Propaganda
Propaganda is one of the main themes within Animal Farm. The type of propaganda used the most within this book is ‘Appeal to fear’. Napoleon and Squealer use fear to control the animals.
Example 1: Mystery of the milk (page 16, 22 & 23).
Squealer tells the animals that if the pigs (the brainwork of the farm) do not get the nutrition they need from the milk, the farm will fall apart and Mr Jones will com back which is something that none of them want.
Example 2 : Debate over the windmill (page 33 & 34).
Snowball tells the animals that the windmill will provide electricity for them and that it can be built within one year of hard labour which then their workweek will be shortened to 3 days because of the ‘time saving windmill’. At which point, Napoleon says that by that time they will be starving to death and that they should focus on food production. This divides up the animals into “Vote for Snowball and the three-day week” and “Vote for Napoleon and the full manger”. Because of the idea of starvation scared the animals, they began to have second thoughts about Snowball’s plan because they would rather be working hard and getting enough food rather than working hard and starving.
Example 3 : Boxer being taken by the knacker (page 81)
Boxer is said to be “an enormous beast”, “as strong as any two ordinary horses put together” and “universally respected for his steadiness of character and tremendous powers of work”. But in the Battle of the Windmill, he gets injured and instead of aiding him, Napoleon sends him to the slaughtered for profit and to by him and his pigs some whisky. The animals were shocked and enraged by Napoleon’s actions as it implies that Napoleon does not care about the animals and that he can send them away anytime that he wants to.
Just like how Napoleon and Squealer used fear to control their animals, Stalin used fear to control his people as well. He used his secret police force and killed other significant leaders to have complete control. Of course, this terrified the people of Russia and with the people’s fear in Stalin hands’, he could control them easily.