How Napoleon Takes and Maintains Control Of Animal Farm in George Orwell's Novel

Stalin was a terrible leader that didn’t care for the people at all. Napoleon shows traits of this with the way he treats the animals and how he took control. Napoleon gained control by using the army of dogs, which forced him to be in power. He also fixes the seven Commandments to fit his desires. In Animal Farm by George Orwell, The character Napoleon maintains control of the animals by using fear, propaganda, and ideology. 

One way Napoleon stayed in charge was by using fear as a threat to the other animals. Squealer was sent to explain why the pigs were given all the milk when the animals found out. The author writes, “It is for your sake that we drink that milk and eat those apples. Do you know what would happen if we pigs failed in our duy? Jones would come back! Yes Jones would come back”(Orwell chapter 3). By using the animals greatest fear, Mr.Jones, he is able to manipulate them into thinking the pigs are only taking the milk and apples to help the animals. Instead of being mad about the pigs taking the milk and apples they now believe that it is for their own good because Napoleon used their greatest fear against them. Another example is when Napoleon reports that the hens will have to sell their eggs during the food shortage they are in. When the hens began to protest,  “He ordered the hens’  rations to be stopped, and decreed that any animal giving so much as a grain of corn to a hen should be punished by death” (Orwell chapter 7). In order to get his way Napoleon used the fear of death to scare the other animals. By doing this the animals would listen to whatever he said, would not  give food to the hens, and they would stay on his side because they feared death. Using the animals' fears was one way Napoleon maintained control on the farm. 

By applying propaganda Napoleon was able to maintain control over the farm and animals.Snowball is now being blamed for all the problems that happen on the farm. After some mischief happened on the farm, Snowball was the one they blamed, then there was a speech given, “ Snowball was in League with Jones from the very start! he was Jones's secret agent all the time.... Did we not see for ourselves how he attempted fortunately without success to get us defeated and destroyed at the Battle of cowshed” (Orwell chapter 7). In order to get the animals to see that snowball was bad in Napoleon was good they manipulated them into thinking that snowball was on Jones aside the whole time. The other animals now believed that snowball was bad and Napoleon was good because of how manipulated they were by Napoleon and Squealers propaganda. As well as when Squealer brings up Napoleon's role in the Battle of Cowshed to the other animals. Squealer is convincing the animals how good of a leader Napoleon is, “ comrade Napoleon sprang forward with a cry of “that to humanity!” and sank his teeth and Jones is like? surely you remember that, comrades?’ exclaimed Squealer,  frisking from side to side. now when Squealer described the scene so graphically, it” (Orwell chapter 7). This shows Squealer using propaganda to manipulate the animals into thinking Napoleon did something that he really did not,  so they think he is a better leader. Squealers manipulation was so strong that the animals now “ remembered” something that never actually happened and are now sided with Napoleon. With the help of Squealer Napoleon was able to maintain control by employing propaganda.

Ideology is another tactic that helped Napoleon maintain control over the farm. The pigs made alcohol and got drunk for the first time. After getting drunk the pigs changed up the 7 Commandments a little, “ there was yet another one of them which the animals had remembered wrong.... Actually the fifth commandment read: ‘No animal shall drink alcohol to excess” (Orwell  chapter 8). This shows the pigs using ideology by fixing the commandments to fit  what they are doing. The animals believe that they just forgot what the commandments originally were because of how manipulated they were so Napoleon and the pigs got away with everything. Additionally when the animals start to get suspicious they decide to take a look at the seven commandments. The author writes , “Nothing there now except a single commandment. It ran: all animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others” (Orwell chapter 10). This shows that the pigs altered the commandments so that no matter what they did the animals could not catch on. The animals became so manipulated they started to blame everything on their lack of memory instead of realizing that the pigs were messing with the original commandments. Napoleon stayed in control by utilizing ideology to help him.

Fear, propaganda, and ideology are what Napoleon applied to maintain control of the animals in George Orwell's Animal Farm. Napoleon shared the same traits as Stalin did as a leader. He was able to gain control by force, not by proving his worth of being in the spot. He was able to maintain it by manipulating the animal and using their weaknesses against them. Napoleon was a manipulating leader that did not care about the animals and did not deserve the role of being the leader.