Animal Farm, by George Orwell :: Animal Farm Essays

Animal Farm Essay by George Orwell   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In the book Animal Farm, by George Orwell, the idea of how power can corrupt is depicted in the novel. The theme of the novel is â€Å"Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely†. When one receives to much power, such as the character Napoleon, it forms a dictatorship like government in which all decisions are made by one man. When a revolution happens, or a sudden change occurs people begin to grow unhappy while working for their government with no say in any political decisions.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  When the animals of Animal Farm took over there main beliefs were based on their made up commandments called Animalism. The beliefs derived from this law were basically that â€Å"man is our enemy†, â€Å"all animals are comrades†, â€Å"do not become like man†, and â€Å"no animal should be more powerful then another†. These views were from Old Major, who had given a speech to stir the animals into rebellion. Old Major’s dream was for the earth to be ran by animals. When Old Major died, 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. Napoleon soon shared his view on education and took the puppies into his home and started teaching them. In time the leaders of animal farm started to have mixed feelings. Snowball said the animals only had to work three days a week, but Napoleon said it would only result in the animals starving to death. Napoleon then had the dogs kill off Snowball. Napoleon had eliminated Sunday morning meetings. The committee of pigs were now the leaders and there were no more debates. Napoleon soon started brainwashing the lower class of animals to believe him. The traditions of Old Major were soon forgotten, it was now Napoleons plans. Under new leader Napoleon the work week had been extended so that each animal had to work 60 hour weeks. Napoleon also hired Mr. Whymper as a go between for trade. Napoleons hiring of Mr. Whymper had gone against Animal Farms motto. The pigs now lived in the house and changed some of Animal Farms laws such as â€Å"no animal shall sleep in a bed† was now changed to â€Å"no animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets†. The laws were changed to fit Napoleons needs. Napoleon had changed around their seven commandments One was â€Å"no animal shall kill another†,this was changed to â€Å"no animal shall kill another without