How would the literacy of the powerless threaten the power of those in control?

Educated animals would see the injustice with a skillset that would enable them to organize and usurp the leadership that oppresses them. Education is the key to get out of servitude. Slave owners did not want their slaves educated for this reason. Napoleon did not want "lower" animals educated for this reason. Only the elite pigs were educated in order to maintain their oppression on others.

Explanation:

the narrator is a first person, participant one, who describes in the simple past tense important and difficult events in his earlier life. he also provides temporal markers as the month (january) and the time (12: 30 pm). finally the account of his experience is very detailed, to the extent that a participant narrator would talk the same way about his experiences. a good example of such detail is the mention of the “bovril ration” which historically was a native american food adopted by european explorers in arctic and antarctic regions due to its high level of calories.