Friday, January 28, 2011

Strategical Speaking.

In The Animal Farm, by George Orwell, he writes about a farm over-running the humans working at the farm, and surviving on their own.  They set up their own government, and the pigs are supposedly the most intelligent, so they run the farm for the most part.  Napoleon and Snowball both had an equal amount of power at the beginning of the book, but both had two very different approaches to different things.  Snowball’s approach to convincing the animals if his point is most interesting, especially considering what happened to him later in the book.  Squealer is the younger pig that plays a role as the messenger between Napoleon’s ideas and actions, and he explains to the other “lower” farm animals why the things Napoleon does and choices he makes is all for the better, and although they doubt him at first, after he finishes talking, they are convinced.

Snowball is constantly in disagreement with Napoleon, and they are constantly arguing about different matters, from what to plant in a field, to what to do with their organization system with the food and other matters.  Orwell describes Snowball as “a more vivacious pig than Napoleon, quicker in speech, and more inventive, but was not considered to have the same depth of character” (p.35).  Snowball is much more energetic than Napoleon, and speaks clearly and to the point, and is more creative and invents things, but his personality is not as difficult to undermine and understand; it’s pretty simple and clear, and easy to understand.  One of Napoleon and Snowball’s biggest arguments was over the windmill, and whether they should build it or not.  Napoleon claimed the point that it was nonsense, while Snowball is much more dramatic in response.  He immediately sprang to his feet, and “broke into a passionate appeal in favour of the windmill...Snowball’s eloquence had carried them away.  In glowing sentences he painted a picture of Animal Farm as it might be when sordid labour was lifted from the animals’ backs” (p.64).  Snowball’s way of convincing the animals to support him by voting in favor of making the windmill, was to describe in detail the things that could happen, and the kind of life they would live if the windmill was built.  He was very emotional about the windmill, and grabbed the farm animal’s attention, and made them want a the life that he was describing.  

Squealer sees everything in ways very similar to Napoleon.  He supports all of Napoleon’s ideas, and has his own unique way of communicating with the “lower” animals and to convince them that what Napoleon is doing is right.  Squealer is “a small fat pig...with very round cheeks, twinkling eyes, nimble movements, and a shrill voice.  He was a brilliant , and when he was arguing some difficult point he had a way of skipping from side to side and whisking his tail which was somehow very persuasive” (p.36).  Squealer is one of the smaller pigs, full of energy, and very good at convincing the “lower” animals.  Squealer, being younger, gives a seemingly innocent appearance to the other animals on the farm, and has an odd way of convincing the animals of anything, and they claim that Squealer could argue and turn black into white.  Whenever Squealer argues a point, he skips from side to side, and whisks his tail, which somehow convinces the animals to support whatever Squealer is arguing for.  Many times, the animals become doubtful, and start to believe that the things the pigs are doing is not for their benefit, but because they are trying to take advantage of them, since the pigs are smarter.  When settling the issue of the milk disappearing, Squealer was sent out to talk to the other animals.  After telling them what happened and the reason why the pigs took the milk, the animals were still not fully convinced, so he emphasized the purpose of why they took the milk by saying, “Do you know what would happen if we pigs failed in our duty?  Jones would come back!  yes, Jones would come back!  Surely, comrades, surely there is no one among you who wants to see Jones come back?” (p.52).  He knows that the animals don’t want Jones to come back, so as an excuse for why the pigs took the milk for themselves, he says that their main goal to just keep Jones away from the farm.  Whenever he tries to convince the “lower” animals that the pig’s main and true purpose at heart is to keep Jones and his men away from the farm, and to keep the animals free from human hands and unfair power.  

No comments:

Post a Comment