Napoleon-Squealer collaboration

Squealer, a small fat pig with 'very round cheeks, twinkling eyes, nimble movements, and a shrill voice,' was described by the other animals as one who 'could turn black into white.' From the earliest days of the Rebellion, he worked alongside Napoleon and Snowball to elaborate the principles of Animalism, but after the expulsion of Snowball, he became Napoleon's exclusive propagandist. His rhetorical skill—the skipping, the tail-whisking, the persuasive tone—made him the indispensable instrument for translating raw power into consent. Whenever a policy needed justification, Squealer was sent to the animals, and his arguments always carried the same unanswerable logic: the alternative was the return of Jones.

Squealer's first major task was to explain why the pigs alone should receive the milk and windfall apples. He claimed that these foods contained substances 'absolutely necessary to the well-being of a pig' and that the pigs were 'brainworkers' whose health was essential for the whole farm. 'Surely there is no one among you who wants to see Jones come back?' he pleaded, and the animals, dreading that prospect, agreed. After the abolition of the Sunday Meetings, Squealer toured the farm to explain that 'leadership is a deep and heavy responsibility' and that 'discipline, comrades, iron discipline!' was the watchword. When the windmill plans were attributed to Snowball, Squealer privately revealed that it was actually Napoleon who had originally advocated the windmill, and that Napoleon's opposition had been 'tactics' to eliminate Snowball. He repeated the word 'Tactics, comrades, tactics!' with a merry laugh, and the three dogs growled, so the explanation was accepted. Later, when the pigs moved into the farmhouse and slept in the beds, Squealer assured the animals that the Fourth Commandment had always read 'No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets,' and that the sheets had been removed. 'You would not have us too tired to carry out our duties?' he asked. 'Surely none of you wishes to see Jones back?'

Squealer's role deepened during the terror. He announced that Snowball had been 'in league with Jones from the very start' and that documents proved it. He graphically described how Snowball had turned to flee at the Battle of the Cowshed, and that Napoleon had saved the day by sinking his teeth in Jones's leg—a version the animals, after some confusion, began to remember. When Boxer expressed doubt, Squealer said, 'Our Leader, Comrade Napoleon, has stated categorically—categorically, comrade—that Snowball was Jones's agent from the very beginning.' Boxer then accepted it. Squealer also narrated the confessions and executions, and later announced that Beasts of England had been abolished because 'the Rebellion is now completed.' He fostered the cult of Napoleon, speaking with tears in his eyes of Napoleon's wisdom and goodness, and crediting him with every success—even the taste of the water. When the pigs were found to have drunk whisky and Napoleon appeared drunk, Squealer claimed that Napoleon was dying, and then issued a decree that the drinking of alcohol was to be punished by death—though the decree was soon forgotten.

In the final stages of the farm's transformation, Squealer continued to rewrite history. He explained that the van which took Boxer away was marked 'Horse Slaughterer' only because the veterinary surgeon had not yet painted out the old name. He convinced the animals that the resolutions against trade and money had never been passed, and that their memories were faulty. When the pigs began walking on their hind legs and carrying whips, and finally adopted human clothes, it was Squealer who had taught the sheep a new slogan: 'Four legs good, two legs better!' The sheep's bleating drowned out any potential protest. By the end, Squealer's propaganda had so thoroughly reshaped the animals' understanding that they could no longer distinguish between what was real and what had been told to them. The collaboration between Napoleon and Squealer was not merely a partnership of convenience; it was a total system of verbal manipulation that ensured the pigs' dominance until the final, chilling moment when the pigs and humans became indistinguishable.