Power in George Orwell's Animal Farm Essay Example

History has a tendency to repeat itself and shows us time and time again how power can corrupt people to the point where they betray their own morals. In George Orwell's novel, Animal Farm, the pigs at the farm constantly break the commandments they make even though they vow to make sure all the animals stay equal. Orwell depicts how power can make someone betray their morals by using personification to portray how the pigs become more human-like throughout the novel.

Personification exists when the pigs break commandment number four which states that no animal shall sleep in a bed. After being confronted by the other animals they cunningly disagree, “And why not? You did not suppose, surely, that there was ever a ruling against beds? A bed merely means a place to sleep in. A pile of straw in a stall is a bed, properly regarded. The rule was against sheets, which are a human invention. We have removed the sheets from the farmhouse beds…”(Orwell 53). This applies personification to the pigs because they are sleeping in beds that were made for humans, replacing Jones with the pigs; by behaving like Jones the pigs start to become like him. Orwell does this to portray how the pigs are becoming more like their human counterpart, Jones. 

Furthermore, Orwell includes the pigs becoming more corrupt by applying personification when the pigs break the first commandment. At the farm, anything that goes up on two legs is an enemy and that is why the other animals are shocked to see, “..a pig walking on his hind legs” (Orwell 99). This demonstrates the pigs becoming more corrupt by exposing how the pigs have changed the way they walk, now walking like humans. This wonderfully illustrates Orwell’s personification of the pigs when they begin to walk like the man they once sought to remove all traces of from their farm. Orwell intentionally does this to further elaborate on the fact that the pigs are becoming more human-like and betraying their original morals. 

As a result of this corruption, the pigs are personified to be what Jones stood for on the farm by breaking the seventh commandment which states that all animals are equal. The pigs replace all the commandments with one that favors them and states all animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others. This is established by the fact that “..pigs who were supervising the work of the farm all carried whips in their trotters” (Orwell 100). By having the pigs carry whips as they supervise the farm, Orwell applies personification to a masterful degree by having the pigs become the oppressors they once stood against. This fully encapsulates the pig's rise to power and descent into corruption by having them replace the dictator, Jones. 

Orwell displays how power can turn someone against their morals by applying personification to depict how the pigs become morally corrupt like Jones in the novel. They sleep in a human bed like him, walk like him, and finally, oppress the other animals just like him. The power the pigs obtain leads them down a path that betrays the morals that they had laid out in the form of commandments. This is exhibited all too often in human history with those that come to power, further demonstrating that this novel should not be regarded as just another piece of fiction but as an example to learn from. For what is the point of abolishing the power of one's oppressors, if in the process another one is made.