A paper on the imagery in Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour”, by Harry Maugans.

Chopin eloquently laces “œThe Story of an Hour” with vivid imagery to accentuate the contrasting segments and offset social paradigms, enchanting the reader to perceive the situation from her slant. Employing strong irony in a nearly satirical fashion, Chopin utilizes vivacious descriptions as a literary tool to portray the unexpected and coerce the reader to their own conclusions, instead of explicitly stating them. Her masterful crafting of graphic illustrations, employed at the appropriate places, brings a revitalizing light to the story.

In the story, Chopin waits until Mrs. Mallard received the news of her husband”™s death before diving into her visual exhibition. “œWhen the storm of grief had spent itself,” introduces a weather-oriented theme that vibrantly enhances the spike of mental anguish felt upon first receiving the ghastly news. This imagery depicts a violent and dismal entity, setting the oscillation”™s trough low for elevated contrast when juxtaposed against the later inundation of euphoria.

As Mrs. Mallard proceeds into her room, the reader immediately notices a peculiar shift in the imagery”™s façade. The dark and gloomy atmosphere is penetrated by her sitting in “œa comfortable, roomy armchair,” a less than distressing description. She then gazes outside and a gush of serenities pour into the reader”™s ears: a bombshell hits the ambiance.

She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life. The delicious breath of rain was in the air. In the street below a peddler was crying his wares. The notes of a distant song which some one was singing reached her faintly, and countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves.

This unexpected twist adds a whole new shade of color to the story. The unforeseen irony leaves the reader dumbfounded, struggling to make sense of Chopin”™s disconnected logic. Why would a distraught widow notice such a radiant image as “œnew spring life,” atop the trees outside her window? Chopin uses this imagery to serve as metaphorical symbolism to Mrs. Mallard herself. An important reference to the time of the year is made, spring, which is associated with new life and growth. As she breathes in a “œdelicious breath of rain,” she is being reborn without the implicit oppression in her past. This section of the story also extends the weather reference in the beginning, serving as a peaceful break from chaos, or the eye of the storm.

In the next paragraph, Mrs. Mallard notices “œpatches of blue sky showing here and there through the clouds.” This imagery is bursting with metaphorical connotation. The blue sky, symbolizing serenity and delight, is starting to appear through the clouds, symbolizing the last pieces of the turbulent storm in the previous scene. This also reinforces the reader”™s assumption that a bizarre joy is emerging. The clouds and sky continue to play off the weather theme, acting as a guide to her mindset. Like most other imagery in the story, this landscape is directly metaphorical of Mrs. Mallard, with her happiness beginning to show through her preceding anguish.

To support the postulation of oppression and dismay in Mrs. Mallard”™s past, Chopin masterfully adds that the clouds “œhad met and piled one above the other.” This image of unity is symbolic of the happiness she has never felt before. This emotional divergence overwhelmed Mrs. Mallard, leaving her “œthrown back upon the cushion of the chair, quite motionless, except when a sob came up into her throat and shook her, as a child who has cried itself to sleep continues to sob in its dreams.” In comparing her to a child, this image goes to further support the metaphorical rebirth she”™s undergoing. The emotional influx is such that she reverts to an innate state of mind, waiting for it to all sink in.

Chopin continues to strengthen her illustrative ties in the eighth paragraph, describing Mrs. Mallard”™s “œyoung” face with “œdull [eyes] whose gaze was fixed away off yonder on one of those patches of blue sky.” The word “œyoung” is a concrete reference to her childhood-like state- with the dull gaze emphasizing her overwhelmed condition. The “œpatches of blue sky” revisits the reader here, continuing the weather theme, while demonstrating a yearning for that happiness. This scene mirrors a youthful school-aged child staring out the window, wishing he wasn”™t sitting in a classroom. The child wants to play outside instead of working on English assignments all day, and Mrs. Mallard, like a young child, craves escaping her captivity and enjoying life as well.
As Mrs. Mallard”™s happiness began to build, she “œfelt it, creeping out of the sky, reaching toward her through the sounds, the scents, the color that filled the air,” using powerful imagery to personify her weathered state of mind, “œreaching” toward her, switching from a passive to an active voice. This image alleviates her personal guilt, as the happiness is reaching towards her: she”™s not pursuing it. When she “œfelt it, creeping out of the sky,” it shows reserve and hesitation in admitting a positive feeling”™s presence, yet exposed with such radiance, the reader can only assume she”™s craving those feelings with a passionate heart. The air has sound and color, clearly symbolic of a very upbeat mood transcending her.

