and in the way power corrupts them further when they get there.

The most important and overarching instance of corruption appears in the way Old Major's vision of Animalism becomes something at least as bad as Mr. Jones's regime over the course of the book. The points made by Old Major are perfectly reasonable. The farmer does live parasitically on the work and suffering of the animals and on the eventual deaths of most of them. However, even as he exploits them, he protects them from being exploited by each other.

Orwell shows how the personal corruption of the pigs leads them to step into the power vacuum left by Jones and quickly adapt the circumstances to create existences of power and luxury for themselves. This begins even before the expulsion of Snowball when the pigs steal the apples and the milk. Snowball is not free from corruption, and there are clear indications that he would have been far from perfect as a leader. However, Napoleon ousts him, not because he is more intelligent, but because he is more ruthless and unprincipled—in other words, more corrupt.

The main theme of George Orwell’s Animal Farm is the usurpation of political power by ruthless leaders. The twentieth century saw multiple legitimate revolutionary movements fall victim to conflicts among the revolution’s leaders, with the most cunning and ruthless leaders often emerging on top. Animal Farm depicts one such revolution, using allegory to depict Joseph Stalin's rise to power after the Russian Revolution of 1917. Replacing real historical figures with animal counterparts, Orwell shows how easily corrupt leaders can exploit revolutionary sentiment to seize power.

The book begins with Old Major, a venerable but aging boar, introducing his fellow farm animals to the theory of Animalism, thus providing a philosophical basis for revolting against their cruel human owner. After successfully wresting control of the farm from Mr. Jones, the animals aim to create a utopian society where all animals are equal and free from the tyrannical oppression of their human masters. Things begin to fall apart, however, as the pigs, led by the cunning and ruthless Napoleon (representing Joseph Stalin), slowly take control on the farm. After a brief power struggle, Napoleon maneuvers his way to the top and chases away his idealistic political rival Snowball (representing Leon Trotsky). Under Napoleon’s repressive rule, the pigs proceed to selfishly exploit the other animals and violate the core principles of Animalism. In the end, the animals' collective dreams of a better life are crushed, and they are left no better off under the pigs than they were under Mr. Jones. This, then, is Orwell’s main theme: the subversion of legitimate revolutionary movements by autocratic and manipulative leaders.

Another major theme in Animal Farm is the power of language to manipulate the masses. The pigs—Squealer in particular—cleverly use language and propaganda to distort the truth and obscure their self-serving actions. The core principles of Animalism, including the commandment that “all animals are equal,” are all eventually subverted by the pigs for their own benefit. The following passage demonstrates Squealer’s use of rhetoric to legitimize Napoleon’s autocratic methods:

“Comrades," he said, "I trust that every animal here appreciates the sacrifice that Comrade Napoleon has made in taking this extra labour upon himself. Do not imagine, comrades, that leadership is a pleasure! On the contrary, it is a deep and heavy responsibility. No one believes more firmly than Comrade Napoleon that all animals are equal. He would be only too happy to let you make your decisions for yourselves. But sometimes you might make the wrong decisions, comrades, and then where should we be?”

The pigs’ manipulations continue until, at the end of the novel, the original commandments painted on the barn have been replaced by the edict that “ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS.” This meaningless doublespeak, which is intended to confuse the animals and obscure the otherwise obvious hierarchy on the farm, demonstrates how language can be successfully used as a tool of oppression.

Another related theme is the control of information and exploitation of ignorance. As the pigs consolidate power, they are increasingly able to control what the other animals see, hear, and read. This allows the pigs to more easily manipulate the other animals, who are uneducated and generally unwilling or incapable of researching issues for themselves and arriving at informed conclusions. The ignorance of the animals on the farm ultimately proves to be their greatest weakness, leaving them unable to challenge the pigs’ leadership until it is too late.

I would go along with others to suggest that one of the main themes is that absolute power corrupts absolutely, which we see once the pigs become identical to the humans at the end of the book.

But an important thing to remember is that Orwell was very purposely focusing on the individuals involved in the rise to power of the communist government in the USSR and the various contentions and problems within that government. The book is not just about power but about how the various people interacted and his view of, for example, Trotsky being driven out because he was in fact too concerned with helping the average person.

