Rhetorical Analysis Of George Orwell's Animal Farm

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Rebellion will always occur, no matter how long something lasts or how strong it is. The colonies in North America revolted against the British in the 1700’s, and the people of the Ottoman empire rebelled against their own government in the 1900’s. Comparably, in Animal Farm, many of the animals decide to rebel against their owners, but only because of a 12 year old pig called Old Major. Old Major dislikes being controlled by humans and has a hatred for them, so he decides that the animals should revolt. However, most of the animals are on the fence on whether or not to rebel. In order to convince the other animals to revolt, Old Major creates and reads a speech that uses logical, ethical, and emotional appeals that are reinforced by rhetoric …show more content…
This is called an emotional appeal, or pathos. Pathos is used when the speaker (Old Major, in this case) wants to connect with the audience through feelings and emotion. For example, in one part of his speech, Old Major says, “You cows that I see before me, how many thousands of gallons of milk have you given during the last year? And what has happened to that milk which should have been breeding up sturdy calves? Every drop of it has gone down the throats of our enemies.” (Orwell 8) When he does this, he is trying to connect with specific people (or in this case, animals) on an emotional level to get their emotions fired. He wants them to become angry and full of hatred so that they may want to revolt. In this quote, he is mentioning the cows and how all of their hard labor is being wasted, given to those that are working them so hard. Old Major also uses a touch of description in this part of his speech to add emphasis into his speech. He does this multiple times over the course of the oration to build up a larger amount of emphasis. Just a sentence later, he attempts to anger the hens by asking how many eggs that would have turned into chickens were removed from them. Old Major also refers directly to Boxer, a horse with unprecedented amounts of power.He attempts this on a few other animals, in order to get a majority of them fired up. Clover, a cow that had given birth …show more content…
He wants to get the audience thinking, and really question whether or not they should rebel. This can be seen when he says, “Man is the only creature that consumes without producing. He does not give milk, he does not lay eggs, he is took weak to pull the plough, he cannot run fast enough to catch the rabbits. Yet he is lord of all the animals.” (Orwell 8) This part of the speech is where Old Major knocks on logic’s door. He is getting the animals to really question why humans, or Man, should be the ones to rule over them if they do not work at all. Doing this is useful. It gets the animals to ponder why humans are ruling over them, and then interests them more in what Old Major has to say, as he brings up a good point. Also, Old Major makes a logical appeal when he mentions England’s climate. He states, “The soil of England is fertile, its climate is good, it is capable of affording food in abundance to an enormously greater number of animals than now inhabit it.” (Orwell 7)He goes on to explain just how many animals could live on the farm. This part of the speech is yet another logical appeal. He is explaining why animals would be better off without humans. Many would be able to live in great comfort. They would not be given bare rations and a small stall. He is also saying that if the humans were to be driven out, that the animals would have no problem running farms