Propaganda is the use of information used to convince others of a particular political standpoint. For centuries, political leaders have been using propaganda to persuade others of the truth of their arguments. In the 1900s, propaganda had an even more consequential effect since that was the age of Russian Revolution and during the time it was highly used by the leaders of Russia. They made posters to show how respected they were (even when they were not) and to support communism. The poster on the left translates “Lets build the Dirigible fleet in Lenin’s name”. This poster was possibly published by Stalin and his government and was made to make Russians feel like they should build fleets because Lenin would have liked it. The picture of him raising his hand out seems to mean that he supports this cause and the tower seems to show how successful Russia will become thanks to this idea.
Connection to Novel
In Animal Farm, the pigs make use of propaganda to control the animals. In this book, Squealer is Napoleon’s propagandist. He justifies Napoleon’s takeover of power by providing false statistics that tell of how life under Napoleon is improving, informing the animals of written evidence (unproven) that Snowball is a traitor knowing that the animals are illiterate, and omitting parts of the truth. With the continuous threat that “Jones will be back” (Animal Farm, p.36) the animals are forced to believe that the pigs’ actions are rightly justifiedand that Napoleon is acting for “their sake and well being” (p.36).
Orwell portrays Squealer as someone who will turn black into white to indicate how in real life politicians use language to dominate people. By describing Squealer’s “twinkling eyes, shrill voice and whisking tail”(p.5) he emphasizes Squealer’s persuasiveness in a way that the animals are forced to believe him and doubt their own memories. Squealer also uses his power to his advantage to eliminate those who doubt him, even gentle characters like Boxer, who he eventually sells off to the knackers. This sinister side of him and his contempt of the other animals portrays the disdainful behavior of the propagandist towards those he takes advantage of. The use of language in this novel also has a significant effect on the manipulation of the truth. Squealer for instance uses the world “readjustment” (p.98) when telling the animals that their food has been reduced while the pigs are getting fatter by the day to disguise the inequality on the farm. Orwell chose to represent the use of propaganda in this way to showcase features of totalitarian governments and warn readers that language can be twisted in a way to manipulate the truth.