In George Orwell's dystopian novella "Animal Farm" (1946), Squealer is a character that repeatedly abuses language to manipulate the other animals in order to justify Napoleon's action. This is especially apparent towards the second half of the novella, as Squealer constantly reconfigured the Seven Commandments, so that the main principle of the farm ends up stating “all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” The abuse of language was used to abuse power; Orwell shows that it is a crucial instrument for the pigs. The allegories allow the reader to understand that some politicians in power use the same tools to hide their deceptive actions. Squealer represents the mass media, that enabled the rise to power of Stalin, hiding his actions with communist ideals that initially brought the working class together and rebel. While Orwell's novella is a discrete explanation of the age of Soviet communism, it can also be related to politics in general, where many forms of language manipulation occur, and often lead to manipulation and corruption.
The methods Squealer uses are adjusted to align with the current goal of the pigs. "Four legs good, two legs bad" is an example of Squealer's use of simplification, as the number of main principles that were initially collected as ideals, were then put together into this one statement, - which sounded good and easy for even the more uneducated animals to understand and to agree with. It was used to get the working class together to work for a common goal. This phrase was inscribed at "the end wall of the barn" and bleated by the sheep for hours (p.11). However, by the end of the novella, Squealer changed it to “Four legs good, two legs better!” (p.40, para 4), and while this sounds similar to the initial 'song'/phrase, the meaning if completely contrary. Given that a lot of time must has passed between the initial stage (the rebellion, the rise of power of Napoleon), and the end of the novella (As suggested by the paragraph starting with "Years passed. The seasons came and went..." p.38), none of the animals seem to have remembered the exact words from the Commandments at the beginning, and accept the abusive treatment and situation that they all live in at the end. In conclusion, the reader can see that the character of Squealer is crucial for the tyranny that managed to unfold itself in the novella, due to his loyalty to his leader, his rhetorical skills, and use of propaganda tools.
Orwell, George. Animal Farm. Etext by Roderick Da Rat, 1946, www.huzheng.org/geniusreligion/AnimalFarm.pdf.In-text Citation
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