Education in Orwell.Orwell presents education as a morally ambivalent yet essential conduit to power in Animal Farm. This ambivalence is primarily represented through the contrasting levels of education within the society of Animal Farm, where the pigs demonstrate their superiority over the other animals through their investment in learning. This investment differentiates the understanding of pigs from the rest of the ‘worker’ animals and enables the former animals to control and subjugate their ostensible ‘comrades’ due to their lack of education or lack of interest in education.
Interestingly even from the opening chapter, where we encounter the ‘wise and benevolent ‘ Old Major, we notice the powerful benefits of education because Major is ‘highly regarded’ and thus delivers his commanding vision from ‘ a raised platform’ which keenly differentiates his opinions from the subservient listeners who accept his vision without any sustained debate. Unfortunately, this naive trust establishes a precedent for the future, even after the revolution.
Power and control.
Orwell’s devastating satire on the corrupting effects of power ironically ends with the naive working-class animals unable to differentiate between pig and man: ‘already it was impossible to say which was which.’ This blurring between the tyranny of man and that of the pigs emphasises the corrupting effects of power, where even an initial utopia established to eradicate tyranny, can become as violent and degenerate as the regime the revolution replaced. Orwell’s novel is thus a compelling allegory on the corruption of power and the innately fallen nature of ‘man’ who ultimately sabotages democracy in pursuit of personal gain.
Propaganda.
Orwell primarily presents propaganda in the novel through the degraded eloquence of Squealer whose mission in the society of Animal Farm is to maintain the power of Napoleon at any cost. Squealer misleads the naive working-class animals through his reconfiguration of Old Major’s commandments which were originally designed to help maintain an equal society on the farm. Such sloganeering by Squealer is particularly effective because his pithy deceptions play on the fears of the trusting lower-class animals: ‘ do you want Jones back? ‘