Mrs. Mallard”™s “œbosom rose and fell tumultuously,” describing her state of raising anticipation and nearing acceptance. She describes the feeling as, “œapproaching to possess her,” reiterating her previous guilt scapegoat and further enhancing her child-like image through circumventing responsibility, even for her own thoughts and feelings. She engages in a graphic fruitless attempt to battle back that feeling, “œstriving to beat it back with her will,” ironic and juvenile since she hungers for her opposition, however quickly abandoned when “œa little whispered word escaped her slightly parted lips . . . free.” And there was light. The entire story from the beginning up to this point is summarized into one word: “œfree.” The word free today symbolically stands against any despotism and injustice, the very same evils the reader speculated earlier. This confirms her gloomy past, and explains the use of such intense positive imagery after receiving the news of her husband”™s death.

Chopin follows the epiphany by describing Mrs. Mallard”™s fast beating pulse and “œthe coursing blood [that] warmed and relaxed every inch of her body.” This is another brilliant wrench on the reader, as normally this imagery would be cheery, but here it depicts grave foreshadowing of a pending heart-attack, from her known heart condition.

Mentally progressing toward analysis, she discloses that “œshe would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in death,” a statement dripping with cynical undertone, as earlier she offered her dismay in her previous life. This imagery again touches on societal norms, symbolizing what she feels is expected of her, summarizing the antagonism in Chopin”™s absolute argument, and selfishly contending she followed her role until death.

All the while, Mrs. Mallard”™s friend “œwas kneeling before the closed door with her lips to the keyhold.” This imagery goes to show a strong sense of being disconnected. Mrs. Mallard is the only person standing in that room, and the only person, according to societal norms, to have those feelings. She is not only disconnected from society, but now she is also disconnected from the oppression of her husband. She is alone, and she is free. She “œ[drinks] in a very elixir of life through that open window,” emblematic of her emotional cure; the “œelixir” is her remedy. In her cured state, Mrs. Mallard speaks of “œspring days, and summer days, and all sorts of days that would be her own,” all images of joyous times- happier times. She “œbreathed a quick prayer that life might be long,” basking in the imagery of her liberated mindset. From a “œfeverish triumph in her eyes,” to carrying “œherself unwittingly like a goddess of Victory,” Chopin clearly depicts Mrs. Mallard”™s newfound bliss.

At the end of the story, Mr. Mallard enters “œa little travel-stained,” brilliant imagery of first impression, depicting him not as valiant, but as worn-down and meek. The juxtaposition of Mr. Mallard to his wife”™s elation is intensely ironic, as he depicts how the reader assumes Mrs. Mallard lived previously. Josephine’s “œpiercing cry,” highlights the shock of the situation, and serves as a curtain on that scene.

Chopin stuffs “œThe Story of an Hour” with strong imagery to effectively illustrate the vast unexpected twists she pulls off. From sarcasm to devastation, every graphical description helps entice the reader and pull them closer to the center cords of the story. As a master of prose, Chopin does not leave any reader in the metaphorical dark.

–
Parenthetical documentation dropped. Works Cited:
Chopin, Kate. “œThe Story of an Hour.” Third. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2006

Warning: This paper may contain spoilers to the future and life itself. If you”™d rather be surprised in coming years when this speculation becomes a concrete reality, I”™d suggest you stop reading at this point. If the flux capacitor is an interest of yours, please continue.

We don”™t know what will happen in the future. However by looking at historical events and landmark discoveries we can more accurately predict it, namely with societal trends. Neuroscience is a very intricate subject matter with deep roots in society, affecting nearly everything in our daily lives. If a major breakthrough occurs, it could drastically alter anything from the way your pot of coffee is made in the morning, to an individual”™s religion, to the global economy. For this reason, it”™s not a subject matter to be taken lightly, especially with us making steps forward in Neuroscience everyday.

As we further expand our familiarity of the inner-workings of the brain, the religious implications become more apparent. In answering the questions of how intelligent life thinks with proven evidence, we began to dissolve the miracles at the foundation of religion. Understanding the mind may allow us to create further bridges of similarities between man and beast, adding more points on evolution”™s scoreboard and upsetting some religious people. Religion is based on miracles and blind acceptance, but as our culture progresses toward a more logic-focused mindset, science and the theory of evolution progress with it. Sweden is often thought of as the most Atheistic country in the world with an estimated 85% of the entire population disbelieving in a God-like figure (Zuckerman), which is astounding when one realizes that just a few centuries ago, it was rare to find a single atheist”¦ and even then, if one was found they”™d be sentenced to death. There has been an undeniable historical parallel between the increase in scientific evidence and atheistic beliefs, and with further research and discoveries in such an unknown area as the mind, it”™s only likely to continue.