I like the idea of "meet the new boss, same as the old boss."  Orwell was really ahead of his time in understanding how the government of nations such as the Soviet Union were not really transformative in how their government functioned.  They were just better at packaging it and selling it as something distinctively different.  Orwell's depiction of Napoleon and his drive for power, the practices of consolidating it in order to ensure that there is no threat, and the reduction of individuals to atomized part whose submission will either be received or simply be discarded is reflective of the theme of power corruption, as suggested in the previous post.  At the same time, I think that another theme here is that in order to avoid this, there has to be courageous individuals, and quite a few of them, to make sure that government is responsive to the needs of its people.  The lack of a courageous figure and quite a few of them is something that allows Napoleon to get away with what he does.  The enotes analysis of the themes in the book would also be helpful to you.

There are a number of themes that you can identify in this book.  You should follow the link to read what eNotes has to say about the themes.

To me, the major theme is that power corrupts people.  I think that Orwell is trying to tell us that even people who start out very idealistic can become corrupted.  You can see this in how the pigs start out with Old Major's vision but are exactly like the people (oppressive) by the end of the book.

I would say that another theme is that people who are idealistic end up getting exploited and then oppressed by those who are power-hungry.  I think you can see this especially in the character of Boxer.  He is very idealistic but ends up getting worked to death by the new regime (which then essentially sells his body).

Some of the prominent themes that Orwell explores in the novella Animal Farm are the dangers of consolidating government power, the manipulation of language and meaning, and the corrupting influence of power. Orwell's novella can be perceived as a critique of communism and a warning against consolidating government power. In a communist system of government, the authority and power of the nation are consolidated at the top, which can easily become corrupted and used to oppress the populace. Orwell also explores the way that authoritarian regimes mislead and control the citizens by manipulating language and utilizing various forms of propaganda. The most obvious examples of propaganda are illustrated by Napoleon's expertise in manipulating language, his using Snowball as a scapegoat, and his revising the Seven Commandments. Napoleon's tyranny also portrays how power can corrupt an individual. As soon as Napoleon usurps power, he begins to act like a ruthless tyrant, executing political dissidents and oppressing the population while he enjoys exclusive privileges and lives in luxury.

Orwell's Animal Farm starts with a set of ideals that are set forth one night by a boar named Major. Unfortunately, Major dies three nights later.

Major's ideals, however, are picked up by the animals to which he had explained them and used as the springboard for a revolution in which the animals overthrow their human masters.

Unfortunately, as Orwell's novel progresses, we see that the pigs, who had been masterminds of the revolution, become corrupt and argue with one another. By the end of the novel, the pigs become allies of the humans whom Major had declared as enemies of the animals at the novel's outset.

Thus, Orwell seems to be predicting that over time the original ideals of a movement will become corrupted and forgotten. Thus, in the final lines of the novel, Orwell writes:

The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.

Animal Farm by George Orwell was written as a fictionalized repudiation of communism. Orwell was strongly opposed to all types of totalitarian systems, and though his sympathy with the working classes initially made him support Trotskyite ideals, his firsthand experiences in Spain and his understanding of how the communist revolution in the Soviet Union had evolved from idealism into authoritarianism made him increasingly skeptical of all totalitarian political systems, whether those of Hitler or Stalin. 

The main thesis of Animal Farm is that absolute power corrupts and that even the most idealistic revolutions can be subverted by self-serving authorities. While the animal revolution is triggered by genuine abuses -- animals are used as food by humans -- the result of the revolution is not a utopia but instead a system even worse than the rule of the human farmer, with what once was a legitimate cause being transformed into propaganda covering up the self-interest of a new ruling class. 

The main point of Animal Farm, a withering commentary on totalitarianism, is that dreams of a better society can easily go wrong if people don't first take a stand against despotism and, second, pay attention to the abuse of language. Power corrupts and must be contained and controlled so that no one group can amass too much of it.

The tragedy of Animal Farm is that the pigs, especially the unscrupulous Napoleon, gain too much power and end up using it despotically, replicating the behavior of the humans they displaced. This is tragic because it could have been prevented. If an animal like Boxer had taken a stand against Napoleon when it was still possible, he would have rallied other animals to him and could have curbed the tyrant's excesses. Instead, he exhibits blind loyalty. He abdicates his responsibility to question Napoleon's outrageous actions and speak truth to power. This is a huge mistake. All the little abuses must be addressed immediately or big abuses will follow.

Second, and very importantly, the animals fail to pay attention to language and to how the pigs are cleverly twisting it to support their own agenda. Orwell is showing that ordinary people have to use their heads and analyze what the people in power are saying to them. Slogans and propaganda may sound and feel good, but they are usually used for evil purposes.

