The Role of Propaganda in George Orwell's Animal Farm

Abstract

Animal Farm is a novel of pure propaganda. Orwell himself admits that he writes this novel in order to be a propaganda against the 'Soviet's myth', to expose Stalin's propaganda and Stalin's Communism. As propagandist, Orwell shows his ideas and opinions towards the dictatorial regimes. This study presents the outstanding role of different types and techniques of propaganda used in the novel by the characters, and how these techniques' persuasion influences are various from one another. The paper also traces the propagandists' ways and methods to make use of people's emotions by appealing to their profound fears and great dreams to befool and deceive them. Orwell gives the most devastating image of a propagandist through the character of Squealer who is crushingly effective to convince the animals and make them believe in everything he says. The paper also sheds light on Orwell's actual efforts to warn people from the tactics used by political regimes, and his attempt to show the effects of illiteracy and lack of education in supporting propagandists' purposes for exploiting people and make them victims of an evil propaganda.

Keywords

• George Orwell
• Propaganda
• Animal Farm