Propaganda in Animal Farm - Squealer
In the novel, Orwell represented propaganda through the character Squealer. Squealer is an excellent speaker. As Napoleon's companion, Squealer prioritizes his personal comfort above the other creatures. Moreover, Squealer is often able to persuade the other animals that what the pigs are doing are for everyone else's benefits whenever the commandments are violated by the pigs.
Examples of Propaganda used in Animal FarmSheep- Although the sheep are displayed as dense animals in the novel, they are capable of memorizing simple chants and slogans such as "Four legs good, two legs bad." Furthermore, the sheep has developed passion for this slogan and starts bleating "Four legs good, two legs bad" everywhere around the farm, wide spreading the message that was conveyed to them through propaganda. Presenting the propaganda method "Repetition" Squealer- Due to Squealer being an excellent speaker, he is often able to help the pigs get away from breaking the commandments. One time specifically, Squealer used the propaganda method "Plain folks" in order to convince the other animals that the pigs should keep all the apples and milk by saying that they put them in their mash just to stay healthy for the sake of the other animals as the pigs are the intelligent ones. Moreover, Squealer also uses the animal's fear to further coax the animals into believing him by telling them that if the pigs fail in their duty, Jones will come back. Squealer knows that all the animals are extremely afraid of Jones coming back, therefore, it is guaranteed that the animals will agree on the pigs keeping the apples and milk. Napoleon & Snowball's supporters- Similar to the Sheep, Both sides develops their own slogan or chant in order to persuade supporters from the opposing team to vote for the candidate they prefer. By incorporating both propaganda techniques "Plain folks" and "Transfer" into the slogans-"Vote for Snowball and the three-day week" and "Vote for Napoleon and the full manger", they successfully present to the audience the wonderful benefits that the animals will get for voting for either one of the candidates. Squealer- During the time period after Snowball has been chased away by Napoleon's dogs and had been turned into a scapegoat, Boxer still doesn't believe Squealer that Snowball was already a traitor during the Battle of the Cowshed. Therefore, Squealer cleverly changed his mind and by using the propaganda technique "Testimonial", he told Boxer that Napoleon says so (that Snowball is a traitor), as he remembers that Napoleon is well respected by Boxer and one of Boxer's overused quote is "Napoleon is always right." Old Major- During Old Major's speech, although he is trying to help the animals instead of tricking or deceiving them, some techniques of propaganda was accidentally used in order to make the animals believe and agree with him. By using the propaganda technique "Transfer", he tells the animals how wonderful and comfortable their lives would be if they would agree and do what he says and overthrow the humans. He also identifies the humans as the enemy, hoping that the animals will unify in order to go against this common enemy together. Moreover, he teaches the animals the easily memorable song Beasts of England, so that his ideas can be passed on and wide spread. |
|
<-- Beasts of England Sung by Dmmsanjuan [10]
By reading the first page or all of the previous pages, you should probably have an idea by now that the author of the novel Animal Farm, George Orwell is attempting to make his readers aware of things that were to him obvious during his time through his writings. Through this novel, Orwell has successfully demonstrated the various methods/techniques of propaganda and how they can be used both for your own advantage (making someone support you) or used to drag down your enemies (blaming the enemy for problems). By looking at one of George Orwell's articles "Politics and the English Language", he referred the use of propaganda as "abuse of language"[12]. Therefore, it is possible that Orwell thought propaganda was an extremely harmful tool in the USSR as it can cause mass hysteria and paranoia, and this might be the reason why Orwell made it so propaganda was the main reason why the animals continued their hard labour due to propaganda being so influential. |