Orwell's point is that democracy and equality are not givens: people have to exert themselves to protect these freedoms

George Orwell's main point in Animal Farm is to show how the best of intentions and ideas can, and generally do, become corrupted in practice. Orwell was himself a socialist, and he clearly has genuine sympathy for the thoughts expressed by Old Major at the beginning of the book. Old Major is is right that the animals are exploited and that they would be better off if they could organize themselves into a cooperative society where they worked for the common good rather than serving a master who simply takes the products of their labor, leaving them with just enough to sustain life.

Orwell once described England as a family with the wrong members in control. This description applies, to some extent, to any society. The people (or, in this case, animals) who seek power are not those most inclined to use it for the common good. Snowball is not a perfect leader and might well have become corrupt over time, but he is highly intelligent and offers hope for the future. He is defeated by Napoleon simply because Napoleon is more ruthless and violent. Any type of person may inherit a kingdom, but it is generally unscrupulous, power-hungry men who manage to seize one. Such men have little interest in implementing someone else's idealistic program of reform, which means that revolutions undertaken in the name of the people, or animals, are generally betrayed by their leaders.

I would argue that the point of George Orwell's Animal Farm relates to the dangers of any despot, whether or not this autocratic leader has sociocultural similarities to you.

At the beginning, the animals of Animal Farm exist under the tyranny of Mr. Jones, and their life is miserable. By the end, they are under the tyranny of Napoleon and the other pigs, who have learned to walk on two legs and be as similar as possible to humans. In their long term, the animals' happiness and satisfaction with their lives have not improved. They are simply under the jurisdiction of a new leader—one who played on their emotions to obtain this power.

At its heart, Animal Farm is a criticism of the type of communism implemented in the Soviet Union. Just like the communist leaders, the pigs started out talking about equal rights and how everyone should have a say in how things are run. It turns out, both in Russia and on Manor Farm, that the new leaders are no better than the old. Both are committed to their own motivations, and neither actually cares about those living under their rule.

In a nutshell, the point of Animal Farm relates to the necessity of a just political system. It is an allegory showing the perils of the communist movement and of totalitarianism.

At its heart, Animal Farm is a warning against the dangers of totalitarianism. Specifically, Orwell argues that after a revolution, the people should not allow power to be concentrated into the hands of a single individual or small group of individuals because if this happens, that power will corrupt the leaders and turn them into self-interested tyrants.

Orwell supports this argument through the characters of the pigs, particularly Napoleon, who become increasingly greedy and self-interested as the story progresses. Moreover, they corrupt the ideas of Animalism, the foundation for their new society, and, by the end of the novel, have become just as tyrannical as the humans they overthrew. More importantly, by the time the other animals realize what has happened, it is too late. They are trapped in a dictatorship, unable to change their situation.

In terms of allusions, this argument also applies to the political situation in the Soviet Union. Through his allusions to Soviet leaders, particularly Stalin, Orwell shows that this exact thing happened: Stalin corrupted the principles of communism and turned it into totalitarianism.

The main point of Animal Farm, by George Orwell, is to criticize communism, or at least the way that communism was implemented in the Soviet Union.

The book shows how the communist movement starts with talk about helping the people and about letting everyone have a voice in their own lives.  But then it quickly evolves to the point where the communist leaders (Napoleon the pig, etc.) are no better than the people they replaced.  They put themselves above the common people and they run things tyrannically, driving out those they disagree with (Snowball because of the windmill).

The main point of Animal Farm is about the nature of power. At first, the revolution had noble intentions. The communist ideals, seen in the seven commandments, sound great in theory. However, in time the leaders on the farm are not able to follow those ideals with any consistency. As the story progresses, they follow the ideals less and less. Towards the end, they completely betray any ideals. This is precisely why at the end of the book, Orwell has the pigs turn into men. 

Clover cannot see who is man or pig, or pig and man. Here are the words of Orwell:

No question, now, what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.

From this quote it seems clear that the main theme is about how power corrupts. To ground Animal Farm in history, we can say that even though Orwell believed in communist ideals, he believes that the Soviet Union, under Stalin, implemented these ideals in a perverse and wicked form. 

Orwell wrote Animal Farm in order to describe the process of corruption in revolution, specially the Russian Revolution.

