Thursday, February 4, 2016

What does the simplicity of the Seven Commandments foreshadow, and what is the effect of this foreshadowing?

Following Old Major's death, the pigs adopt his tenets to establish the system of thought known as Animalism and also create the Seven Commandments, which prohibit the animals from behaving like their former human oppressors while simultaneously championing solidarity and equality among all animals.
The simplicity of the Seven Commandments foreshadows Squealer's ability to alter them without the animals noticing. As the novel progresses, Napoleon gradually breaks every commandment, and Squealer easily alters the commandments by simply adding a few words to them. The ignorant animals do not notice the minor changes made and passively accept them. For example, the simplicity of the Fourth Commandment, prohibiting animals to sleep in beds, is easily changed with the addition of two words. Squealer changes the Fourth Commandment to read, "No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets" (Orwell, 42). After Napoleon holds public executions, Squealer simply adds "without cause" to the Sixth Commandment and adds the words "to excess" to the Fifth Commandment, which prohibits the animals from drinking alcohol.
Overall, the simplicity of the commandments makes them easy to alter and foreshadows Squealer's actions. By foreshadowing how the commandments will be easily altered, Orwell emphasizes Napoleon and Squealer's ability to manipulate and control the animals.

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