Analysis of Main Character in Animal Farm

Boxer is a fictional horse in George Orwell’s Animal Farm, which is a satire of the Russian Revolution. Many characters allude to different groups or important people from this era, and this applies to Boxer as well. Boxer is a representation of the working class because of his qualities, personality, his role in the novel and his motto. Orwell expresses much criticism towards the character of Boxer because he lets Napoleon think for him.

The main character in Animal Farm, Napoleon, had many interesting traits but as the story progresses he evolves into a different character. In the beginning of the novel, Napoleon is not much

“He ordered the hens’ rations to be stopped and decreed that any animal giving so much grain of corn to a hen should be punished by death” (Orwell 87). This quote demonstrates that Napoleon treats the hens with cruelty because his commands are not being followed which was to surrender their eggs to him so he can trade with his neighbors. He not only treats the hens with cruelty but is also cruel to the other animals who feed the hens. On the contrary, Snowball treats the animals with respect and care because he is pursuing the Seven Commandments made by Old Major. He is doing what is best for all animals and is treating them equally. “He formed the Egg Production Committee for the hens, the Clean Tails League for the cows, the Wild Comrades’ Re-education Committee (the object of this was to tame the rats and rabbits), the Whiter Wool Movement for the sheep, and various others, beside instituting classes in reading and writing” (Orwell 49). This quote illustrates that Snowball is doing what is best for all animals by giving them a little hope for the future. He not only does it for one animal but for all the animals in the farm. Though they have differences in treating the animals they also have one comparison. They both want to be in charge of the other animals. When Old Major left the two of them in charge they wanted to control the animals by their own ideas by planning of what happens

Napoleon was an exquisite character in the book: Animal Farm. He overpowered all the animals, and they followed. He was acknowledged as the leader, and the creator as their “Animal Farm”. No humans, no using human-made items, and never lay where a human has laid. Napoleon’s rules were simple. However he grew to the point where he wasn’t even following them, and was changing them as life went on. Animal farm included many instances where Napoleon was commanding as a dictatorship rather than a democracy.

Firstly, Napoleon uses manipulation to generate a cult of personality in the Animal Farm. Napoleon directly shows how he manipulated the animals as he believed “...[weaker] animals on Animal Farm did more work and [would] receive less food than any animals in the country” (92).Napoleon shows how he only cares about himself as he uses the animals. He would make the animals do labour to support himself and to be powerful.The animals would agree to everything that he said because they believed that Napoleon wanted the best for them. Napoleon made the animals believe that they were in better conditions even though “starvation seemed to stare them in the face.” (50). He did a great job to hid the reality from the animals. His thoughts and

By now the responder clearly realises that the strong relationship between Boxer and Napoleon is obviously a negative one. It saddens the responder and invites their empathy to find Boxer to be so oblivious to what is going on around him and at the same time his level of incomprehension creates a feeling of slight frustration in a sympathetic type of sense. A strong feeling of dislike is formed towards Napoleon as he so easily controls Boxer, forcing him to do such tough, punishing labour as he is aware that Boxer is extremely loyal to his superiors and happily prepared to complete all set tasks. Boxer and the other animals fall victim to the pigs’ cunning ways, but besides the easily convinced sheep and Boxer, the other animals are aware of this but are too frightened or cowardly to put a stop to it, for fear of being accused of treachery and then executed.

As soon as the revolution starts, Boxer is more devoted than ever to the farm. At the Battle of the Cowshed, Boxer is trying to prove his loyalty to the farm by defending the animals against a stable boy with kicking him with his hoof. “I will work harder.”(Orwell 25)The quote reveals his hard work and devotion to other animals and the farm. Though Boxer is very strong, he is also very naïve. The pigs bossed him around, being blindly loyal to Napoleon. “Napoleon is always right”(Orwell 48) When he says this, it demonstrates that he does not understand that the pigs are using him. He believes that everything Napoleon says is just. While others are trying to learn how to read Boxer does not feel the need he only wants to work harder for the good of the animal farm. Unfortunately, at the end of the book, he is so worn down that he cannot work anymore, so the pigs make the decision to send him to be slaughtered. At this point Boxer realizes that pigs have used him and was not loyal to the animals like he was. Boxer represents the Russian working-class in the Soviet

