Blog 2.2 (Choose 1)
1. Trace the defamation of Snowball’s character from the beginning of the windmill to the end of the book. What is the impact of this and why is it important?
2. Explain why an “enemy” or scapegoat is necessary for the animals. Why does the “enemy” have to change? If there were no “enemy,” what would that mean for society, including Animal Farm?
Use MLA formatting for citing the source and in-text citations. 250 words.
2019-2020 English I Honors 
The animals are always blaming others, always have an enemy or a scapegoat, because they don’t want to be the ones at fault. Them being wrong would defeat the whole purpose of their revolt, because they want to prove that animals can be just as successful as people. Napoleon convinces the animals to believe they are never the ones wrong to keep them happy and proud. When he cannot do this, he kills or gets rid of the animals that object. For example, when the pigs talk behind his back, he gets the dogs to rip out their throats. Chapter 7 states,”Napoleon stood sternly surveying his audience; then he uttered a high-pitched whimper. Immediately the dogs bounded forward, seized four of the pigs by the ear and dragged them, squealing with pain and terror, to Napoleon’s feet… When it was all over, the remaining animals, except for the pigs and dogs, crept away in a body. They were shaken and miserable. They did not know which was more shocking–the treachery of the animals who had leagued themselves with Snowball, or the cruel retribution they had just witnessed. In the old days there had often been scenes of bloodshed equally terrible, but it seemed to all of them that it was far worse now that it was happening among themselves.” This scares the other animals, and shows that he is right and they are wrong. This helps him pave the path to becoming leader through forced power and fear.
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In the beginning Snowball is known to be a hero and very helpful to the farm, but towards the middle of the story Napoleon chases him away with vicious dogs and tells all of the animals on the farm that he is a fake and an enemy. This has an impact on the story because it turns all the animals against Snowball and it gives the animals someone to blame when things go wrong, so they do not suspect Napoleon. Not suspecting Napoleon is important because he can get away with every bad thing he does. An enemy is necessary for the animals because they will never trust Snowball again and will always think what Napoleon says is right. The enemy has to change because Napoleon is doing bad things without getting caught because of it. If there was not an enemy on the farm, society would drastically change because they would realize Napoleon was causing negative effects for the farm and they would not let him stay in power, so the farm would be better. What it would mean for society is if we had no one to blame, we would have to blame ourselves and have to realize we are responsible with our successes and failures.
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Felicity Gibson- From the beginning of the book Animal Farm, Snowball is known to be a helpful leader on the farm. towards the end of the book the pig Napoleon turned all of the other animals against the pig Snowball. this then made Snowball an enemy and gave him a negative “label”. Snowball did not actually do anything bad that took his leadership away but Napoleon convinced all of the other animals on the farm that Snowball is an enemy which then he gets the blame for everything bad that happens on the farm that really Napoleon did. since Napoleon made everyone think that Snowball is a bad animal they will no longer trust him and the animals will no longer think of him as a leader. The enemy needs to change because really Napoleon is the enemy not Snowball, Snowball is the good one. If the farm had no enemy then the society would change because then they would be able to see all of the sneaky bad things that Napoleon did to make the Animals think that Snowball was the enemy and then they would take the power and leadership away from Napoleon and the farm would be better off and then Napoleon would have to take responsibility for his actions not Snowball. for our society this would mean that people will start stepping up for there actions instead of putting the blame on others if we didn’t have anyone to put the blame on, then humans would take responsibility for there own choices not blaming it on others.
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At the beginning of the book, Snowball is seen as a hero, who has helped the farm for its own good. Later in the book Snowball and Napoleon get into a fight and Napoleon has his dogs run Snowball out of Animal Farm, making everyone believe he is this enemy of theirs. This is important to the story because having everyone turn against Snowball makes Napoleon look THAT much better. When things go wrong on the farm, no one will turn and blame Napoleon, but instead they will blame the new enemy, Snowball. If there happened to be no enemy on the farm, when things went wrong everyone would turn against the person doing the wrong. In society, if this happened to us, and we had no enemy, we would be forced as to blame ourselves, because no one else is there to take the blame for us.
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An “enemy” is necessary for the animals because it united the animals, created fear in them, and allowed Napoleon to control the animals on the farm more easily. In the beginning of the book, Old Major talks about how humans are the enemies, not the animals (Orwell 9). They talk about how they are slaves to mankind, which unites the animals and leads them to rebel against this new enemy- Jones. Now, they have gained the farm for themselves and have released themselves of slavery, but the threat always looms. Napoleon and Snowball use this fear of Jones coming back for their own benefit and takes control of the farm. He blinds them in believing they are free, however they have only escaped one cage only to be put in another. Jones is always being used as a threat, as they do not want to go back to his way of the farm. They fear that way of life and never want to go back. At some point, however, Jones is no longer a threat to the animals. Nonetheless, Napoleon still wants his power. As a result, he turns the threat from Jones to Snowball. He begins saying that Snowball is secretly an agent of Jones, working against the farm (Orwell 72). Then, he begins saying that other animals on the farm are working with Snowball, and slaughters them all with his pack of dogs (Orwell 76). He does this to invoke fear in all of them. Napoleon wants to keep his power and to keep control of the farm, he labels others as “enemies” of the farm to keep them at bay while he maintains his power. He has to keep changing these to remain in power and keep the fear rising. Without this fear of the enemy, Napoleon has no power and loses his control of the farm that leaves him with nothing. If there is no enemy, there is no fear and no need for power, in both Animal Farm and in society.