Beyond understanding the mind, the first development of true artificial intelligence will probably cause an even more colossal overhaul of societal thinking. There will be buildings built with supercomputers “œthinking” of new circuit designs, trying to invent better equipment. There will be a massive influx of new technology, and we will need additional employees to govern, control, monitor, update, extend, test, patch, and fix all of it”¦ or at least employees to build more computers to do that for us also. There will be pods forming of anti-technology zealots who watched the 1999 Warner-Brothers movie “œThe Matrix” (IMDB) too many times. Engineers, mathematicians, secretaries, accountants, and even the guy who talks to cars in the drive-through at McDonalds, will all lose their jobs to be replaced with perpetually friendly and never erroneous cybernetics. This will cause a surge of unemployment, then subsequent depression will spread throughout our society. The economy will face a polarity greater than history has ever shown, with the leaders of the AI movement pressing forward in fascist persistence. This is of course purely speculative, however society will face less than frivolous changes.

Ignorance is bliss. That is the reason artificial intelligence will cause a larger ripple in society than unlocking the secrets of the mind. When AI is invented, no one can deny it; ones asks a computer a question, and it answers in what appears to be a logical thought process. However demystifying the mental processes inside our brains begins to question divinity and the presence of an omniscient being. From this, people who are religious the majority of their lives may often choose to ignore or deny any conclusive evidence of such, mitigating societal impact through a delayed acceptance. A perfect historical example of society”™s delayed acceptance for controversial science is when Heliocentrism was introduced by Copernicus to replace the Ptolemaic model of Geocentricity in the 16th century (Artigas). Geocentricity, like religion, was the known standard among the population, and for anyone suggesting the Earth was not the center of the universe was declared absurd. Over the years, more and more concrete evidence was presented, such as ships disappearing from view as they move along the ocean, beyond the arch of the globe, and this treason become less of an offense. Eventually Kepler came along with his theory of planetary motion, Newton developed his theory of universal gravity, and everything began to fit together as a single, solid truth (Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia). While it was hard for people to accept at first, eventually the evidence could not be denied anymore by institution”¦ identical to religion and learning about the mind in the 21st century.

People have an innate yearning to explain things they cannot. They jump to conclusions, they guess and check, and eventually everything is established. However when a theory comes along and upsets that balance by saying what they knew as the truth was in fact inaccurate, mental pandemonium tends to occur. Neuroscience and the study of the mind is in the very early stage of this process, where we are still grabbing for any square plug that fits in the round hole, and when we find a fit, it”™s a big deal. As technology progresses in the 21st century, there well be a substantial impact on society, and through it, we will become a more developed civilization.

Casual Bibliography

- “The Matrix.” IMDB. Internet Movie Database, Inc., 2006. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0133093/

- Zuckerman, Phil. “œAtheism: Contemporary Rates and Patterns.” Michael Martin. Cambridge University Press, 2005. http://www.pitzer.edu/academics/faculty/zuckerman/atheism.html

- Artigas, Mariano. “œShedding new light on the Galileo Affair.” Science and Technology News. March 1, 2002. http://www.stnews.org/News-1885.htm

- “Heliocentrism.” The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Columbia University Press., 2003. Answers.com 20 Apr. 2006. http://www.answers.com/topic/heliocentrism

One scene in the film October Sky that is not included in the novel Rocket Boys (later published as October Sky) is the scene in which the “œrocket boys” intentionally burn the blockhouse and destroy their rocket launch site. This scene is not included in the novel and serves to change the focus of the piece. Where the novel is focused on the rocket boys and their attempt to break free of society and get out of Coalwood, West Virginia, the movie is primarily focused on the conflict between Homer Hickam, Jr., the leader of the rocket boys, and his father, who works at the coal mine in a management position and expects his son to follow in his footsteps.

In the film, the rocket boys decide to destroy their launch site when Homer”™s father tells him to stop building rockets. This helps to set up the main conflict in the movie, which is between Homer and his father. His father fully expects his son to become a coal miner in the mines of Coalwood, a small town built, owned, and maintained by the Olga Coal Company. However, Homer and his mother, have other plans. They see that the town will eventually be destroyed when there is no longer any coal to mines. The entire town is based on the mines, and if there is no coal left in the mines, the town dies. For this reason, Homer is insistent on leaving the town to pursue his dreams of working at Cape Canaveral. His father does not approve of his son”™s rocket building, most notably when Homer borrows company materials and labor through Mr. Bykovski, his friend who works at the company machine shop.

