Snowball's departure represents a dramatic shift in power, as Napoleon begins to set up a totalitarian dictatorship based in manipulation and the brutal use of suppression. In certain respects, I think this should be understood more as an evolution than a complete break, given that (even from the earliest period of Animal Farm's history), one does get the sense that the pigs have set up the equivalent of a single party state, utilizing propaganda and manipulation to maintain their own special status over the other animals. The ending of chapter 2, with the disappearance of the milk and the pig's later use of propaganda to defend this action, illustrates this inequality that had already been present from early on.
With Napoleon's ascension, however, power becomes founded in the use of force and brutal suppression in a way not previously seen. Consider how Snowball is driven off the farm. When Napoleon fails to defeat him in rhetoric, he uses violence, ordering the dogs to attack, as Snowball is forced to flee. Violent oppression is a critical theme in Animal Farm, with Napoleon's use of executions. This brutality, by which power is supported by use of force against the other animals, is a key characteristic of Napoleon's regime.
Additionally, we see the use of propaganda taken to new extremes, as the pigs actively rewrite history and manipulate memory for their own purposes, in ways that foreshadow 1984. They tarnish Snowball's reputation, recasting him as an enemy of the farm. Furthermore, note how they rewrite the history of the Battle of the Cowshed and the contributions of Napoleon and Snowball therein. See also how they continually rewrite the commandments of Animalism. This reflects one of Orwell's critical themes: that truth and memory can be manipulated for political ends.
Finally, life on the farm becomes increasingly brutal and miserable for the animals, especially when compared to their standard of living before his rise to power. They have become increasingly overworked under the new regime (consider, for example, the intensity of labor invested in the building and rebuilding of the windmill), and they must also deal with food shortages and hunger. The utopian dreams of the rebellion and the enthusiasm and promise represented in the first harvest have been swept aside, replaced with misery under Napoleon's regime.
The very first change that Napoleon introduces after Snowball's expulsion from the farm is to cancel the Sunday morning meetings ("They were unnecessary, he said, and wasted time") and to replace them with "a special committee of pigs, presided over by himself." One of the founding principles of Old Major's Animalism was that the animals should be equal, and that there should, therefore, be no hierarchies. By immediately replacing the communal meetings with the committee of pigs, Napoleon takes power from the other animals and concentrates it in the hands, or trotters, of the pigs.
The dogs that chase Snowball from the farm also, after that point, become a familiar feature of the farm. They are used by Napoleon...
See This Answer Now
Start your 48-hour free trial to unlock this answer and thousands more. Enjoy eNotes ad-free and cancel anytime.
Already a member? Log in here.
to strike fear into and silence the animals:
Suddenly the dogs sitting round Napoleon let out deep, menacing growls, and the pigs fell silent.
The dogs are the novella's allegorical equivalent of Stalin's NKVD. Their role is to intimidate and suppress opposition.
Perhaps the most significant change to take place after Snowball's death is that the pigs gradually accumulate more and more power and become lazier while the other animals lose the democratic voice they once had and work harder and harder. The pigs take more and more for themselves and give less and less back to the other animals. In chapter six, for example, the pigs "suddenly moved into the farmhouse" and "slept in the beds." This signals that they are becoming just like the humans that they, most notably Snowball, fought so hard to replace at the beginning of the story, with this transformation reaching its climax at the end of the novella when the animals
looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but . . . it was impossible to say which was which.
After Snowball leaves the farm—or, to be more precise, is forced to leave the farm—Napoleon and his propagandist-in-chief, Squealer, immediately set about trashing his reputation. Everything that subsequently goes wrong on the farm, such as the collapse of the windmill, is attributed to Snowball's malign influence. According to Squealer, Snowball keeps sneaking back to the farm in the dead of night to carry out acts of deliberate sabotage.
Squealer also tries to gaslight the other farm animals by casting doubt on their recollection of the Battle of the Cowshed. During this epic conflict, Snowball had taken the lead role, showing remarkable courage against their human oppressor. Now that he's persona non grata,Snowball's role in the battle is rewritten to make it seem that he was actually in cahoots with Mr. Jones all along, and that he has been tirelessly working ever since to destroy the revolution and restore human rule to the farm.
1. After Napoleon usurps power, Sunday meetings are abolished and the animals no longer have a say in the farm's policies. Instead of holding Sunday meetings and exercising democracy, Napoleon makes it mandatory for the animals to assemble in the barn on Sundays to receive their weekly orders. The pigs are in charge of administering various tasks to the animals, who have no say in the everyday routines and policies of the farm.
2. After Snowball is banished from the farm, Napoleon increases work hours while simultaneously lowering food rations. Living conditions on the farm dramatically decrease as the animals return to their laborious, mundane lifestyles.
3. Napoleon begins to engage in trade with humans, which is another significant change that takes place on Animal Farm after he usurps power by banishing Snowball. Napoleon uses Mr. Whymper as an intermediary between Animal Farm and the outside world. Instead of engaging in trade to benefit the farm, Napoleon sells the animals' precious resources for his own personal gain.
After Snowball leaves, the door for Napoleon to take over is wide open! And so he does, proceeding to implement many changes on Animal Farm, including doing away with Sunday meetings, breaking more and more commandments, such as "No animal shall drink alcohol," and beginning to trade with humans to fund the windmill which he so adamantly opposed while Snowball was still on the farm, but quickly changes sides once Snowball has been exiled.