In the Novel Animal Farm written by George Orwell, Napoleon is a character that can be both admired or disliked, but in my eyes, he is disliked. This is mainly because of how he affected the farm’s lifestyle and how he changed it dramatically. He did this by kicking anyone who challenged him off of the farm, brainwashing the animals to think that he is the greatest animal ever, and to keep the animals believing in him as a role model.
Napoleon is the type of character that can’t work with others whom he thinks are better than him at leading, and there really only ever was one that was, this was Snowball. Snowball was a caring, thoughtful and generous pig who wanted the farm to be run equally between Napoleon and himself, but Napoleon didn’t want that. He wanted Snowball out of the picture and wanted to do things his way with no one challenging him. So slowly, Napoleon started brainwashing some of the animals,(e.g. the sheep), and started to make them chant “Four legs good, two legs bad” whenever something wasn’t going his way. Eventually, Napoleon was strong enough to overpower Snowball and use the dogs, that he had secretly been training, to run him off of the farm to leave him on his own to run the farm, this is good for Napoleon because now, no one else on the farm has the power to rebel against him. I think that what Orwell was trying to say with this is that Napoleon is trying to be like a very overpowered leader, who no one even dares challenge, someone like Kim Jong Un.
Napoleon brainwashes the animals. This is another technique that he uses to gain more power over the animals. The main way that he used to start up the brainwashing process was to get the dumbest and arguably loudest animals on the farm to do what he wanted them to do, this being the sheep. Once he got them on his side, he could basically do whatever he wanted. Once he had the sheep under his full control, it wasn’t that hard for him to get the others as well. What he did to control them was to make them think that Snowball was a nuisance and that he was a great leader. An example of how he did this was that whenever anything went wrong on the farm, Napoleon would blame it on Snowball and say “This is Snowball’s doing”. I think Napoleon is trying to become an independent leader. Someone who doesn’t like anyone helping him or anyone giving him ideas.
Napoleon was tired. He didn’t want to work for his power, but thankfully for him, he had Squealer on his side to do all of his dirty work. So while Napoleon was sitting at home on his arse, drinking all of the beer he could possibly consume, Squealer was out with the animals, convincing them that Napoleon is a great leader. The animals did find it a little bit weird how Napoleon only comes out every once in a while to greet the animals and check on the farm. But Napoleon and Squealer’s excuse was that he was always doing business with Mr. Frederick and never had time to come out. So as usual, the animals forgave him. This cycle worked well for them because the animals were still thinking of Napoleon as a role model, and Squealer was getting more food and alcohol than the other animals as his reward. Napoleon is starting to become a very selfish leader now and uses his power to get others to help him brainwash the others. Napoleon and Squealer are like the Major General and his assistant.
My feelings towards Napoleon are simple, I dislike him. I dislike him as a leader, as a role model and as a person in general. My feelings towards him help me to understand the novel more as Napoleon can link the novel to the real world quite well with how selfish and powerful he is. A lot of people on Earth are selfish, some are very selfish, and some aren’t. Some of the selfish people have power as well. These people will always get what they want because no one can tell them otherwise. Along with their power, they also are very self-absorbed. This is only something that some people have. Some examples are the Kardashian’s and the Jenner’s. These people are rich, selfish, powerful brats who are just like Napoleon.
In conclusion, I dislike Napoleon because he kicked anyone who challenged him off of the farm, he brainwashed all of the animals and kept the animals believing in him as a role model. He also used his power in all of the wrong ways. This is why I dislike Napoleon and how he helps me understand the Novel.
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