Although the same conflict arises between Homer and his father when he borrows materials from the machine shop in the novel, the overall conflict in the novel is between the rocket boys and society. When the group of boys decides to shoot for the moon, almost literally, by building their rockets, they are made outcasts in their society. It is the belief of most Coalwood residents that the sons of coal miners will always be coal miners, since that has been their way of life for years and years. At one point, Homer”™s brother and his football player friends, begin to tear down the blockhouse and launch pad out of jealousy. Later, the company bulldozes the site, claiming that launching rockets on company land, which encompasses all of Coalwood, is against company policy. In the novel the boys never destroy their own launch pad because of Homer”™s father”™s request. However, society destroys the site for them, but they persevere and rebuild their beloved “œCape Coalwood.” Also, when the rocket boys decide to build their rockets, they know little about the science of what they are dealing with, and thus the people of the town consider them lost teens who do not yet know that they will work in the mines for the rest of their lives. The only people that believe in them are Homer”™s mom, who offers the advice “œJust don”™t blow yourself up,” along with other words of encouragement, and Ms. Riley, their science teacher, who contributes a book on the science of rockets, including material on how to build an appropriate nozzle for the most thrust.

The end result of both the novel and film is the same. All of the rocket boys go to college, something uncommon of boys from Coalwood, and Homer very nearly misses being able to work with his idol, Werhner Von Braun, at Cape Canaveral, as he retires just a few years before Homer arrives. However, the way each piece approaches the end result is different. The novel, written by Homer Hickam, Jr. himself, is of course more accurate to the true story, as the rocket boys are able to overcome their upbringing as sons of coal miners to become college graduates, and, in the process, winning over Homer”™s father, who decides to look the other way whenever the boys need materials from the machine shop. In this way, there is a sense of resolution and understanding between Homer and his father. However, in the film, Homer”™s father is never truly understanding of his son until he witnesses the launch of the boys”™ last rocket, which flies to an astounding 31,000 feet, and even then it seems as though he only feels a hint of understanding.

The last 100 years have been a time of great progress for Physicists. The turn of the nineteenth century brought the end of the traditional deterministic view of the universe, bringing with it the birth of something new and radical: uncertainty. With the coming of such a counter-intuitive view, many preconceived ideas about reality were forever skewed. For over 200 years, it was believed that one knew the momentum and position of every particle in the universe, one could infer exactly where every single particle would be a million years from then, or, because the arrow of time has no hold on Newtonian physics, where it was a million years ago. Certainty may seem like a very abstract thing to lose due to a theory of physics, and may not even affect many individuals who learn about it’s demise, but there are far greater implications of these new Quantum Physics. In Search of Schrodinger’s Cat explains to the reader some of the old theories of light and matter, and then proceeds to explain how they were changed forever by the new physics.

The beginning of quantum mechanics came about over a simple paradox that physicists had been trying to figure out for some time: how much energy was available in an oven at a particular time and at a particular electromagnetic wavelength. Intuitively, the amount of energy available in a black body (such as the sun, or an electric stove), can be seen (roughly estimated) by the amount of radiation that it emits (the “color” of the electromagnetic spectrum that is manifest in the emitting body). Classical physics says that this amount of energy should increase without limit as the wavelength of the electromagnetic waves approaches zero. This aspect of classical physics was predicted by the law of Rayleigh-Jeans, and henceforth came to be known as the “ultraviolet catastrophe”. However, Max Planck proved (though without tangible physical evidence) that there was no way that this could be possible. In order to prove this, he assumed that all of the things that are “being waved” can only absorb and release energy in small, discrete packets called quanta. His hypothesis is quantified by the equation E = hf, where h is Planck’s constant, and f is the frequency. The results of this assumption can be seen below:

By simply assuming that energy came in only discrete packets, Plack resolved one of the main conflicts in physics during the early twentieth century. His results, however effective for the moment, went on to change the face of physics as it was known.

