Essay Sample on Propaganda Used in Animal Farm

Propaganda is the spreading of false information, rumors, or an idea to influence society's opinion. It acts as a technique that is used to convince people, which is misleading in nature or promotes a false viewpoint (Khorsand and Salmani 223). In literature, writers use propaganda to influence public opinion against one idea. The following paper discusses how propaganda is used in the book Animal Farm by George Orwell.

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In the book, propaganda has been used to represent the main pigs, Squealer, Napoleon, and Snowball, in the way they have convinced the animals to be part of their ideas. Therefore, the first use of propaganda in the book was used to hide the truth by Napoleon. Napoleon provided the wrong information to Snowball about the windmill destruction. The other animals were also convinced that the farm was very successful by Napoleon. The van that took the injured boxer to the hospital has misleading information since the words "Horse slaughter" (Orwell and Heath 37) are contradicting since Napoleon means that the truck was taking the boxer to the hospital. Napoleon also tried to hide the owner of the truck since it was the hospital truck, but he told the animals that it belongs to the Knackers.

Propaganda also has been used in the book to win the elections. Napoleon and Snowball are the preferred contestants and are vehemently opposed to each other even before and on the day of the polls since both of them wished to be the winner and become leaders. According to the farm opinion, they are going to select one person among others. Therefore, to win the elections the pigs used propaganda to convince the other animals to vote for them by the application of contradicting mottos "Vote for Snowball and the three-day week" and "Vote for Napoleon and full manger" (Orwell and Heath 16). Propaganda was therefore used in influencing other animals.

The idea of building the windmill came from Snowball. Napoleon manipulated the information and tricked the animals into believing that he is the one that came out with the concept as well as an established thing on the farm. The report shows that propaganda has been used by Napoleon to build up his name to the animals.

Before Napoleon, Snowball, and Squealer went into exile; they could routinely inform the animals that "If we pigs fail, then Jones would come back" (Orwell and Heath 11). This statement has been used to confuse the animals since they did expect the pigs to support Mr. Jones. Therefore, the speech acts as effective propaganda by the pigs to ensure that the animals become the slave of their word since they are not ready to accept Mr. Jones to come and conquer the farm.

Conclusion

The discussion identifies the uses of propaganda in the book - Farm Animals. Propaganda has been defined as the way of spreading rumors, correct or false information to influence the opinion of the others. Propaganda has been used by the author in the book to hide the truth by Napoleon since he provided the wrong information to Snowball about the destruction of the windmill. Due to propaganda winning, the election was made more accessible through giving out of contradicting mottos. The pigs, such as Napoleon, worn the heart of the animals by convincing them that it was due to his idea the windmill was established. Lastly, propaganda has been used to create tension between the animals and the return of Mr. Jones only to make the animals be slaves of their word.

Works Cited

Khorsand, Majid, and Bahloul Salmani. "Anthems as Propaganda: A Discoursal Translation Quality Assessment." International Journal of Language Learning and Applied Linguistics World (IJLLALW) 5.3 (2014): 222-237.

Orwell, George, and A. M. Heath. Animal farm and 1984. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2003.