Animal Farm Essay - Humanity Behaviour

Better or Worse?

In George Orwell’s novel Animal Farm, the animals demonstrate several ways of how humanity behaves. The novel is an allegory with animals illustrating human behaviour during the Russian Revolution. Throughout this time, the main aspect of human behaviour in the novel is the animals showing the worst of their intentions, however there are also good qualities exposed. The better quality that was showed most was loyalty meanwhile the awful qualities revealed was greed, and the corruption.

Loyalty is a quality that shows steadfast in one’s allegiance to a person or cause or to one’s country or sovereign. Loyalty was generally shown by Boxer in the novel. Boxer is the farm’s most hard-working and loyal worker. As a strong and loyal draft horse, Boxer plays a big role; he was one of the main animals to lead the actual revolution when they drove the farm men out of the farm. He then later defended the farm twice when humans made their efforts to take the farm over, both times managing to drive the humans back off the territory. Napoleon often took advantage of Boxer’s loyalty and later on Boxer became so devoted to his leader, his slogan was,

“Napoleon is always right.” (Orwell, 1989, 6)

He again made another quote,

“"Ah, that is different!" said Boxer.”If Comrade Napoleon says it, it must be right.".” (Orwell, 1989, 6)

This was Boxer’s response to nearly all problems. Loyalty is one of the best of human qualities and is revealed throughout the entire novel. Without loyalty, no leader can sustain success. But to achieve it, a leader must convince everyone in the society that they are valued and will get the support and guidance they need whenever they require it. Napoleon really abused his power and corrupted the farm by taking advantage over the animals’ loyalty.

Corruption is one of worst qualities shown in the novel. It literally means to destroy. It can relate to the abuse of power in decision-making processes. It is a form of behaviour that deviates from ethics, morality, tradition, law and public virtue. Many times, the privilege of power leads to corruption. Napoleon, Squealer, and the dogs all take advantage of their power to benefit themselves instead of the good of the farm. Out of all the animals Napoleon is the most corrupt. One of the first times Napoleon abuses his power is when he decides that only the pigs are allowed to have the milk and apples instead of sharing with the rest of the farm Squealer says to the animals,

“It is for your sake that we drink that milk and eat those apples.” (Orwell, 1989, 6)

After driving Snowball off the farm, Napoleon gains full power, using false propaganda from Squealer and threats and intimidation from the dogs to keep the other animals in line. Among other things, he gradually changes the Commandments to allow himself privileges and justify his dictatorial rule. Corruption is almost certainly the nastiest behaviour exposed in the novel. Corruption most likely comes from the desire and greediness.