The undeniable greed Napoleon possesses can only be fulfilled by giving the other animals the illusion of bettering themselves by not questioning his logic: “Boxer, who had now had time to think things over, voiced the general feeling by saying, ‘If Comrade Napoleon says it, it must be right.’ And from then on he adopted the maxim, ‘Napoleon is always right,’ in addition to his private motto of ‘I will work harder’” (Orwell 60). Because Animal Farm’s audience predominantly consists of working class citizens, they begin to feel sympathy for Boxer since he cannot recognize Napoleon is exploiting him exclusively for his personal goal of becoming a puissant leader; therefore, animosity towards Napoleon develops in the audience. Considering the animals promptly welcome Napoleon’s promise of a better life, they work towards exhaustion, unknowingly fueling Napoleon’s greed: "All that year the animals worked like slaves. But they were happy in their work; they grudged no effort or sacrifice, well aware that everything that they did was for the benefit of themselves and those of their kind who would come after them, and not for a pack of idle, thieving human beings" (63). Although the animals working for Napoleon are unaware he is gradually becoming more human and willfully betraying his fellow animals for his own benefit, it is evident to the audience that Napoleon is corrupt. As Napoleon cunningly achieves power, his greed continues to grow, the same as a totalitarian leader’s:

Boxer, described as a huge strong horse, is used by Orwell to represent the proletariat or working class of Russia. Orwell may have been a socialist, but he didn’t hesitate to give a less than flattering portrayal of the mighty beast. Amongst Boxers qualities of being brave, loyal, selfless and compassionate, he is largely criticized for his stupidity and gullible attitude. Harsh isn’t it?

Orwell continues to represent class on the farm through the character of Boxer. Boxer represents the lower, working class who were uneducated and inferior to the nobles and government, in this case the pigs and dogs. ‘I will work harder.’ and ‘Napoleon is always right.’ his mottos show just how loyal and hard-working he was. Boxer would work and work until he was at the point of collapsing and this is just what the working class of Russia would do, slaving away their today for a better tomorrow. Boxer is key in building the windmill, which represents change, the change that Boxer wants to bring to the farm through his hard work and determination. Boxer may have had all these credits but what Orwell uses Boxer to say is that no matter how physically strong you are, it’s nothing compared to knowledge and mental strength. When Napoleon tells Boxer he is to retire after he collapsed whilst working, Boxer naively gets on the van that is not really to take him to where he will retire, but to the knackers’ yard to be killed. Even though Boxer was so driven and committed in what he did, he wasn’t able to spot that Napoleon was tricking him because he wasn’t nearly as well educated as Napoleon. So to cut a long story short, the fact that Boxer was poorly educated eventually lead to his demise.

He gave them the false inspiration and hope that they were working for to stay free. This is what Hitler did to the Jews who were able to work, he had in his concentration camps say “work to be free”, but in reality he did not have the intention to set them free. The reason as to why the animals did not rebel was for two reasons. One being that they just were not educated at all and the other reason is because Napoleon has an immense amount of fierce dogs around him at all times. This made him an intimidating pig. The animals were oblivious to the corruption around them that he shrugged off a fellow animal dying by another simply because Napoleon said it was fine and the Commandments said that it was exceptional. The dumbest of the animals was a horse named boxer. Because he was the strongest of the farm animals, what he said greatly influenced the others animals, and because he was on the side of Napoleon the other animals followed. There were many times were the animals would have revolted without Boxer present, but after he died, it was too late to turn back. He inspired the animals by constantly saying, “I will work harder”, and, “Napoleon is always right”. This often concluded questions regarding Napoleon’s style of handling business.

His main way of getting people to listen to him is by using his dogs to force people to do the required task or else they will get their heads bitten off along with the sheep saying ¨four legs good, two legs better¨ (Orwell, pg. 134) to help reinforce the idea that pigs are superior to the other animals. Another way Napoleon uses fear to gain the control over the animals at the farm is he threatens them with starvation. Both of these methods used by Napoleon were also used by Joseph Stalin to gain control over the masses. If society gives in to these methods then they are just giving more power and control to the higher power. Napoleon also threatens the animals with saying jones is going to come back and that is a reference back to when Stalin told his people that if they didn’t do what he wanted the old way of living was going to come back to them. With that much power and having all those people listen your commands can make you feel like you are unstoppable and greedy.

In George Orwell’s novel Animal Farm, a major turning point in the novel was when Napoleon used his secret police force, his dogs, to exile Snowball. Snowball had previously been trying to improve the animal’s lives for the future by building a windmill. After Snowball was exiled, Napoleon became leader and everything immediately went amiss. Orwell stated that: "Somehow it seemed as though the farm had grown richer without making the animals themselves any richer- except, of course, for the pigs and the dogs" (p.86). In other words, no one was benefiting from the animal’s labours apart from the pigs and the dogs because the amount of authority the dogs and the pigs, especially Napoleon had, was corrupt. Frighteningly, if Snowball had been

Napoleon who is demanding and overpowering pig always put himself first he believes that he Animal Farm leader and praises himself for things he done for the animals. He is an example of dictatorial leader because he is greedy for power and is also corrupted. Napoleon doesn’t show interest in the welfare of the animals. In the book

“The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and and from pig to man again, but already it was impossible to say which was which.” Orwell wrote Animal Farm as an allegory based on problems resulting from the Russian Revolution. In Animal Farm, George Orwell uses tone, characterization, and stylistic elements to show that people in power use manipulation to stay in power.