What is light? For centuries, scientists had speculated about the nature of light. Newton believed that light was a stream of particles (then called ‘corpuscles’, or ’small packets of light’). One of his contemporaries, Christiaan Huygens, believed that light was a wave. Many of the great minds of science, including Einstein himself (who wondered what it a beam of light would look like if only he could run fast enough to catch up with it) contributed to this speculation, but not much came of it, until a certain experiment revealed something that no one could have foreseen. When light is shined through an opaque object with two parallel slits in it, the phenomenon predicted by classical physics is that there will be two bands of light showing on the paper behind the opaque surface. Experiment, however, has shown that what results behind the object is an interference pattern. This result is not so strange- one of the theories was bound to be true. The strange thing is that if you are to turn down the frequency of the light so that only one photon is emitted from the source every ten seconds, the interference pattern still appears after enough photons have hit the wall behind the emitter. This means that light is both a wave and a particle, and that light particles can interfere with each other even after they’ve collided with a surface.

This strange finding can be applied to all subatomic particles. Price Louis de Broglie found that all matter can be described by waves with infinitesimally small frequencies, and that all bodies of matter wave to a certain extent. The concept of a matter wave is one that is not well explained by classical physics; in fact, it is impossible to explain matter waves in such a manner. In the early 1900s, physicists concluded that the waves of matter that they were finding didn’t show the matter at all- it showed where the matter might be. Given the new condition of uncertainty that physicists were just beginning to come to grips with, quantum physicists showed that the wave found emitted from a particle covered the entire universe, and the crests of the wave showed where the particle was most likely to be at a given time. Since it is impossible to know both the location and the momentum of a particle to infinite precision (even a macroscopic object), these wave functions fit perfectly into the newly defined architecture of quantum mechanics.

The book talks about not only these issues, but several other key ideas in the quantum world. Although this book is a bit dated, it still offers a comprehensive beginner’s look into the established world of quantum mechanics and the subatomic world of uncertainty that surrounds us.

Two of Jack London’s novels, White Fang and The Call of the Wild are remarkably similar in theme. Both novels revolve around a wolf facing internal and external conflict. While so many similarities exist, the time setting is perfect for The Call of the Wild to be a sequel to White Fang, yet it is apparent that London did not intend this by his sharply shifted view point and differing characters.

White Fang begins with an awkward and hardly related piece describing two men and a sled team of six dogs attempting to flee from a wolf pack. After a brilliantly written description of the fear within the last man standing, he is rescued and the book commences in a way of being told that will continue throughout the course of the novel. One of the wolves of the pack has a litter of cubs, one of which is White Fang. The novel progresses through White Fang’s birth and development, through it’s learning to hunt and survive. All the other cubs of the litter die except White Fang, which introduces the novel’s theme of survival of the fittest. White Fang gets abducted by an Indian child and sold a few times, eventually becoming a fierce fighting dog. As it almost faces death one day in a fight, it is saved by Weedon Scott. From here White Fang is domesticated and lives through the end of the novel.

The irony in Call of the Wild is the story begins with Buck, the part husky, part wolf, exactly like White Fang, living on a nice mansion under the care of Judge Miller. White Fang concluded with the dog living on a mansion property owned by Judge Scott, both judges. This is where it seems both novels could be sequential in order, though character names are changed, the ending setting of White Fang is near identical to the opening scene of The Call of the Wild.

The most noticeable difference between the novels is the point of view. Call of the Wild is written from an objective point of view, where White Fang is written from a third person point of view, following White Fang. White Fang goes from birth to domestication, while The Call of the Wild begins with domestication and goes to instinctual and free.

The novels examine two aspects of the wolves. The Call of the Wild focuses more on the dog’s life with people- the treatment, care, and behavior of humans to and around dogs. White Fang was more of an inside look into the dog’s mind. The reader watched White Fang kill by instinct in the woods and the fear from being captive by humans. It shows the feelings of the dog, rather than an objective sense of how the humans treated it.

In writing these novels, it almost seems that Jack London was experimenting. He obviously had a deep passion for wolves, and through writing two novels of similar caliber, as well as doing immense research to be able to scribe these books, Jack London dedicated a large chunk of his life towards this infatuation. After writing Call of the Wild, he received rave reviews and decided to write White Fang. Most authors would immediately seek to write a sequel or prequel to a successful novel, not a “companion” such as was done here. This adds to the uniqueness of these books and respect for Jack London’s style.

In an experiment conducted recently in the Netherlands, Dr. Van Someren attempted to earn a greater understanding of REM Sleep. He took young children, who sleep more and learn quicker than adults, and subjected them to a series of tests to see how their learning abilities were affected by a lessening of REM sleep, which we learned in class is hypothesized to be an area where memories are consolidated into the hippocampus for long term storage.

