The irony in George Orwell's "Animal Farm"

July 15, 2022 by Essay Writer

The last sentence in the book Animal Farm relates to the book in so many ways. First I must say that in the end the pigs became what they hate. The pigs slowly became just like Jones throughout the book. They even broke their own thought up commandments and changed them. They believed they were more important than all the rest of the animals on Animal Farm. Napoleon became the leader and worked the animals even harder than Jones did. The pigs wanted things to be better yet they ended up being the same as humans.

The pigs slowly started to do the same things that Mr. Jones did. They took all the milk because they felt they needed it more. They list Seven Commandments on the barn wall, which the pigs have developed from the teachings of old Major. The Commandments suggest that whatever is human is an enemy, that whatever is animal is a friend, and that all animals are equal.

The first indication that all are not equal, however, occurs when the pigs set themselves up as the leaders and take for themselves, the milk. Napoleon trains young puppies, which he took from their mother at birth, to grow into fierce mean enforcers. Napoleon then later uses these enforcers to get rid of Snowball so he alone can dictate the farm. Then we have Squealer, another pig who convinces the animals that the pigs deserve certain special privileges because they work harder than the rest of the animals.

Soon Napoleon comes into agreement to trade with the humans although they had a commandment saying that humans were the enemy. Napoleon also finally wants to build the windmill, after getting rid of Snowball, and claims that the windmill idea was his in the first place and that Snowball stole the idea. Napoleon then, with the help from his dogs and Squealer, works the animals on the farm harder than Jones did. The pigs engage in the same kinds of vices, such as drinking and greed, of which Mr. Jones was guilty; and in general Napoleon rules the animals even more harshly than Jones before the revolution. Just like humans would blame some one else of their hardships, Napoleon blames hardships on the “phantom” Snowball. The pigs began to sleep in beds, dress in clothes, and kill just as a human would and along the way changing the rules to fit how the pigs wanted to live.

In the end the pigs became what they hated. They constantly were changing and breaking their own rules. The pigs started to act human and do human things. They turned on the other animals and lied to them. This sentence does closely relate because it is saying that the pigs became exactly what they wanted to get rid of. They never wanted Jones to come back but in reality he did, through the pigs. What is most demoniacally human about the pigs is their use of language not only to manipulate the immediate behavior of the animals through propaganda, emotive language, and meaningless doubletalk but also to manipulate history, and thus challenge the nature of actuality itself. This manipulation, however, is only one primary means of the pigs’ control; another, equally important, is the threat of brute force as manifested by Napoleon’s pack of vicious trained dogs. In the final image of the allegory, the realization is that humans prove to be no better than animals, and animals prove to be no better than humans.

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