How does Orwell illustrate man's inhumanity to man in Animal Farm? Give three examples and quotes with page numbers to support it.
George Orwell’s Animal Farm is an allegory displaying the inhumane way that Russian dictators treated their citizens during the Russian Revolution and beyond. Therefore, we can find examples of man’s inhumanity to man through the animals themselves, with the ruling pigs as main examples.
Napoleon is the representation of Joseph Stalin, who was dictator of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) between 1929 and 1953. Although he revolutionized the Soviet economy, he did so through the use of fear tactics, as we see with Napoleon. After the self-appointed leader chases his main competition, Snowball, off the farm, he forces the animals to be loyal to him by brainwashing many into falsely confessing to dealings with Snowball. Napoleon then orders his guard dogs to rip the animals’ throats out. “And so the tale of confessions and executions went on, until there was a pile of corpses lying at Napoleon’s feet and the air was heavy with the smell of blood (p. 93).” Although the other animals are alarmed, they can do nothing out of terror that they might be next.
Squealer, who represents the Russian media supporting Stalin, enjoys the role of spreading propaganda to trick the animals into accepting their inhumane conditions. Each time the pigs change a rule or take more food for themselves, Squealer convinces the slaving animals that such a rule never existed or they must have dreamed it. He guilts them into accepting that their leaders need added nutrition and comforts in order to run the farm and protect all their freedoms. In the meantime, the pigs are getting fat while the animals die of starvation. But since they are not as educated and cunning as the pigs, they are willing to believe Squealer’s lies, in spite of the fact that “life nowadays was harsh and bare, that they were often hungry and often cold, and that they were usually working when they were not asleep (p. 115-116). To the pigs, they are not fellow animals, but slave labor.
The ultimate cruelty is Napoleon’s betrayal of his most loyal and hard working citizen, Boxer. In order to support the farm, the workhorse unquestioningly supports their leader. He pushes himself to work beyond his own abilities in building the windmill, then rebuilding it after it is destroyed. With too little rest and a starvation diet, Boxer’s body just gives out. “There lay Boxer, between the shafts of his cart, his neck stretched out, unable even to raise his head. His eyes were glazed, his sides matted with sweat. A thin stream of blood had trickled out of his mouth” (p. 121). Napoleon tells the animals that the van which comes to pick Boxer up is taking him to an animal hospital, but to the animals' horror, the side of the van reads, “‘Horse Slaughterer and Glue Boiler, Willingdon. Dealer in Hides and Bone-Meal’” (p. 123). Squealer, of course, whips up some more lies to confuse and guilt them into thinking the best of Napoleon, who mysteriously comes up with the money to purchase a case of whiskey for the pigs several days later. Beaten down and overruled, the animals plod on, accepting the cruel treatment without fully comprehending just how inhumane it really is.
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