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Hyperbole
Explanation and Analysis—Pig to Man:
At the very end of Animal Farm, the pigs and the human farmers from the surrounding area celebrate the return of the “Manor Farm” to its old system of brutally exploiting animals. The other farm animals gaze in horror through the window as the pigs and farmers toast to their subjugation, and Orwell uses hyperbole to emphasize just how much the pigs have changed:
The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again: but already it was impossible to say which was which.
The hyperbole in the statement "it was impossible to say which was which" illustrates the complete erosion of differences between the pigs and the humans. Although Napoleon, Squealer, and their fellow pigs do not physically transform into humans, Orwell uses this exaggeration to underline the moral and behavioral reversal the pigs have undergone. Over the course of the novel, the pigs have gradually adopted more and more human behaviors, a sign of their gaining power and control over the other animals. By this point, they have become so corrupted by power that their former “comrades” cannot tell them apart from their other oppressors. The pigs have begun to behave exactly like humans and, as a result, have become indistinguishable from the very humans they once revolted against.
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