Power is maintained by Napoleon through many different methods. In my opinion, the most effective way is through intimidation. The reason I believe this is true is because after he kidnapped the dogs, everyone followed his lead. Napoleon wouldn’t have been leader on his own if it weren’t for the dogs. If the dogs weren’t there, Snowball wouldn’t have been exiled out, as he wouldn’t have been scared out. “They dashed straight for Snowball”. That quote tells us that they were the enforcers of Animal Farm and that Napoleon was in charge of them, as the sentences before say that he let out a loud whimper. This is related to the modern world because if someone has a huge following, they have the power to change the world for the better or for the worst. That is why I believe intimidation was one of the main ways of maintaining power over everyone else.

The second reason how Napoleon keeps power is that he us very cunning and sly. An example of him being sly is when he blames Snowball for doing wrong. The sly part us the evidence he provides against Snowball. He takes advantage of the fact that most animals were illiterate and says that Snowball was plotting against them. The evidence for this is that Snowball was apparently writing documents, which contained his plans. “He gets Squealer to say “It has all been proved by documents which he left behind him”. This caused an outburst among the animals, so that was an excellent result for Napoleon. The word “document” is useful, as it makes it seem formal and made everyone believe that they had to get vengeance on Snowball at any means necessary. His wit is one of the main reasons that he can stay above everyone else and maintain power.

After Snowball’s exile, Napoleon seemed to credit himself as a hero for defeating a villain. The truth was, he was a villain defeating a civilian. Although this was the blatant truth, all the other animals believed Napoleon was a true hero and deserved to be the leader. As he wanted to maintain his reputation as a hero, he had to try and make the Snowball’s evil acts believable. His evidence for this, as said on the first paragraph, was documents that nobody could read. That is one of the reasons why everyone believed that he was a hero, as he could find evidence against Snowball. His wrongfully assigned reputation was a significant part in keeping power in Animal Farm.

Squealer was a great asset for Napoleon to have on his side. He could supposedly turn “black into white”. This was most definitely true, as he has saved Napoleon on multiple occasions. This is demonstrated when Squealer saves Napoleon, when everybody believed that he was wrong for setting the dogs on Snowball. Squealer told the public about Snowball plotting against them and the windmill, and that sparked anger amongst the animals. Another example of Squealer protecting Napoleon is when the animals were saying that Snowball getting shot was a sign of bravery and he did it for Animal Farm. Squealer then says “That was part of the arrangement!” and “Jones’s shot only grazed him. I could show you this in his own writing, if you were able to read it.” to prove that Snowball was really on Jones’ side all that time.

To conclude with, the most successful method for Napoleon to maintain power was having Squealer by his side, as this was consistently what he used when he felt that the animals were catching on to his plans. Squealer would always refer to the seven commandments, as nobody else could read what it actually says.