In Animal Farm, Snowball and Napoleon have very different ways of gathering support from the other animals and this is most evident in Chapter Five during the debates over the windmill. Snowball, for example, gathers support by appealing directly to the other animals. He makes rousing speeches in which he emphasises the potential benefits of having the windmill, particularly as a labour-saving device. We see this in Snowball's "passionate appeal" on the day of the vote:
In glowing sentences he painted a picture of Animal Farm as it might be when sordid labour was lifted from the animals’ backs. His imagination had now run far beyond chaff-cutters and turnip-slicers.
Napoleon, on the other hand, does not try to win over the other animals through public speeches or by appealing to their imagination. In contrast, Napoleon focuses his efforts on "canvassing support for himself" rather than arguing about the windmill. In fact, he seems "almost indifferent" on the day of the vote and he only acts (by setting his dogs on Snowball) when he realises that Snowball's speech has won over the animals. Napoleon, therefore, has no interest in gathering support because he knows that he can use violence to seize power.
No comments:
Post a Comment