Animal Farm Leadership and Corruption

Power can be obtained by anyone and everyone, regardless of their title or position. When one gains an immoderate amount of power, a form of government where all aspects of decision making are controlled by one leader may arise. In the book “Animal Farm” by George Orwell, the moral he tries to convey in the allegorical novella is how “Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely”.

In the beginning of “Animal Farm”, all of the animals are on the same page; they are powerless, working class bodies. Majority of the animals have the same desires — freedom, equality, and surpluses of food. To achieve this goal, they revolt against the one person who they believe is the root cause of all of their hardships; man. Their revolt is successful. With man gone, Napoleon begins his fair and joint leadership with Snowball. As time passes, Napoleon recognizes that Snowball’s existence restricts the amount of power Napoleon can have. To resolve this, he attempts to get rid of Snowball. At this point, the reader is able to see that the increasing amount of power he holds correlates with how corrupted he becomes.

Abuse of power can be seen in real life, matter of fact I have experienced it myself, but not to an extreme extent. Although many might not acknowledge it, it happens way more than one might expect. My experience of abuse of power consists of a property owner renting out one of his/her spaces to my Mother, a florist. This same property owner purchases flowers from my Mother’s flower shop on a monthly basis. Out of generosity, my Mother applies a discount on the flowers, the property owner thanks her. The next time he/she comes again to purchase flowers, he/she asking for a cheaper price. My mother accepts his offer.

This same process happens again and again until my Mother declined his offer. He purchases the flowers anyway and carries on with his day. Minor complaints like water spills in front of the flower shop gradually arose from him after the day my Mother declined his offer. He restricts my Mother in aspects such as selling balloons due to the party supply store around the corner, which was never an issue before the offer decline. Abuse of power can take shape in any form.

All things considered, the important moral that George Orwell tries to convey through “Animal Farm”, is that power corrupts. No matter how hard we try at gaining equality for all, equality will never be truly reached for mankind for the reason that, “Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely”.

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