What Does Napoleon Look Like In Animal Farm

Napoleon (a grunter)

Don't Wait At present

Napoleon is smart—smart enough non to play much a role in the initial rebellion. It's only after the animals have rebelled that he takes a leadership role. When we meet him, we learn that he's "a big, rather fierce-looking Berkshire boar, the simply Berkshire on the subcontract, not much of a talker, but with a reputation for getting his mode" (2.2). In other words: Snowball may win Miss Congeniality, but Napoleon wins the crown.

Not that Napoleon is into autonomous elections, or anything. Nope. He operates through cruelty and treachery. Take his fiddling private regular army: when Napoleon takes nine puppies from their parents and begins raising them himself, no 1 knows why… until then the dogs suddenly appear, fully grown, to chase Snowball off the farm. What do these dogs practise? They "wagged their tails to him in the aforementioned mode as the other dogs had been used to do to Mr. Jones" (5.15). Napoleon may non have as many ideas as Snowball, but he's got plenty of them.

With Snowball gone, Napoleon is the big homo on campus. He doesn't demand to talk, considering he has the aptly named Hog exercise his speaking for him. He doesn't need to worry near protests, because he gets rid of public meetings. He doesn't need to worry about sharing ability, because he names himself head of every committee. He doesn't need to worry well-nigh beingness popular, because he's got a bully PR plan:

In these days Napoleon rarely appeared in public, but spent all his time in the farmhouse, which was guarded at each door by violent-looking dogs. When he did emerge, it was in a ceremonial mode, with an escort of half dozen dogs who closely surrounded him and growled if anyone came too near. (7.5)

But why doesn't anyone protest? (Well, aside from those dogs, of grade.) Well, a lot of the animals are just dumb. It'south true. When Napoleon re-writes history to brand Snowball into a villain and himself into a revolutionary hero, most of the animals—like Boxer—are gullible enough to believe him. And the ones who don't, like Benjamin the ass, just can't be bothered to intendance.

Oh, and in that location's also the affair where he has a herd of sheep chant loudly whenever anyone questions his version of history.

Socio-Pig

Napoleon'south offset eyebrow-raising act comes when he unleashes his private dog army on Snowball. The second comes when he squashes the hen rebellion by cutting off their nutrient rations, causing a number of hens to dice of starvation.
And then the simulated confessions showtime.

What happens is, Napoleon demands that various animals make faux, public confessions almost how they're traitors or how they used to exist in league with Jones. And there'due south no such thing every bit forgive-and-forget on Animal Farm: after these false confessions, "the dogs promptly tore their throats out" (7.25). (Well, you take to admit that it'due south an effective way to get rid of your enemies.)

In this way, Napoleon knocks off his four pig rivals and the hens who acted as ringleaders in the rebellion. Information technology'due south pretty gruesome:

And so the tale of confessions and executions went on, until in that location was a pile of corpses lying before Napoleon's feet and the air was heavy with the smell of blood, which had been unknown there since the time of Jones. (7.26)

So, what's this bloody pile of corpses doing in the eye of Orwell's "Fairy Tale"? The whole episode alludes to the 1930s Great Purge, a.m.a. the Groovy Terror (we'll say). During the Great Purge, Stalin cleaned firm. Thoroughly. Some people simply disappeared; others were sent to the Gulag prison camps; others had to confess publicly to crimes they'd never committed. Officially, he was getting rid of "counter-revolutionaries"; unofficially, he was getting rid of anyone who disagreed with him. (Cheque out "Symbols, Imagery, Allegory" for more than details on the hen rebellion and Stalin'due south purges.)

Key fact: Napoleon's preferred method of execution is to have his dogs tear out throats. Bated from being totally savage and gross, this is Orwell'south way of getting in a little extra dig at Stalin. Come across, Napoleon forces the animals to tell lies about themselves earlier they die and he makes them agape to speak the truth—he robs them of costless speech. That sounds a lot like vehement out their throats, no?

One thing: dictators ofttimes practice horribly violent things. That's kind of in their task clarification. What's bizarre about Stalin is just how horrible his actions were. He seems to have been fueled by paranoia rather than any desire—at all—to piece of work for the good of his country. By making Stalin into a pig, Orwell shows us just how horrific—and absurd—these purges were.

Money or Power? Why Cull!

