Leadership and Corruption in George Orwell's Animal Farm and 1984 (Essay Example)

George Orwell once said, “Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable”. His books Animal Farm and 1984 explicitly reflect this outlook on politics, as both feature leaders that become corrupted control freaks as a result of their overwhelming accumulation of power. These leaders use propaganda to manipulate the public into believing their every lie, and they use those lies to justify their sins. People who dare show any sign of resentment are immediately disposed of. It is truly a vicious cycle and proves that leaders become so addicted to and blinded by their power that they force their people to suffer and manipulate them for their selfish benefit. 

In Animal Farm, the pigs are so power-hungry and avaricious that they shamelessly put their own benefit and wellbeing above that of their citizens. They have no regard for the sacrifices that the animals have to make. The ordeal of the citizens of Animal Farm is irrelevant. As long as the pigs are in power, they will keep getting fatter and wealthier, and the other animals will keep getting weaker and overworked. But the farm’s income can only be exploited so much before more serious sacrifices must be made, such as in the unfortunate case of the hens. The hens had just laid eggs and were ready to finally begin the process of hatching them into babies. They had been deprived of this opportunity for so long, and the moment was finally here. But before they were able to properly celebrate the coming of their new children, Napoleon, the self-proclaimed leader of the farm, crushed their dreams and their spirits by telling them of a contract that he had signed requiring them to give up their eggs. The hens’ reaction was, as expected, contentious: ...they [raise] a terrible cry…[and protest] that to take the eggs away now [is] murder…[They make] a determined effort to [rebel]... Napoleon [acts] swiftly and ruthlessly. He [orders] the hens' rations to be stopped, and [decrees] that any animal [giving food to the hens] should be punished by death...Nine hens [die] in the meantime...it [is] given out that they had died of coccidiosis (Animal Farm 76-77). Animal Farm is not a democracy at all. The pigs don’t wait to negotiate with the hens or come up with any compromise before deciding to starve them to death. The hens died as they lived: as pathetic, helpless, impactless slaves. But they aren’t the only ones that relinquish their lives as a result of the avarice of the pigs. 

Inevitably, many of the animals’ physical health starts deteriorating due to their depleted state. One of these suffering animals (and quite possibly the hardest working one of them all) is a strong horse named Boxer. Boxer, along with being improperly cared for, is nearing the age of retirement. His health problems are getting quite serious, but he does not allow himself to take breaks. He collapses one day and can’t seem to get up. The pigs, wanting to maintain their heroic image in the eyes of their followers, tell the animals that they had arranged for a doctor to take Boxer away and improve his physical state. But the animals soon find that the side of the van in which Boxer is taken to the hospital says: [Her] ...Horse Slaughterer and Glue Boiler....[In reality,] They are taking Boxer to the knacker's!'...Boxer [is] never seen again. Three days later it [is] announced that he [has] died...[Squealer claims that] The van had previously been bought by [a] veterinary surgeon, who [has] not yet painted the old name out... That night... the pigs [acquire] the money to buy themselves [a] case of whiskey (Animal Farm 122-126). It isn’t difficult to connect the dots once all the pieces of the story are together. The pigs go as far as to sell one of their citizens for nothing more than a case of whiskey, as if Boxer was simply an item for trade. They don’t care about the well-being of their citizens. All they care about is wealth. But the animals are too unintelligent to see that and simply believe anything that the pigs tell them, even when the pigs force the animals to make their own comrades suffer. 

In 1984, the ‘Napoleon’ of the story is a sadistic government by the name of The Party, administered by the mysterious Big Brother. The suffocating chokehold that the Party has on its citizens is one that Napoleon could only dream of having. It is so intense that the citizens of Oceania, the fictional country in which 1984 takes place, can’t even think rebellious thoughts without feeling like they have “...some huge force…pressing down upon [them]-something that penetrate[s] inside [their] skull, battering against [their] brain, frightening [them] out of [their] beliefs, persuading [them], almost, to deny the evidence of [their] senses. In the end[,] the Party would announce that two and two [make] five, and [everyone] would have to believe it” (1984 82). The Party is so obsessed with total and complete control that leaving any variable to chance is too risky. The personal thoughts of the citizens of Oceania are the Party’s most dangerous and deadly enemies, and like all other threats to the Party’s power, they need to be eliminated from the equation immediately. Big Brother’s goal of conquering the entire surface of the Earth and putting an end to the possibility of independent thought will not halt for anyone or anything. Especially not for a few foolish idiots who can’t seem to understand that death is a better fate than the one that they’d have to suffer through if they challenge the Party. 

Unlike Napoleon, The Party often explicitly states its true intentions. They openly and indiscreetly manipulate and abuse the loyalty of the people of Oceania. Along with being extremely corrupt, Big Brother is also addicted to control and wants as much of it as he can get. One of the undercover members of the Party, O’Brien, sums the Party up relatively well when the main character of 1984, Winston, crosses the now blurred line between comformative and rebellious one too many times. To Winston’s astonishment, O’Brien coolly confesses that "'The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power. Not wealth or luxury or long life or happiness; only…pure power…no one ever [seizes] power with the intention of relinquishing it…” (Orwell 272). O’Brien, the Party, and Big Brother are well aware of the most effective ways to successfully manipulate their people, and never fail to use that knowledge to their full advantage. The people of Oceania are, of course, painfully oblivious to the true inner workings of the Party. Because they have to be. Anyone who even thinks of challenging the Party’s fabricated reality is instantaneously and mercilessly tortured until they have been completely transformed into a soulless drone, a slave to the Party until the end of their meaningless life. This apparent absence of recalcitrant thoughts allows the Party to manipulate their people to further lengths, now with the assurance that they can be easily neutralized. And the process starts all over again. Except this time, even more of the citizens’ true identities gets sucked out of them. 

When given more power than they are fit to handle, leaders risk getting hooked to and blinded by their power, forcing their people to suffer both mentally and physically. But, these experiences of torture and unjustified suffering are purely works of fiction, right? After all, no human in existence could ever be so vicious or unempathetic. The ability to empathize is one of the things that makes us human. However, looking closer at the specific actions of these totalitarians, it becomes clear that the personas of Napoleon and Big Brother were not fabricated at all. Unfortunately, leaders have, do, and will continue to abuse their power for their advantage. A prime example of this abuse of power is Joseph Stalin, who went so far as to create a false reality for his people, as well as censoring anything (and anyone) that didn’t fit the lie that he was selling. By essentially building his own Matrix, Stalin manipulated his people into trusting that the world they lived in was far more advanced, progressive and luxurious than any other place. Stalin can be seen in both Napoleon and Big Brother, as Napoleon fabricates stats to trick the animals into thinking that the farm is more prosperous than it had ever been and Big Brother eliminates anyone or anything that spreads uncensored information to the public. These dictators are not real humans. They are sadistic monsters. Power is their drug, and they are severely addicted. We as a society need to be more educated when allowing people to come into power, because you never know what malicious intentions are lurking behind any innocent facade.