The experiment begins by the children being tested on general memory, such as remembering combinations of letters on a computer keyboard and memorizing groups of words for recall. That evening after a long period of testing, they”™re asked to stay overnight, and fit with headphones and sensors on their heads to create an EEG (Electroencephalogram) while they sleep. Throughout the night, the EEG monitors what depth of sleep their body is experiencing (as we learned in class, Stages 1 through 4 and REM sleep) based on scans every two-seconds. As soon as the machine detected the child begin to enter a deep stage of sleep, it created a quiet beep in their ears, trying to elevate them back to a higher stage. This usually cased the child to shift restlessly, but ensured their sleep stayed in one of the first stages. If the beep did not get a response from the child, it repeated the stimulation a bit louder, until it finally knocked the child out of a deep sleep. This is repeated all night, allowing the child a full night of sleep, in the upper stages only. The next day when everyone woke up, they went through the same series of testing and memory experiments, and noted the results.

While the analysis of this experiment”™s results aren”™t completed yet, preliminary evaluation shows a 20% decrease in memory retention with the children participating in the experiment, compared to the control group who were allowed a full night”™s rest without any beeping. Twenty percent is a very significant fluxuation, making this one of the first experiments to conclusively connect REM sleep with memory retention and learning ability. The importance of this experiment was recognized world-wide, as two American scientists from Harvard seized this opportunity to fly to the Netherlands and witness the procedure first-hand, aiming to then return to Harvard and obtain funding for similar research in the states.

Long term uses of this knowledge could be applied to developing and adapting sleep cycles for injured people trying to rehabilitate their memory from a mind-affecting accident, for example. It”™s findings could be used to construct learning programs used by school students in preparation for large exams such as the SAT or ACT. Even looking beyond initial academic learning, political leaders might slightly tweak or adapt their sleep schedule to allow an increased duration of REM sleep a few days before giving a major speech, to solidify memorization and prevent any errors in delivery. There are vast practical applications for research like this and it”™s importance should not be overlooked.

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Animal Farm by George Orwell is the epitome of an extended metaphor. Throughout this novel, the fable presented is in constant comparison to the Russian Revolution of 1917. Instances surface outlining the quintessence of revolution through emblematic characters. From Squealer symbolizing a propaganda machine to Napoleon standing as dictator, the novel follows a revolution from inception to demise.

Originating as a archetypal farm, Manor Farm is governed by Mr. Jones- a symbol of the fatally-corrupt governments ripe and vulnerable to revolutionary ideologies. Old Major is introduced as a highly respected, but sick and dieing pig- the more intelligent of the animals on the farm. He can be compared to Karl Marx through his influential and persuasive means that eventually sparked revolutionary thought in the common people. Upon his demise, the plot truly begins. Two pigs, Snowball and Napoleon unite as an authoritative power gaining support through promising to work toward Old Major’s vision. Throughout the course of the novel, tensions grew between Snowball and Napoleon until eventually Napoleon evicted Snowball from the farm using his personally trained dogs, symbolizing the Gestapo.

After Snowball was driven off the farm, a few critical events occurred. Napoleon rose to unopposed power. He began forcing his influence on the animals of the farm, building his power as an absolute authority figure while hiding behind lies of his selfish motivation being for the good of the farm. Through further actions such as changing the very documents laid down during the birth of the rebellion, appending his own ways on the Seven Commandments, Napoleon’s control and grip on the animals tightened. The namesake of Napoleon becomes increasingly ironic as the reader develops a connection between the pig and Napoleon Bonaparte of France and his dominating control.

Squealer is the pig who constantly convinces the animals of the farm that they are superior to their old position being governed by Mr. Jones. He keeps the peace and ensures the animals that Napoleon is indeed doing the right thing. Squealer symbolizes the propaganda machine of a rebelling country such as Russia in 1917. All the animals hear is the good being done by Napoleon, so they give their unquestioned consent to his ways. At one point, Napoleon announces the uncovering of an attempted plot of rebellion against him and has a few animals executed, inciting fear in the animals, driving them farther under his control, very similar to the methods executed during the rebellion in Russia.

As the novel draws to a close, Napoleon begins straying further from the ideological ideas presented by Old Major at the beginning of the novel. He becomes power hungry and leads the animals into a death spiral. They begin running short of food, but keep up an illusion of prosperity to the outside world, much like how rebellious countries have done in past historical times. At the conclusion of the novel, Napoleon invites some humans over for dinner and refers to the other animals as a “lesser class.” The animals outside look into the house through the window, and realize in a moment of complete horror, that they cannot tell the difference in the pigs’ faces and the humans’ faces.