Orwell’s books expose the dark side of the human condition.  He wrote Animal Farm because he wanted to create an allegory, or fable, of the Russian Revolution.  He based all of the characters and the events on what actually happened.  Therefore, he strongly was convinced that the Russian Revolution was a force of corruption, because that is what he presents of the revolution in Animal Farm.

Using allegory … Orwell made his political statement in a twentieth-century fable that could be read as an entertaining story about animals or, on a deeper level, a savage attack on the misuse of political power. (enotes introduction)

Although Orwell wanted people to realize the abuses that came with the Russian Revolution and the Soviet Union, he also wanted to get people thinking about the nature of revolution in general.  Animal Farm’s ending describes how he felt about revolution.

The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which. (ch 10)

The pigs promised a better life for the animals, but they abused them and used them just as much as the humans did.  In the end, they cannot tell the difference between the humans and the animals.  The animals are so corrupt they have basically become human.

Another famous line captures the key to the book and Orwell's beliefs.

There was nothing there now except a single
Commandment. It ran:
ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL

BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS (ch 10)

With this comandment the pigs are able to take over the farm.  Orwell wanted people to realize that the Soviets were doing the same thing.

Orwell intentionally wrote his book in simple, easy-to-translate language.

"I thought of exposing the Soviet myth in a story that could be easily understood by almost anyone and which could be easily translated into other languages." (enotes historical background)

Orwell wanted to be sure that no one bought the lies.  He was not convinced that the Soviets were telling the truth, and he told the story in such a way that it was obvious who was Stalin, Trotsky, and Hitler.  He was writing because he was fed up. 

Orwell is trying to make the point that the vision of an idealistic society cannot translate into reality, that political and social revolutions seldom, if ever, manage to hold to their original purity of purpose. The original aim of Animal Farm, after the euphoria of the victory against the common enemy, Man, is for all the animals to work together for the common good, to create a community where there is true freedom and equality for all, and where the strong protect the weak. However, this soon degenerates into disagreements and power struggles and leads to oppressive rule by a tiny minority. In fact, the majority of the animals find that they have simply exchanged one oppressive government (the humans) for another (the pigs). Most ironically, the pigs actually end up joining forces with humans once again. Orwell based this fable on events in Russia in the first half of the twentieth century, where an idealistic communist revolution led first to brutal civil war and then eventually, a grim totalitarian state under Josef Stalin. However Orwell's point about the nature of revolutions and the corrupting effects of power can be applied universally.

I think that one of the most essential points that Orwell is trying to make is that citizens cannot afford to blindly follow and trust their political leadership in the modern setting.  While Orwell features a great deal of venom and vitriol for Napoleon and the leadership of the pigs, Orwell is also fairly critical of the other animals for blindly trusting the pigs.  Orwell believes that the citizenry that mirrors Boxer's faith in leadership is asking for trouble.  

One of the single and most important points that Orwell makes is that when there is blind leadership in political authority, the grounds for abuse and tyranny are laid.  Citizens have to voice dissent and criticize their authority figures at every possible instant.  The ability for citizens to become politically engaged is vitally important for Orwell.  Granted, when animals in the novel do speak out, they are killed by Napoleon.  Yet, this would only underscore the importance of citizens learning to get turned on to politics before politics turns on them.  In the end, Orwell's demand for citizens to become politically aware of their leadership is one of the most critical and important points that comes out of the novel.  This is a reality that Orwell views as needed in both Communist Russia as well as "the West."

Old Major's main idea is to make the animals aware of a transformative vision of reality.  His primary purpose was to suggest to the animals that they can be the agents of their own state of being on the farm.  The vision Old Major proposes is one that calls for the overthrow of the humans that own the control of the farm.  In his vision, Old Major seeks to inspire the animals to no longer be relegated to the periphery of decision making, but actually move to the center.  In teaching the animals the song, "Beasts of England, Old Major reaffirms to the animals that they can collectivize to cause change.  This is something that his "disciples" like Snowball and Napoleon take to heart in the acting upon the call for revolution.  Old Major's main idea is one that serves as the catalyst for the events that follow and the advancement of the plot of the novel.

To me, the central point of this book relates to deception. It is a commentary on a well-intentioned, ferverntly believed revolution which fails to achieve its ultimate aim because 1) political animals mixed with apolitical animals in a political setting led to an imbalance of power and 2) the imbalance of power was instituted and made possible by an ability to deceive on the part of the politically savvy animals. 

