Squealer (Animal Farm)
 |
This article is written like a personal reflection or essay rather than an encyclopedic description of the subject. Please help improve it by rewriting it in an encyclopedic style. (May 2009) |
 |
This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2009) |
 |
This article may contain original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding references. Statements consisting only of original research may be removed. More details may be available on the talk page. (March 2010) |
Squealer is a fictional pig from George Orwell's Animal Farm. He is described in the book to be an effective and very convincing orator.
[edit] Allegory
Throughout the novel Squealer is highly skilled at making speeches to the animals.
In Animal Farm, the pigs could be identified with Soviet leaders of the time. Napoleon represents Joseph Stalin and Snowball represent Leon Trotsky. Squealer's human counterpart is less clear. Most sources usually compare him to Vyacheslav Molotov based on his position and activities (as Molotov was Stalin's right hand man, the same as Squealer is to Napoleon) but his actions resemble that of Nazi Propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels. Squealer may represent corrupt media and propaganda in general, as he was the spokesman for the pigs. His persuasive language and demeanor and re-interpretations of facts illustrates the power of propaganda to manipulate opinion: specifically, Squealer may represent the state-run newspaper Pravda. This interpretation fails to associate Squealer with any specific figure in Stalin's inner circle. It is also possible that Squealer represents Vladimir Lenin who has been described in many historical sources as having a way of saying what the people of Russia wanted to hear.
[edit] Squealer's arguments
Squealer takes the central role in making announcements to the animals, as Napoleon appears less and less often as the book progresses.
[edit] Breaking of the Seven Commandments
Throughout the book, Napoleon and Squealer break the Seven Commandments, the tenets on which governance of the farm is based. To prevent the animals from suspecting them, Squealer preys on the animals' stupidity and alters the Commandments from time to time as the need arises. This is proven on page 73 of the British version (in all books, this takes place on the very last pages of Chapter 8) when Squealer falls off the ladder while trying to change the commandments in the night. A few days later it is discovered that Squealer was altering the commandment regarding alcohol which suggests the reason he fell off the ladder was because he was drunk at the time. Orwell uses Squealer to mainly show how some governments and politicians use propaganda to get their ideas accepted and implemented by the people. In the end, Squealer reduces the Seven Commandments into one commandment, that "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others".
|
|||||||||||
