In the book Animal Farm, the animals showed a true example of the way that humans act and do things when they have power.
There are many lessons in the book that can help show what to and what not to do with power. Another lesson it shows is what happens when power is abused. The book also shows a clear idea of the fact that Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely(Lord Acton). It shows a clear idea of how all the Communist Governments have been run and how power can change people.
There are two main lessons that the book illustrates. The first one is that there will never be a government where all people are exactly equal. In the book the animals have a government set up and one of the commandments the animals have reads, All Animals are Equally(ch. 1). By the end of the of the book after the pigs had taken over the farm the commandment was changed to All Animals are Equally, but some are more equal then others(ch.
10). So in the course of time all there will always be some that end up being or acting like they are better then the rest, making it seem like some are more equal. Another lesson that can be learned from this book is that if power is abused then all will be lost. In animal farm Napoleon had all the power when he got rid of Snowball.
The power went to Napoleons head and he started to make a lot of bad choices. He changed all the commandments so he could do the same things to the animals as the humans use to do. So what happened to the farmer ended up happening to Napoleon and the rest of the pigs; the animals revolted again and destroyed every thing that Napoleon had. This book is also a good reminder many things.
For one it is a good reminder that people should never become to powerful because power corrupts. In the book Napoleon only wanted to be in control over all the animals so that he wouldnt have to do any of the farm work, but the power he gained corrupted him. As soon as Napoleon realized that he has all the power and that the animals will do any thing that he wants, he starts to go crazy with his power; which destroys the farm. This is also another lesson in the same example. Power is given away to easily. If a person is allowed to think they have all the power and that nobody will stop them from doing anything, then that person will in turn end up abusing there power.
So never give away power for free. Another strong idea that is presented in this book is the fact that Revoltions and Revolutions will always happen. Somebody is always going to get made at the person who is leading him or her and revolt. Then after they revolt the revolution will start. At first every thing will be seem to be going great, then little by little things will start to happen which werent in the original plan of the government. After that the people who get stuck at the bottom of the chain will start to mad at the things that are happening to them.
They will revolt and the cycle will start over again. This book also has many things in it that people go through or have in their life every day. For example, in the book when the windmill was destroyed Napoleon uses Snowball as a scapegoat, saying that Snowball destroyed it. In our lives people are always looking for someone to blame for something that happened to them so it doesnt seem as bad.
Also Squealer always uses propaganda to make bad things seem all right or make the animals look by the problem to something different. Which we do all the time. We try to make people look by the current problem to something different or say well Ill get you this if you forget about that. This book is also an example of not just what individual alone can do but whole countries as well. The book shows a clear example of what happened in the Russian Revolution. Both the revolution and the book fail because of the misuse of power.
This book has much more about it then just a little story. It gives excellent examples of many real life things that happen in our world every day. It has many lesson on what not to do with power and it shows what will happen when power is abused. So even thought at the end of the book it shows the pigs turning in to humans because they get to powerful, in our world in could be that humans turn into pigs when they get to much power.Bibliography:
