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  • Essay / Use of Language in Animal Farm, by George Orwell

    Conner Koe – 1330997Jessica SwainEnglish 1A03 – Tutorial 28March 20, 2014The ability to understand and use language effectively is arguably one of the best tools one can possess to communicate. Language allows individuals to interact holistically, providing them with the means to build relationships, transfer ideas, share stories, and more. The use of language has often been used throughout history as a method to positively motivate and inspire groups of people into a state of necessary change. This is the case at the beginning of the famous novel Animal Farm by George Orwell. Throughout the novel, Orwell emphasizes how powerful and persuasive language, as well as the manipulation of language, can be. This power becomes immediately evident in the novel when old Major gives his prophetic final speech, inspiring the animals to rise up and rebel against farm owner Jones and the rest of the human race. But as Orwell also demonstrates in the novel, language manipulation can also have a negative effect, particularly when the subjects of such manipulation do not fully understand the language in question. The power of such manipulation becomes apparent later in the story when Napoleon uses Squealer repeatedly to spread propaganda and distort the context of language around the farm in order to reinforce dominance and maintain the power of authority pigs on other animals. Through the events and use of his characters in the story, Orwell highlights how language can become an instrument of power. He highlights how it can be used as a positive method of motivation, as well as how, in the absence of proper owners, it can be used to manipulate others for control. Orwell immedia...... middle of paper .... .. again with a false scenario: “Here Squealer looked very sneaky. This, he said, was Comrade Napoleon's ruse. He had seemed to oppose the windmill, simply as a maneuver to get rid of Snowball, who was a dangerous character and a bad influence... 'Tactics, comrades, tactics!' » (39) Squealer convinces the animals that Snowball originally stole the windmill. Napoleon's plans, and that Napoleon's tactic all along was to oppose the windmill before Snowball was expelled (39). It becomes apparent that the pigs rely on the manipulation of language to diminish any thoughts against Napoleon and make the animals believe that they are loved and treated fairly by their leaders. Squealer constantly manifests the idea in the animals that Napoleon sacrificed everything for this. them, that he loves them all deeply and that he would never lie about the commandments.