In the book Animal Farm, the character Napoleon builds up power as a leader and maintains it throughout the book using various schemes and techniques. This essay will explain how Napoleon creates and maintains his power from the turning point of the book. I shall start with his creation of power then the maintenance of power and I shall use quotations from the book to help explain my thoughts. The first obstacle Napoleon has to get rid of to obtain total power is Snowball.
Snowball stand as his political opposition, this is because Snowball argues against any rule of ideas Napoleon might sets, so getting rid of Snowball ensures total domination on political terms. This also allows Napoleon to be in complete control of the farm. This was necessary to do because of the following quotes. The quote ‘These two disagreed at every point where disagreement was possible’ shows that not all Napoleon’s decisions would take place leaving him in slight control of the farm.
The quote “Vote for Snowball and the three-day week” and “Vote for Napoleon and the full manager”, this shows how Napoleon would not be able to decide how the farm operated. After Snowball was chased away by the dogs the quote ‘Several of them would of protested if they found the right argument’ shows how Napoleon no longer has any competition on how the farm is run as no one is there to disagree or argue against him. He furthermore uses propaganda to improve his own reputation, he uses Squealer to spread false accounts of his good deeds and manipulate the animals into thinking on his good terms.
These statements from Squealer trick the animals into thinking that Napoleon is a good leader and that he should take charge of Animal Farm. Squealer also justified all of Napoleon’s actions so that the animals don’t disagree with him. An example of the propaganda Napoleon uses is telling the animals that Napoleon came up with the idea of the Windmill instead of Snowball, this is so the animals think of Napoleon better and think of him as a suitable leader.
The quote ‘and again Squealer was able to convince them that this was not the case’ shows how Squealer defended Napoleon from and contradictions and strengthened his reasons. He finally uses the sheep to break into their chant whenever an animal starts to object to his ideals so that no one can counter him when he tells the farm what to do. Once he has gained power he uses the dogs to maintain it. He trains the puppies to be attack dogs who answer only to his call as seen in the quote ‘It was noticed they wagged their tails to him in the same way as the other dogs had used to do to Mr Jones’.
By using the dogs to create fear in the animals he stops rebellions or protests from the animals as they would be too afraid to do anything or object against Napoleon. The dogs stand as a wall between the animals and Napoleon ensuring that all Napoleon aims are followed and so they will be obeyed. The quote ‘ the three dogs that happened to be with him, they accepted his explanation without further questions’, shows how the animals are too scared to challenge Napoleon as they are afraid the dogs might attack them.
The quote ‘Four young porkers... uttered shrill squeals of disapproval... but suddenly the dogs round Napoleon let out deep, menacing growls, and the pigs fell silent and sat down’, shows how the dogs stopped any protests against his decisions. In conclusion Napoleon gained and maintained power by using violence, lies and fear to manipulate the animals causing Napoleon to become leader and in a way the dictator of Animal Farm. This also represents the way Stalin came to rule over Russia with Snowball as Leon Trotsky, the dogs as his bodyguards and Squealer as the Russian media which spread Stalin’s version of the truth.
