Diarra Diagne

Ms. Price

Honors English I

May 30, 2018

Living Without Control

Do people know what it feels like to have a disorder that controls someone's life and

relationships with others? Throughout the years in history, there have been many mental

disorders discovered through science and medical practices. In the book, “​Animal Farm” ​By

George Orwell, Napoleon, is a pig with very strong standpoints. His behavior throughout the

story changes due to his overcoming dream of power and wealth through greed. His attitude,

actions, words and tone all conjoin to help compare the theory that Napoleon can be compared to

having the psychological impairment, Borderline Personality Disorder. Borderline Personality

Disorder, or BPD, is a disorder that “makes people go back and forth between everything that is

in their life such as relationships, emotions, and their self image(Grohol.” When someone has

BPD, they tend to have inappropriate anger, emotional instability(wild mood swings), avoid

abandonment and have a pattern of unstable relationships. In the book “​Animal Farm”​,

Napoleon’s choice of speech, behavior, actions and interactions with others help shape the

comparison of Napoleon having BPD.

While reading ​“Animal Farm” ​it is easy to see that Napoleon has emotional breakdowns

and dilemmas. In the the text it states, “Napoleon stood up to reply. He said very quietly that the

windmill was nonsense and that he advised nobody to vote for it, and promptly sat down again.
He had spoken for barely thirty seconds, and seemed almost indifferent as the effect he

produced(Orwell 52).” By him doing that, he showed that his emotions got to him. He went from

being angry to being reserved in the blink of an eye. Due to this action, readers can convey that

he has emotional instability and uses it to help change the mindset of the crowd with his short,

yet powerful monologue. As readers, it is easy to infer that Napoleon’s wild mood swings help

show that he shows a major symptom of BPD with his language choices.

Napoleon’s unity in working with others help convey that he has one of the most

important symptoms of BPD . In ​“Animal Farm” ​It is quoted, “ This arrangement would have

worked well enough if it had not been for the disputes between Snowball and Napoleon. These

two disagreed at every point where disagreement was possible(Orwell 47).” This Shows that

Napoleon has issues with other animals at the Animal Farm and that he can not work well with

his fellow animals to create solutions that will help benefit them in the long run, rather than

creating solutions for his own uses.When someone has BPD, and they show the symptom of

unstable relationships, they go from “great admiration and love to anger and dislike(NIMH).”

This corresponds with Napoleon because in the beginning of their arguments, it was just a quick

quarrel but then it changed into Snowball always being the answer to why something bad

happens. As can be drawn, Napoleon’s relationships with others are weak conveying that he is

showing one of the symptoms of BPD.

Despite the evidence for Napoleon being a strong-minded leader and a justified person ,

fail to see that his behavior is what diagnosis him with BPD the most. Those who believe that

Napoleon does not have BPd think he is just intelligent and chooses to open it up in different

ways. But in the short story it says “ ​They were all slain on the spot. And so the tale of
confessions and executions went on, until there was a pile of corpses lying before Napoleon's

feet and the air was heavy with the smell of blood, which had been unknown there since the

expulsion of Jones. When it was all over, the remaining animals, except for the pigs and dogs,

crept away in a body. They were shaken and miserable(Orwell).” This statement helps prove that

Napoleon has inappropriate anger and that he cannot control his behavior. Instead of resolving

the situation by giving the animals a non-fatal punishment that would have resolved the

unloyalty, he decided to let his anger get in the way and kill them on the spot without giving

them any time to reason with him on why they did their unloyal actions. As is shown,

Napoleon’s relationships and wild mood swings come together to create his dismissive anger that

he uses to help gain for himself rather than for everyone as a whole.

To sum up, “​Animal Farm” contains one of the major characters named Napoleon, and

his mental and social health depicts him of having Borderline Personality Disorder. This disorder

stresses the fact that his daily life helps provides examples of why he obtains this disorder. This

disorder makes the patient have incredible mood swings and anger throughout their self image

and towards their partnerships with others. This disorder is caused because of “environmental

and genetic factors(NIMH)”. These traits that are inherited from this disorder can be seen

throughout Napoleon’s daily life. People with BPD have another identity that chose them. This

disorder will affect Napoleon for the rest of his life, and the only thing he can do is seek some

help.
 Works Cited

“Borderline Personality Disorder: Raising Questions, Finding Answers.” ​The History of Mental

Illness​, Toddlertime.com/dx/borderline/nimh.htm.

“Home of Trusted Psychology & Mental Health Information.” ​Psych Central​,

psychcentral.com/.

Orwell, George. ​Animal Farm​. 1st World Library, 2004.