This essay examines the role of Squealer as the primary propaganda instrument in George Orwell's Animal Farm. The paper analyzes the specific tactics Squealer employs — including outright lies, fear-mongering, rhetorical questioning, repetition, and deliberate manipulation of language — to justify the pigs' dominance over the other farm animals. Drawing on direct quotations from the novel, the essay argues that Squealer's cunning use of propaganda mirrors real-world abuses of political power, and that Orwell uses the character to illustrate how language can be weaponized by those in authority to rewrite rules, suppress dissent, and maintain tyrannical control under the appearance of fairness.
Propaganda is a word often thrown around by individuals — especially today. We frequently hear about propaganda in the context of elections and political candidates; candidates commonly use propaganda to damage their opponents, never to help them. This is no surprise, given that propaganda can be extraordinarily powerful. Propaganda is essentially the spreading of information in service of a cause, and that cause can either benefit or harm a person, an organization, or an institution. In George Orwell's seminal work Animal Farm, Orwell depicts propaganda as something deeply dangerous, and it is Squealer who serves as the chief spreader of propaganda on the farm. Through Squealer's cunning machinations and his clever use of propaganda, he is able to make the other animals see everything exactly as he wants them to — no matter how absurd his arguments may seem.
Squealer is a pig — an apt name for him. He is well-spoken, persuasive, and incredibly tricky. Squealer finds many different ways to justify the pigs' domination of the farm and all of its assets to the other animals, while also spreading false information regarding the farm's achievements. Through Orwell's creation of Squealer, the reader is able to see how language is used by those in power — or pigs in power — to manipulate the truth in order to seize and maintain social and political control. If any of the animals on the farm dare question Napoleon's actions, no matter how obviously selfish those actions may appear, Squealer is there to convince the animals why the actions are justified and just. Squealer does not merely dance around the truth to support Napoleon; he will also blatantly lie to the other animals.
Squealer is quite cunning in the tactics he employs for the pigs' cause. He uses a number of different tricks to persuade the other animals that the pigs should control all the apples and milk. He is manipulative in his mission. He tells the other animals that keeping all the apples and milk may appear selfish, but he subtly implies that anyone who thinks the pigs are being selfish is simply ignorant. He outright lies to the other animals, claiming that pigs do not even like apples and milk — when, in fact, pigs love both. He insists that he personally dislikes them but must consume them in order to stay healthy for the good of the other animals, since the pigs are, after all, the brainworkers of the farm. Squealer even fabricates scientific-sounding information, asserting that it has been proven that milk and apples contain essential ingredients that pigs cannot obtain from any other food source. If the pigs do not receive their apples and milk and something were to happen to them, then Jones would certainly return to the farm — and surely none of the animals want that.
In this way, Squealer makes the other animals fearful, and so they do not resist his claims about the apples and milk. He pushes the fear tactic even further by repeatedly reminding the animals that Jones could return at any moment. It is the fear that Squealer instills in the animals that drives their compliance. They believe that any misstep on their part will bring Jones back, and that threat alone is enough to silence dissent.
Squealer has a knack for simplifying language in ways that influence the proletariat farm animals. For example, he teaches the sheep to chant, "Four legs good, two legs better" (Orwell 63). The original commandment on the farm was "Whatever goes on two legs is an enemy" (7), but once the pigs learn to walk on two feet, the commandment is revised to "Four legs good, two legs better" (63). Squealer also has a talent for making language more complicated when it suits his purposes. When language becomes more difficult, it grows more confusing for the working animals on the farm. This is clearly seen in the apples-and-milk propaganda, where Squealer twists his words to argue that the pigs must consume milk and apples not out of desire but for the good of all their comrades. As propaganda scholars have long observed, the deliberate control of language is one of the most effective tools for maintaining political authority.
"Simplifies and complicates language to control animals"
"Bed speech analyzed for rhetorical question tactics"
"Squealer's effectiveness as Napoleon's propaganda conduit"
In Animal Farm, it is easy to see that Orwell was crafting an allegory — making a statement about powerful groups and how they will lie, cheat, rewrite history, and manipulate language to get what they want. Though Napoleon is a thoroughly corrupt leader, Squealer can be considered equally culpable because of the evident pleasure he takes in his work. He labors diligently at his role, as he must, because maintaining the facade of a fair government while operating a tyrannical one is genuinely difficult work. Orwell's portrayal of Squealer remains a powerful reminder of how language, in the hands of the powerful, can become the most dangerous weapon of all.
Orwell, George. Animal Farm. New York: Signet Classics, 50th Anniversary edition, 1996.
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