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In the novel the animals must blame others for their problems. They must always have an enemy (scapegoat) or then their revolt would become useless and they would have revolted against the humans for no reason, as they needed an enemy to revolt. After the human problem is solved Napoleon begins to make the other animals believe that snowball is becoming an enemy. As Napoleon takes over by chasing Snowball away with mean dogs he tries to persuade the animals that Snowball was making them too much like humans. Napoleon immediately tries to persuade the other animals that Snowball is the enemy and can not be trusted in their group. This change allows Snowball to become their enemy and allows Napoleon to place his blame on something other than himself. Immediately Napoleon begins to prove himself and show who is in charge by fear. For example the test says “Napoleon stood sternly surveying his audience; then he uttered a high-pitched whimper. Immediately the dogs bounded forward, seized four of the pigs by the ear and dragged them, squealing with pain and terror” This shows the reader that Napoleon is leading by pain, terror, and suffering and not by being an actual leader.He holds such a tight grip over the other animals due to their fear of Napoleon and he makes them believe that he is superior. This ties back into Snowball because now that there is no other power, and they have someone else to blame, Napoleon can blame snowball for these problems and make it seem as it is not his fault for what he is doing. Instead of the animals blaming Napoleon they can turn and blame Snowball and this is exactly what Napoleon wanted so that he could cover up his wrong doings.
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Snowball was once a hero, with many ideas to make the farm better, and even somewhat of a leader but as time went on, Napoleon changed these, to blame Snowball for everything that happened, where everyone believes he was a traitor and enemy trying to destroy them. The impact was, they had an enemy, to blame everything on, so all the animals would believe how better they off now, and how perfect their farm was now, and everything that went wrong was because of an enemy sabotaging them, and also to keep Napoleon in charge without anyone to try and take it from him. If the animals didn’t have this, the animals may think the farm is in no better shape than when Jones was with them, and may lose faith in Napoleon. This is why having an enemy is important, to keep everyone in line by blaming everything wrong on someone, to prove how much better the farm is now, with Napoleon in charge. The reason the enemy had to change, was because they used Jones to keep them working and believing in Napoleon to keep Jones away, and in turn keeping them safe, acting as if he cared for the other animals unlike Jones, but Snowball was used so everyone believes in what Napoleon said about how good it was now, and how they should be happy and have faith in their leader Napoleon, and trust in everything their leader does.
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In the book Animal Farm I believe that Snowball is the scapegoat. Snowball is needed in the book because he makes Napoleon look better. Snowball is blamed for the destruction of the windmill that they were building when in reality he didn’t do it. Napoleon in the book pretends to blame Snowball for everything that has happened when in reality it was just the storm that knocked over the windmill and not Snowball. From when they first started making the windmill Snowball was the lead person then they all had either a good feeling towards him or a bad, and when Napoleon has the dogs by his side then he made all the other characters think that Snowball was the worst person in the book. Orwell states,”The windmill was, in fact, Napoleon’s own creation…. He had seemed to oppose the windmill, simply as a manoeuvre to get rid of snowball.”(54) After all the animals see Snowball as a threat they believe that it was him who had knocked down the windmill in the night when in reality it was just a violent storm. “Comrades, he said quietly, do you know who is responsible for this, Do you know the enemy who has come through the night and overthrown our windmill? Snowball!” (Orwell 64)
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An enemy is necessary for the animals because it brought them together, put fear in them, and allowed Napoleon to control all the animals on the farm more easily. In the beginning of the book, Old Major talks about how humans are the enemies, not the animals (Orwell 9). He talks about how they are slaves to mankind, which unites the animals and leads them to rebel against this new enemy, Jones. Now, they have gained the farm for themselves and have released themselves of slavery, but they are still alert, because mankind could strike back at any time. Napoleon and Snowball use this fear of Jones coming back for their own benefit and take control of the farm. He blinds them in believing they are free, but really they are under the same amount of control as they were before. Jones is always being used as a threat, as they do not want to go back to his way of the farm. They fear that way of life and never want to go back. At some point, however, Jones is no longer a threat to the animals. Nonetheless, Napoleon still wants complete power and control. As a result, he turns the threat from Jones to Snowball. He begins saying that Snowball is secretly an agent of Jones, working against the farm (Orwell 72). Then, he begins saying that other animals on the farm are working with Snowball, and slaughters them all with his pack of dogs (Orwell 76). He does this to invoke fear in all of them. Napoleon wants to keep his power and to keep control of the farm, he labels others as “enemies” of the farm to keep them at bay while he maintains his power. He has to keep changing these to remain in power and keep the fear rising. Without this fear of the enemy, Napoleon has no power and loses his control of the farm that leaves him with nothing. If there is no enemy, there is no fear and no need for power, in both Animal Farm and in society.
