Animal Farm

Satire is primarily a literary genre, in which human folly and vice are held up to scorn, derision or ridicule.  
Propaganda is the spreading of ideas, information, or rumour for the purpose of helping or injuring an institution, a cause, or a person. Squealer, like the newspaper, is the link between Napoleon and other animals, justifying his actions and policies. He represents the chief minister of propaganda under Stalin’s dictatorship, who uses trickery, and deception to persuade the masses. Squealer’s charismatic intelligence and unwavering loyalty to “Comrade” Napoleon makes him the ideal propagandist for any tyranny. Squealer employs techniques from the entire spectrum of propaganda. He uses bandwagon (“Comrades”), lesser of two evils (“Jones would come back!”), faulty cause and effect (“and this has been proved by Science, comrades”), and card stacking (“the whole management and organisation of this farm depend on us”). He uses the transfer method to associate Napoleon with the revolution and the construction of the windmill while associating Snowball with its destruction. Napoleon’s regime is based on fear of death (by carnivorous dogs) and the fear of the return of Mr. Jones.   Orwell also expands his critique of Stalin’s revisionist propaganda. The pigs’ break another one of the Seven Commandments when they begin living in the farmhouse and sleeping in beds. Clover and Muriel investigate, only to discover that the Commandment has been changed to suit the pigs’ desires. Through his smooth talking, Squealer convinces Clover and Muriel that the commandment has always concerned the use of sheets and not beds. In this revision, the allegory serves Orwell particularly well. Stalin and his propagandists plastered the Soviet Union with propaganda in the form of posters, songs, art, and countless other media. Squealer’s version of this pattern is to continually re-paint the Seven Commandments to reflect Napoleon’s changes in policy. Orwell humorously suggests a...