontario Statesman, issue June, 2001, p. 3. Alan Lenhoff. George Orwell's Animal Farm.

Writing, Apr/May 2001, Vol. 23 Issue 6, p. 18.


Free research essays on topics related to: learn to read, animal farm, animals on the farm, snowball and napoleon, nineteen eighty four

Research essay sample on Nineteen Eighty Four Snowball And Napoleon

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