Theme of Dictatorship in Animal Farm Essay Example

"The rules are simple: they lie to us, we know they're lying, they know we know they're lying, but they keep lying to us, and we keep pretending to believe them." Elena Gorokhova, A Mountain of Crumbs. The animals, to some degree, understand that they are always being lied to, but they do nothing to stop the pigs' dictatorship. In George Orwell's novel Animal Farm, the attitudes of Boxer, Moses, and Benjamin are the main reasons the Animal Farm became a dictatorship, even worse than when Mr. Jones led the farm originally. By way of Boxer's loyalty to Napoleon, blindness, and strength; Moses’s corruption, falsehood, and selfishness; and Benjamin’s apathetic mindset, uncaring nature, and refusal to help, lead to the eventual outcome of the Animal Farm becoming a dictatorship. 

First, Boxer's characteristics of loyalty to Napoleon, blindness to the execution of his comrades, and contribution of great strength to the windmill were all contributors to the Animal Farm becoming a dictatorship. Throughout the novel, Boxer has an unwavering loyalty to Napoleon, even if he continually breaks the seven commandments. This naivety to the truth and repeating, "If Comrade Napoleon says it, it must be right." (Orwell 55) allowed Napoleon and his pigs to, without protest, manipulate the farm animals' morale, Leading to the Animal Farm’s dictatorship. When Boxer first sees the ferocious dogs approaching the animals, he boldly pins the first dog while leaving the other to flee. Boxer defends his comrades until he discovers that it was Napoleon's dogs that led him to stand down. As a result, Napoleon was able to execute a large number of animals without fear of repercussions. Boxer being the strongest, therefore let the aerocity happen without intervening, leading to the overall success of Napoleon's dictatorship over the farm. While the animals were forced to work like slaves to rebuild the windmill, their morale was low, which could have resulted in a revolt, but Boxer instead inspired the animals to keep working while yelling, "I will work harder!" (Orwell 49). This resulted in the obedience of the abused farm animals and, eventually, the dictatorship of Animal Farm.

   Secondly, Moses' corruption, which used the abused farm animals' belief in Sugar Candy Mountain, as well the falsehood in the phony Sugar Candy Mountain and selfishness when acquiring more rations and beer, contributed to Animal Farm eventually becoming a dictatorship. In the later stages of the revolution, Moses returned to the farm and began preaching about Sugar Candy Mountain once more, but as Orwell states, "They all declared contemptuously that his stories about Sugarcandy Mountain were lies, and yet they allowed him to remain on the farm" (Orwell 78). The pigs know about Moses' lies but he is allowed to stay, representing the return of oppression to the farm. The lies about SugarCandy Mountain meant the farm animals were content with their lives, hoping that when they died, a magical land would await them. This enabled Napoleon to impose low rations and slavery on the animals, resulting in farm’s dictatorship. Moses had been a driving factor in the disbelief of Animalism in the early stages of Animalism by making animals believe in a magical country called Sugar Candy Mountain. This fake religion kept a lot of animals, including Boxer and Clover content, which the pigs despised, but this led to the pigs using Moses techniques such as the misleading godly hood of Napoleon's which helped the animal farm become a dictatorship. Finally, Moses had been given a luxurious lifestyle and did almost no farm work during his time on the farm. This was the first significant shift in Animalism, when Napoleon, like Mr. Jones, fed Mosses beer that no other farm animals received except the pigs. Inequality had played a role once again and was a factor in Animal Farm eventually becoming a dictatorship.

Finally, Benjamin's apathetic mindset towards believing nothing will ever get better, uncaring nature, and refusal to help, were all contributors to the Animal Farm eventually becoming a dictatorship. Benjamin in the novel is a smart but very apathetic animal, he never helped or did extra work. His attitude towards the revolution never changed and while he could have helped at critical times he never did. In the end Benjamin saw the pigs' corruption and by not doing anything contributed to the Animal Farm becoming a dictatorship. When Benjamin saw Boxer being loaded into Alfred Simmonds, Horse Slaughterer, and Glue Boiler rather than being taken to a hospital, he exclaimed, "Do you not understand what that means? They are taking Boxer to the Knacker’s!" (Orwell 81). Thus, Benjamin possessed both the voice and the intellect to demonstrate Boxer's demise to the animals, but it was too late. The Animal Farm could have avoided becoming a dictatorship if Benjamin had been vocal about other deceptions earlier in the revolution. Finally, During the Novel, Benjamin not only did not help during critical moments but actively refused to help other animals. An example of this is when Clover asked Benjamin to read the sixth commandment but refused as he had always done. This refusal to help was a factor towards the pigs' corruption of the farm animals and to the eventual dictatorship of the farm.                                 

In conclusion, the mindsets of Boxer, Moses, and Benjamin are the key reasons why Animal Farm became a dictatorship even worse than when Mr. Jones had governed the farm originally. The Animal Farm eventually becomes a dictatorship due to Boxer's loyalty to Napoleon, blindness, and strength; Moses' corruption, falsehood, and selfishness; and Benjamin's lethargic thinking, uncaring nature, and refusal to help. Therefore, Boxer's traits of loyalty to Napoleon, his blindness to the execution of his comrades, and contribution of great strength to the windmill Moses' corruption, which used the abused farm animals' belief in Sugar Candy Mountain to keep them under control, as well as the falsehood in the phony Sugar Candy Mountain and selfishness when acquiring more rations and beer. Benjamin's apathetic attitude toward believing that nothing will ever get better, as well as his uncaring nature and refusal to help, all contributed to the Animal Farm eventually becoming a dictatorship. Finally, these secondary characters were significant contributors who, if they had done more, could have prevented Animal Farm from becoming a dictatorship.