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In the beginning of the book Snowball is seen as a leader and very important to the animal farm. He helped the animals realize how bad the humans were treating them and led to a revolt. All of the animals saw him as a hero and he saved them but he started acting more and more like the humans did. Closer to the end of the book he started abusing his power and Napoleon didn’t like it. He planned a way to get rid of Snowball before he ruined the farm. He persuaded all of the other animals that he was evil and cruel so that he could gain power. This affected the story because all of the animals were against Snowball and all of his plans were ruined. This also made a new enemy in the story. The farm was against all of the humans and Snowball so they had to work to stay away from the morals of them and make sure the farm kept a reason to stay away from the humans.
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In the beginning of the book Snowball was a hero and a leader of Animal Farm. But when the concept of the windmill came up and people were leaning to his side, Napoleon sent his dogs and they chased him off the farm. Now all the animals think of him as a fake or an enemy and he shouldn’t be trusted. This causes a hard impact in the story because now the animals think that everything that goes wrong is Snowballs fault and they have someone to blame and no one suspected anything of Napoleon. This gave Snowball a bad reputation and label but in reality he didn’t do anything to cause trouble in the farm. The animals now had someone to blame and Napoleon got away with everything that happened. If this were to happen and we had no enemy we would have to blame ourselves and take responsibility for successes and failures.
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In the book snowball is seen as a very heroic figure to the other animals until Napoleon lead the other animals to thinking that Snowball was now an enemy to them. This made the other animals see him negatively. Snowball never really did anything wrong but Napoleon persuade the other animals making them think that Snowball really was doing bad things behind their backs. After this everything that went wrong on the farm was Snowballs fault when in reality it was Napoleon. Sense all the animals no longer believe and trust in Snowball no one would believe anything he said. If the book never had an enemy then their society would be so much different because they would have seen that it was really Napoleon all along. In our society today if we didn’t have an enemy we would have no one to blame but ourselves for all the bad things that happen as well as we would take responsibility for our own successes and mistakes because we would have no one else to blame.
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At the beginning of the story Snowball is seen as a hero because she had helped the farm for the farms own good. By the end of the book Snowball and Napoleon get in a fight and Napoleon has his own dogs make sure Snowball gets ran out of town. This act makes everyone think that they are enemies, and every animal thinks that Napoleon is that much better for it. When everything on the farm starts to crash and burn everyone will blame Snowball because he is the new enemy. This brings up a good point of if people didn’t have enemies then they wouldn’t have anyone to blame other than themselves. People often look to blame a common enemy instead of self-reflecting on the situation.
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In the beginning of the novel Animal farm,Snowball is seen as the hero and savior. The ideal leader and helpful to his community(the farm), but in the middle of the novel in Chapter five napoleon chases Napoleon away with vicious wild dogs, telling the animals on the farm that he is an enemy and faker. This is a major part in the novel because it’s when all the animals turn on their old leader.. Giving him a negative viewpoint and label, giving someone to blame when things turn wrong for the animals, so they don’t suspect napoleon. Napoleon is seen throughout the story to manipulate the animals so they don’t suspect every wrong choice he takes..showing how he manipulates them into thinking that he’s always right. Giving him the advantage to becoming the leader through manipulation, power and fear, meaning they are always gonna have someone to blame, but if there were no enemy or someone to blame, the story and characters would drastically change, if they were to realize napoleon is causing negative effects on the farm they wouldn’t let him stay in power no longer, and make things better for the farm and the other animals. This novel is a reflection on society as a way for people to better understand that we sometimes don’t always have someone or something to blame and sometimes we have to take action and take role in ourselves and have to realize we are responsible for our actions and choices or even our own failures and not just blaming it on others.
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The reason you need an enemy is so you can unite and become stronger as a group by voting against that enemy. Take the American revolution, the common enemy was the british government and people united to become a better society against the british. If a common enemy never changes then we are not growing as a society and overcoming that enemy. Lastly if there was no enemy then we can not grow and flourish as a society. When there is a common enemy we adapt to overcome it and grow. Take animal farm, if there was no enemy then they wouldn’t have revolted and eventually learn to write and do things for themselves. Basically they wouldn’t have advanced as a society if they didn’t have a common enemy.
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