As Gandhi said, when words lose their meaning, we lose our freedom. The leaders in Animal Farm were able to steal the freedom of the labor force by robbing the language of the commandments of their meaning. 

At least, that's one way to look at it. 

I'm not sure this is the "single most important" point Orwell was trying to make, but I think a major one is the importance of educating the masses especially in the wake of a revolution.  Because of this lack of education, the animals were blissfully ignorant of all the things the pigs did to manipulate them.  The conditions on the farm did not improve because there was not enough intelligent animals to check the pigs on any of their wrong doings.  Napoleon even took great strides to ensure that education wasn't available to all animals, as he set up special courses for certain animals but deprived the majority.  This was well calculated, and there is no coincidence that he was against Snowball and all his committees that attempted to provide the masses with education and skills that would make them independent and no longer reliant on the pig's oppressive leadership. 

Published in 1945, Animal Farm, whose major plot events parallel occurrences in the Russia and what was to become the Soviet Union, served as a criticism of the rule of Joseph Stalin.  Napoleon's altering of the Seven Commandments resembles the dictates of the Communist Manifesto.

The Communist Manifesto (1848) stated that the result would be ‘an association in which the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all’.

I agree with everything said in the first two posts.  I also think that Orwell is trying to tell us that there is no such thing as a utopia on Earth.  I think that he is telling us that even beautiful visions of a perfect world will be corrupted by human beings and human nature.  This fits in with what the other two posts are saying because what makes us unable to have utopia is what they mention.  It is the fact that people don't really hold their rulers accountable and it is the fact that rulers become power hungry.

I think Orwell wanted us to realize that the old saying, "Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely" rings true no matter what type of government has control.

Animal farm is a thinly disgused re-telling of the Bolshevik revolution in Russia. Much like the Russians under the thumb of Czar Nicholas, the animals were being mistreated by the selfish, cruel Farmer Jones. So, the animals rose up (like the Bolsheviks) to depose the dictator and rule themselves.

At the beginning of animal rule, under the idealistic ideas of Old Major (Karl Marx) it seemed that everyone sharing everything was a wise and fair way to construct a society (like the communism that took over in Russia after the Czar). However, very soon a couple of the animals (Napoleon and Snowball) like Trotsky and Stalin wanted control so they fought for power.

Eventually, Napoleon won and became the new leader of the animals. It looked like he was giving the animals control over their lives, and making everyone share with everyone but that was just propaganda.

The power of Napoleon's position was heady for him. The more he got, the more he wanted. When he couldn't get it fairly, he stole, cheated and lied to get it. He became so corrupt, that at the end of the book...no one could tell him apart from the humans that he had rebelled against. His power ruined him.

That, I think, is what Orwell wants us to know. We must learn from history and watch those in power...because it is all too human for those good people we put in power to become corrupt because they cannot handle the lure of absolute power.

There are many specific points that Orwell was making in Animal Farm. In my mind, the most pressing was how individuals have to exercise a level of scrutiny regarding their government.  The animals' lack of an effective voice of dissent at the earliest of stages is what causes the farm to be run in the manner it is and becomes the reason why Napoleon is able to consolidate his power over the farm in such a manner.  I think that Orwell wants people to understand how political power is constructed and advocate that the peoples' need to speak out and to exercise a voice of dissent is the one element that can serve to limit or ensure that a government is responsive to the needs of its citizens.  The animals on the farm believe the government with so much ease that it makes it easy for the pigs to strengthen their control on the farm.  From Boxer's need to "work harder," to Mollie's self- interest, to Benjamin's cynicism, to Moses' religious diversions, to Clover's willignness to believe, to the mimicry of the sheep, Orwell contributes a narrative that suggests if individuals remain silent or refuse to question the authority structure that governs them, bad things cannot be far from behind.

Animal Farm is a brilliant satire of the Stalinist era of the USSR. Author George Orwell had a personal connection to this theme. Orwell (whose real name was Eric Arthur Blair) considered himself a democratic socialist, but he did not believe that Stalinist Russia was truly concerned with promoting democratic socialism. Rather, he believed that the Soviet Union was little more than a dictatorship based on Stalin's personality cult. He wanted to demonstrate--through an animal fable--that the Soviet Union was not truly Marxist.

Moreover, he wanted to show that Joseph Stalin was not a man socialists should idolize or emulate. This was especially important to Orwell, because many people in Great Britain (Orwell's nation of residence) were fond of Stalin and because Great Britain was allied with the Soviets during the early part of World War II.