The idea from the story that I have chosen to write about is that of language as a powerful tool.
Used improperly, language can enslave us. The reason that I have chosen to write about this topic is because I know that words can be very strong and mean a lot. It is a very common thing to hear of people manipulating words. There are many people that do not know the difference and are taken in by these words. I think that this is proven many times throughout the book.
In the story Animal Farm by George Orwell, there were many times when the use of words controlled the population of the farm. Some examples of this occurred when the pigs used big words that some of the animals did not understand. Another example was when the sheep would be taught catchy slogans and say them many times. It would get drilled into the heads of the other animals. One more example is the song Beasts of England which was drilled into the animals heads.
By playing this song every week, the song was memorized by everybody. These slogans, songs, and words were used to control the animals. There were other ways that words were used to overpower the animals. The owl would use words to describe an animal heaven. That is a place where all of the animals wanted to go and a place that they all believed in.There were many times in the story that all of the pigs would switch around words.
For example, the pigs would change the words in the seven commandments. They would do this to make the animals think that what the pigs were doing was right even if it was not. Talk of places like animal heaven got the animals hopes up and they worked happily. The final way that I think that the words were used to control the animals was with numbers.
The animals did not fully understand all of the numbers so if someone told them that their workweek was shorter it could actually have been longer.The animals believed them because they had no reason not to believe them. The pigs were always considered to be right. The pigs were very manipulative throughout the entire story and the biggest manipulator of them all was Squealer. I think that Animal Farm has shown me many ways that people can manipulate the use of words to make everything sound right. I think that in todays society, the manipulation of words is more common than ever.
I also believe that in many situations, you cannot tell when someone is telling the truth or manipulating words.There are many times that things have been worded so that they sound right, even when they are not. The President of the United States of America manipulates and uses speech as a powerful tool. He is one example of a person using words to manipulate or control how people think.
