Animal Farm Propaganda Analysis

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Animal Farm by George Orwell illustrates the rule of Joseph Stalin under the disguise of a children's story. In the story, the character Squealer represents propaganda. Squealer masks the disturbing things Napoleon and the other pigs do with elaborate lies to create a Godlike image of the pigs in the common animals’ minds. First, the animals revolt against their drunken farm owner and run him off the farm. Soon after, all the common animals realize they not only had achieved freedom, but also had an abundance of food. Milk and apples became a new delicacy to the animals and everyone loves the new, exquisite items, especially the pigs. After a while, the insatiable pigs decide they want all of the apples and milk for themselves so they send Squealer to tell the other animals the pigs need the new items craved by all. Squealer said as follows: "Our sole object in taking these things is …show more content…
They begin to act human- like and change the rules to accommodate the things they want. As a result of the animals being extremely illiterate, only a smidgen of them notice a difference when Squealer, under Napoleon's orders, adds words to the rules. One example of this follows: "No animal shall sleep in a bed." with the additive "with sheets." Soon, the small amount of common animals that obtain the capacity to read see that the pigs now sleep in Jones' bed and knowing it to be against the rules, gather around to decipher them. When Squealer took notice of their actions, he interrupts their talk and tells the animals: "You did not suppose, surely, that there was ever a ruling against beds? A bed merely means a place to sleep in. A pile of straw in a stall is a bed, properly regarded. The rule was against sheets, which are a human invention" (Orwell 17). The statement above convinces the animals that they read the rule wrong before and keeps the image of the pigs