How Napoleon Uses His Strengths as a Leader in the 'Animal Farm'
George Orwell’s Napoleon used his strengths as a leader in the novel 'Animal Farm' as a tool of propaganda to gain power and control over the farm. Napoleon represents Stalin quite clearly in Animal Farm. Just like Stalin, Napoleon takes advantage of the animals' rebellion against their masters to eventually become the dictator of the animal farm. He creates his own 'secret police' by kidnapping the puppies and raising them for his own purposes (as did Stalin).
How Napoleon Use His Strengths as a Leader in 'Animal Farm'?
From the very start, Napoleon had been an obvious leader among the pigs because he was well known for “ getting things his way”. By contributing to the various debates that took place in animal farm, he often received lots of attention from the animals. He also gained support from some animals that were too shy to express themselves; he connected with them and persuaded them to share his views. Therefore, he became a representative of these animals.
Napoleon also used propaganda in various situations to gain power. The sheep were a great help to his campaign. Snowball, the other pig who shared the position of leadership with him did not agree with him on many occasions. However, naturally, he was a good speaker and could easily reach the animal's minds and gain support with his speeches alone. So, Napoleon trained the sheep to start chanting their favourite slogan ‘four legs good, two legs bad’ at crucial parts of Snowball’s speeches to drown him out, which made it incredibly difficult for him to express his point of view to them. Because of this, Snowball could not gain much support which was exactly what Napoleon wanted. All Napoleon had to do was to put down Snowball's ideas to gain support as the animals could not be convinced by Snowball if they could not listen to him.
He creates power using many methods. Making the animals march past Old Major’s skull is reinforcing his leadership and also allies himself with the loved pig. It makes the animals respect the new leader as much as the old leader. In Napoleons’ speeches, he uses the word ‘sacrifice’ and ‘own contribution’ to make the animals believe that what they are doing is for a greater cause which convinces them to “sacrifice’ for the ‘greater good’. Napoleon uses Squealer to explain anything and everything to avoid making mistakes himself. Squealer uses complicated vocabulary which the simple-minded animals do not understand. When the animals protest, Squealer quickly persuades them with help from the threat of violence from the dogs; it makes the animals stop with their complaints. The sheep are then used to ease the mood by bleating their slogan. It is then not possible for the animals to protest again. Throughout the novel, it becomes routine for the dogs to be seen in public with Napoleon to strengthen his power through violence.
Napoleon also makes the animals work extremely hard that they are too tired which makes them forget how they are being turned into slaves by their leader Napoleon. Napoleon exploits the animals’ weaknesses. When he changes the seven commandments to justify his actions, the animals are doubtful because they remember that the seven commandments were different. However, Squealer tells them that they are wrong and it is just a fantasy of their imagination. The animals think that if napoleon says so then he must be right and so they let him get away with it.
Squealer maintains power through various means. By rarely appearing in public he makes it seem that he has more important matters than the animals and that they should be lucky when he does appear. He eliminates anyone who is a likely threat to his leadership. By using statistics, another form of lies, he convinces the gullible animals that the farm has grown and flourished under his rule, again making him appear an admirable leader.
He is guarded by dogs and has a food taster so that he cannot be poisoned. He spreads rumours about the terrible state that the animals on other farms are kept to make the animals feel privileged to be in animal farm. He shows his ‘brilliance’ by letting the animals see the banknotes he traded for the timber. This shows the animals that there are many luxuries to be gained under napoleon’s rule. He makes everything seem like a victory to cover up his mistakes and to keep the animals from blaming him. An example would be the blowing up of the windmill. It makes the animals feel that although there was a ‘slight’ loss they still won. This can be seen when he uses the phrase “readjustments instead of reductions” to make reducing food seem not too bad.
Conclusion
Napoleon was a treacherous character and very much an opportunist of the worst kind. He used brilliance, sly, dishonesty, propaganda and many other tools to gain, create and maintain power. Animal farm, nevertheless, remained under his oppression throughout the entire novel.
