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Paris Bennington
Mrs. House
English 2H ; Period 5
May 20, 2016
Power is Encaptivating
The initiative of the leaders really sparks a controversy: Whether or not they are using
their power effectively towards their reign of leadership. Throughout the time of the World War
II, many dictators had risen to power and they used their leadership in a way that had only
benefited themselves. The citizens of the time had been under complete control of their leaders
and were left empty minded. Power is used effectively through fear, appealing to ignorance, and
bandwagon to blind the citizens from reality.
Throughout war time comes tremendous fear: The fear of indefinite separation and life
threatening occurrences. As the SS men direction civilized families in scattered directions,
Eliezer had feared the brutal separation when said, My hand tightened its grip on my father. All
I could think of was not to lose him. Not to remain alone (Weisel, 30). Weisel feels as if he lets
go of his father, for only a moment, he will lose him. It is out of the fear of the death that Weisel,
during the realities of harsh imprisonment during war. The fear of loss led to the blindness to his
surroundings, causing that focus to distract him from survival. Moreover, Stalin was an efficient
leader in which he expected much of his subordinates.He ruled the Soviet Union for numerous
years, and had left the country hopeless. He led under the ruling of communism, and took away
the freedom that humans once had. Stalin showed in a whole series of cases, his intolerance, his
brutality, and his abuse of power (Khrushchev). Stalin had enforced relentless regimens
against the people of Russia. In result, it had awaken those of the innocent and placed them in a

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mindset of fear and neglect. People were very apprehensive of Dictator Stalin and saw him as a
threat. Conclusive, people feared the unknown and had to live with the concern everyday.
A leader might use ones ignorance to their advantage by the use of manipulation. While
Napoleon is manipulating the animals on the farm by the sheeps stupidity, the sheep's bleat,
Four legs good, Two legs bad (Orwell 29).In Animal Farm, the Leader Napoleon uses the
clueless sheep towards his advancement in leadership by controlling them to bleat over
Snowballs speeches. This simple chant makes it easier for such a leader to seize power over the
citizens by manipulating them to repeat it over and over again, thinking this chant is what they
should be believing. The sheep symbolize dumb followers by ensuing anything that they hear.
Throughout the novel, the sheep have no consistency and dont demonstrate their intelligence at
all. Therefore, the leader was able to manage the simple minds of the sheep to generate power. In
similarity, while in power of those so ignorant, Adolf Hitler once said, How lucky for those in
power that people dont think (Adolf Hitler). Simply stating that man does not think about
much, referring to the oblivion of mankind. The quote is misleading to those who dont have the
right knowledge/ Its also terminating the fact that leaders will continue to control the people
over their irrelevant choices.The leaders can manipulate the people they control because they
dont think twice about their actions, therefore leading to the fact that leaders can use the
stupidity amongst humans against themselves. Leaders continue to take advantage of ignorance
in the midst of their people to gain leadership qualities and to stay in reign.
Leaders exercise the effectiveness of bandwagon to leave the citizens blinded by
manipulation. After Old Major had given his speech and had taught the animals a song that
would persuade them to think that the rebellion is helpful Orwell said, They were so delighted
with the song that they sang it right through five times in succession, and might have continued

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to sing it all night if they had not been interrupted (Orwell 34). All of the animals had joined in
due to the act of falling for the manipulation. Old Major had specifically taught the animals the
song knowing that it was a catchy toon that the animals would pick up easily. Old Major had
used the animals just as a leader would manipulate others to benefit themselves. The song was a
perfect representation of what Old Majors ideal farm barn would be like and he expressed the
song in this way so that theyd catch up on this silly tune. Correspondingly, leaders of wartime
had also used bandwagon as a use of manipulation towards the people. In the Reaping for a
Bolshevik Harvest poster, they place a woman working very hard during war, with a smile on
her face (Voron). This type of propaganda represents that because people are happy working on
collective farms as so, many people should join. A leaders mentality would focus on the main
point of power, meaning the ability to pull people in and work for them. This technique was very
effective to rulers who needed to seize control of the people.
Overall, leaders take away the best in people and make them change for the advancement
of themselves. After taking in the causes and effects of wartime, one can see that the power was
used effectively in time by the leaders. Fear traumatized many people leaving them hopeless, the
use of someones ignorance being used against them had definitely been rough, and the easy
falling for propaganda, such as bandwagon, by the leaders left many civilians unsure of how to
continue after war. Beyond recall, the citizens will be left with nothing after being controlled by
demanding and crucial leaders who use their power daringly.
I received a 4- on this paper due to the flow of my paper. Although it was well structured, some of the events were not related to each
other which made it hard to comprehend what point I was trying to prove.

Works Cited
Adolf Hitler. Xplore Inc, 2016. 11 May 2016.
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/a/adolfhitle109950.html

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Khrushchev, Nikita. Secret Speech. Twentieth Party Congress of the Communist Party of the
Soviet Union. n.d. Speech.
Orwell, George. Animal Farm. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1945. Print.
Voron, Maria. Shock-brigade Reaping for a Bolshevik Harvest (1934). Persuasive Images:
Posters of War and Revolution from the Hoover Institution Archives. Princeton NJ:
Princeton University Press. 1992. Print.
Wiesel, Elie, and Marion Wiesel. Night. New York, NY: Hill and Wang, a Division of Farrar,
Straus and Giroux, 1988. Print.