Animal Farm (Grades 9–1) York Notes

Corruption is important in 'Animal Farm' because Orwell the writer tries to show you how things are meant to be good but go bad for the animals. Things aren’t good for the animals at the start because their farmer, Mr Jones is a slob and a drunk. This is shown when it says: ‘taken to drinking more than was good for him’ And it also says that the cows have not been milked, so this infers that he is not a good owner. So when the animals take over the farm, we think it’s good and that the animals will be happier. We know this because Orwell the writer says: ‘they could hardly believe their good fortune’.

The pigs are really intelligent and tell the animals what to do. Because they are in charge they can do what they like – like take the milk and apples, which Orwell said was important.

Orwell uses language to tell us that there is corruption on 'Animal Farm'. He tells us that the dogs wag their tails to Napoleon ‘in the same way as the other dogs had been used to do to Mr Jones’. This tells us that Napoleon has become as bad as Jones.

Squealer is corrupt because he lies to the animals and says things they don’t understand to confuse them and make them doubt themselves. Like when he says: ‘You did not suppose there was ever a ruling against beds?’ This is corrupt because we know that Major said they should never sleep in a bed and this was also one of the commandments but the pigs have twisted it and the animals can’t remember that it was wrong.

Jones has control over the animals at the start of the book and later Napoleon has control over the animals in the book. They are both bad because they have control and they can do what they want and don’t care about the animals.

The worst bit is when Napoelon shouts and the dogs come and kill the animals who have done nothing wrong, when Napoleon ‘uttered a high-pitched whimper.’ This shows us that Napoleon uses his control in the wrong way to terrorise the animals and we feel bad that they are so scared and hate Napoelon for being cruel, like Jones. He is like a ruthless dictator but the animals don’t stop him like they do Jones.

Orwell uses the vivid imagery ‘the tale of confessions and executions went on, until there was a pile of corpses lying before Napoleon’s feet and the air was heavy with the smell of blood’ to create an image in the reader's mind of how awful the murders were and how frightened the animals must have been. This makes me feel sorry for the animals and shows us what a terrible leader Napoleon has become.