Animal Farm
By George Orwell
Peer pressure
Peer pressure refers to the
influence exerted by a peer group
in encouraging a person to
change his or her attitudes,
values, or behavior in order to
conform to group norms. A person
affected by peer pressure may or
may not want to belong to these
groups and it can cause people to
do things that they would not
normally do. In "Animal Farm"
there are many examples of peer
pressure and these are some of the
most important ones :
1.
At the beginning, the old boar
on the Manor Farm, Old Major,tries
to convince the other animals that
human beings are parasites.By
doing that,he wants to make them
revolt against people and free
themselves from their "miserable,
labourious and short lives". It is now
the moment when all the animals at
the farm decide to fight against
Mr.Jones because of the misleading
words of the old boar, even if not all
of them had had the same opinion
about people.
2.
Mollie, for example, was
used to having an easy life,
wearing ribbons in her mane
and being one of Mr.Jones'
favourite animals at the farm.
Snowball manages to convince
her that those ribbons are “the
badge of slavery" and that
liberty is more important, but
her powerful need for attention
makes her betray the others and
leave the farm.
3.
The Seven Commandments
are the main rules that every
animal is asked to respect. As the
story goes on, these
commandments are being
changed whenever Napoleon, the
leader, wants to. For example, if in
the beginning the animals were
not allowed to sleep in a bed, as
soon as the pigs start to do so, the
rule changes into:"No animal
shall sleep in a bed with sheets".
Read them,
Learn them,
Dream about
them,
LOVE them!
4.
The most striking
example is that at the
beginning all animals were
equal whereas in the end all
animals were equal, but some
were more equal than others.
Some of the animals do realise
that these commandments
have been changed,but
Napoleon, helped by
Squealer,abuses their poor
memories and convinces them
that they are wrong.
5.
Napoleon abuses his powers,
making life harder for the animals
and the pigs impose more control
while reserving privileges for
themselves.The animals,though
cold,starving and overworked remain
convinced that they are better off
than they were when ruled by
Mr.Jones,only because they were
always told so by their leader, even if
it was not true.
They might not all want to
work on weekends and during the
few hours they have to rest, but
animals like Boxer,whose main motto
was:"I will work harder", work
continuously and that makes some
of the animals feel they have to do
soas well.
6.
The sheep show limited
understanding of the
situation but support
Napoleon's ideals and they
are regularly shown
repeating the phrase "Four
legs good, two legs
bad".When ,at the end of the
novel,one of the Seven
Commandments is changed
after the pigs learn to walk
on two legs, their cry
changes into "Four legs
good,two legs better.”
Four legs good, two legs
better, people !!
7.
At the end,
Napoleon makes all
the pigs stand on two
feet. Deep down they
might not want to,
but because the
animals next to them
did it, they felt that
they had to do so too.
The End!