As shortly as Napoleon seizes power, we realize that he has very piffling interest in Old Major's prophecy. Napoleon doesn't care much if all animals are equal or if they control the means of production, so what keeps him ticking? The same things that motivate most evil dictators: power and greed.

About as soon as Napoleon and Snowball seize power, Napoleon starts squirreling away the cows' yummy milk all for himself. And then the pigs showtime sleeping in the humans' beds. And then they start drinking whiskey and having rowdy parties. Past the end of the novel, Napoleon and Squealer wear human being clothes and walk effectually on two legs.

To make sure all of this floats with the other animals, Napoleon keeps shifting the Commandments to make them say what he wants them to say. Squealer explains that the commandment didn't say that y'all couldn't slumber in a bed, but that you lot couldn't slumber in a bed with sheets. And it's not that you tin can't drink alcohol—y'all just can't drinkable it to excess. Simply only if y'all're a pig. For all the other animals, Napoleon says, "the truest happiness lay in working hard and living frugally" (10.iv).

In other words, Napoleon has taken the idea of prosperous living and kept it all for himself. Hmph. Some squealer.

Non Simply A Hog: Napoleon as Joseph Stalin

If all this is sounding a little familiar, information technology should: Napoleon is a double for existent-life dude Josef Stalin, who served as the General Secretarial assistant of the Russian Communist Party from 1922 until his death more than 30 years after. In other words, Stalin was the big man on campus. Er, Russia.

Let'southward bank check out some parallels:

Like Napoleon, Stalin was a master at pulling strings behind the scenes. Similar Napoleon, he had his own niggling hugger-mugger police force force, the NKVD (later the KGB). The NKVD assassinated Stalin's rival Leo Trotsky, a.k.a. Snowball, a.k.a. the guy who really was trying to await out for the working class.

Like Napoleon, Stalin kept tight control over the media. Napoleon could take lessons from this guy. He commissioned paintings of himself surrounded by adoring children. He essentially re-wrote Russian history, inserting himself into the Russian Revolution of 1917 and later suggesting that he was solely and personally responsible for winning Globe War Ii. And, at the same time he was making himself into Russia's #ane Savior, he wanted to make sure that he was remembered for his modesty.

Lol, Stalin. You kill u.s.a..

Like Napoleon, Stalin basically destroyed Russia's economy. Fauna Farm'south productivity nose dives when Napoleon's in command, and then he decides to fill the granaries with sand to hide the smaller harvest. In 1928, Stalin disrupted agricultural product with his Five-Twelvemonth Plans. When the Plans caused widespread famine across Russia, Stalin covered up the famines to convince people that everyone that A-OK. (See "Symbols, Imagery, Allegory" for more details nigh this little disaster.)

Similar Napoleon, Stalin lived a lavish lifestyle while anybody else was starving. By constantly changing the rules and then that he and his friends are exempt, Napoleon totally makes a mockery Quondam Major'south ideas—just like Stalin messed up Karl Marx's ideas. The "worker's country" that actually existed under Stalin was more like a horrible, night parody of what Marx thought a communist state would be.

In fact, it looked a lot like the exact opposite of communism: fascism.

A Pig By Any Other Proper noun

Some people name their pigs Wilbur and Babe. Other people (ahem, Mr. Jones) apparently proper noun their pigs after monomaniacal dictators.

Napoleon Bonaparte is kind of a large deal. He fought in the French Revolution (1789-1799), and so consolidated power for himself by constructing a French Empire that looked suspiciously similar the monarchy that French republic had only overthrown. (Oh, and so he tried to take over all of Europe in the bonus round.)

When Karl Marx was writing The Communist Manifesto (1848), he was inspired past the ideas at the eye of the French Revolution: liberty, equality, and fraternity. (Liberté, égalité, fraternité, if you're feeling fancy. Or French.) He really believed that communism would create a utopia with all those overnice qualities. Unfortunately, no communist state has quite pulled it off—and the French Revolution didn't quite pull information technology off, either. (There was a little hitch with the guillotine and a lot of nasty executions.)

So, with Napoleon the pig, Orwell seems to exist saying something along the lines of, "Hey Marx, didn't you lot notice how the French Revolution concluded?" In other words, Orwell seems to be arguing that idealist thinkers tin dream all the dreams they want, but some self-interested sus scrofa is ever going to come along to ruin it for everyone.

Thanks, Napoleon.

Source: https://www.shmoop.com/study-guides/literature/animal-farm/napoleon-pig

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