Animal Farm Chapter 5 Summary

“Windmill or no windmill, he said, life would go on as it always gone- that is, badly” (Orwell 56). Benjamin never showed any real interest in the windmill or how it could potentially lighten the workload for the entire farm. Which brings me to my second point, Benjamin was unlike the other animals. He refused to get his hopes up about the windmill or leadership change which resulted in him never being surprised when the pigs let the farm down. “Only old Benjamin refused to grow enthusiastic about the windmill” (Orwell 71). Unlike Mollie, Benjamin doesn’t slack off; he also doesn’t purposely work more diligently like Boxer. He is being selfish by not putting in more effort since he has the strength to work much harder than the smaller animals on the Animal Farm. After all, he would benefit from the windmill being built just as much, if not more, than the other animals.

Napoleon, who is dictator by now, proceeds to manipulate the farm animals with his deceitful propaganda. However, his scheming acts become noticeably repetitive. Making some of the animals question his authority. The majority of the animals were blindly following Napoleon’s regime, only a few who realized that it was not what he was claiming it to be. Benjamin, an old, wise, and stubborn donkey was not affected by the rebellion. He is also intelligent, being the only animal other than the pigs that can fluently read. Benjamin represent the humans that hold the idea that life is hard, and that efforts for change are useless. Benjamin can too represent Orwell himself. Both Orwell and Benjamin saw the negatives of a government when the rest were

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

People are intrigued by a book through its content. However, when a reader can relate to the book, it reminds them of their own life story. This is exactly what Orwell did when writing Animal Farm. He created the book to open people’s eyes and see what was really going on in front of them. Animal Farm intrigues so many people because though it is a fiction book, it is based on true events that happened in Russia. Animal Farm, a book based on Stalin’s Russia, can be interpreted in several ways: the similar characteristics between Stalin and Napoleon, the animal parallels, and the parallel between Stalin’s Russia (USSR) and the Animal Farm.

From our discussion, we were able to derive many different characteristics from each character and their allegorical meanings in the Russian Revolution. Napoleon represents a leader named Stalin (in the Russian Revolution) who started off with a balance of power but eventually started to go off the edge and use the power to his advantage. My partners backed up their claim by proving that Napoleon modeled a dictator who had slightly better work ethics than Jones. However, Napoleon had very bad morals and often breaks his own commandments while using lots of force. Squealer represents a helping-hand of power to the dictator (Napoleon). Squealer utilizes his persuasive and manipulative speaking skills enough to help the dictator control the animals. My group provided evidence for this by referencing a quote from the novel which states, “Surely there is no one among you that wants to see Jones come back”. This quote demonstrates Squealer’s use of questions and persuasive phrases with a one-sided answer. These questions have obvious answers and allow Squealer to blatantly prove his point and convince, as well as captivate, his audience. Finally, Benjamin represents a wise individual, who seeks to stay out of the rebellion for his own good. Although Benjamin did not appear very often in the book as of yet, he demonstrated a rather restricted individual and stayed behind the lines. He knows that Napoleon is

Boxer is described as a hard working but lacking in wisdom and ignorant horse. Boxer worries about the farm, but he's not smart enough to put together that the enemy is Napoleon. Since he isn't a bright horse, he doesn't think for himself; he decides to be loyal no matter what to follow the party as in, Communist party line. After Snowball is sent into exile, Boxer tries to think for himself and make his own decisions but he can't come up with anything besides, "If Comrade Napoleon says it, it must be right," (Orwell). He takes up a new personal motto: "Napoleon is always right" (Orwell). This shows how Napoleon used manipulation to make the animals fall under his command. Due to Boxer being ignorant, but

His silence in the face of the pig's corruption is broken only at the novel's climax as his friend Boxer is driven off to the "knackers" in a truck the other animals believe to be transporting him to the vet. "Fools! Fools!" he shouts furiously, "Fools! Do you not see what is written on the side of that van?" The animals can't read the writing of course, but Benjamin could all along, as he could read Animal Farm's constitution being changed overnight. Benjamin saw the dark path that the revolution was taking and in its early phases had the ability to turn it around. But the apathy he showed landed all of animal farm manipulated and trapped in a position where resistance was futile and the pigs could rule with an iron fist. Benjamin was cynical with his belief that "Life would go on as it had always gone on - that is, badly" but in the same way he was a realist, as in the end of animal farm things did continue as they always had - badly. It is questionable whether Animal Farm's revolution, and the revolution of its allegory counterpart would have reached a different outcome in Benjamin, and those smart enough to sense the corruption had discarded their apathy and made their awareness known.

Benjamin doesn’t ever use his intelligence to help the other animals and won't explain things. When the pigs in the story started to change the commandments, he knew what was happening

(Transition) Benjamin and Eliezer each have an important role in their corresponding novels, Animal Farm and Night. In Animal Farm, Benjamin is not a major character in the story. However this donkey makes a large impact on the characters surrounding him. Throughout the story, Benjamin is an unbelieving, pessimistic

An individual stated on November 19, 2000 that Animal Farm “is a brilliant metaphorical work that conveys a message of the ruling classes versus the working classes” which really sums up the entire book and the concept of it (personal interview). Animal Farm was an amazing book very informing an individual who would have known little to nothing about the Russian Revolution and the leaders now can get a clear intake on what happened. This reviewer thought highly of this book and how it fully captured the true events and brutality that went on during that time. Also how well Orwell portrayed Napoleon and Snowball’s characters to be identical to Stalin and

In the novel, George Orwell uses Benjamin as a symbol of an apathetic person, and he uses this character to show that there are people who did not care in Russian society. Benjamin does not show his wisdom until later on in the novel. Because of that, his emotions overthrow

After it was announced that Jones may come back if the animals do not work harder, Boxer adopted the motto, “Napoleon is always right… I will work harder” (Orwell 70). The animals were told that if they are working with Snowball or make one false step, Jones may return, which makes them want to work even harder and do everything Napoleon says. The animals are not educated themselves, so they assume that Napoleon knows what he is doing and is the smartest. Even though the farm was not prospering much, “It had become usual to give Napoleon the credit for every successful achievement and every stroke of good fortune” (Orwell 100).

Animal farm is a renowned, allegorical novella written by George Orwell in 1945, which can be interpreted to have a hidden political meaning behind it referring to the Russian Revolution. Throughout this novella, the author purposely positions the audience to make judgements based on sensible, moral perception to show that Orwell effectively revealed how the pigs exploited a vast majority of propaganda techniques to deceptively manipulate the values, attitudes and beliefs of the other animals, with full intention of complete social control. This was exposed to the reader when the three main values of ‘Animalism’, as outlined in Old Major's speech, which consists of freedom, unity and equality, are abused for the pigs own advantage. This task

Boxer is a young, strong, hard-working horse which works as much as he can, but on the other hand, he is not so clever. Benjamin is the exact opposite of Boxer. He is old, he is not so strong but he is one of the most clever animals on the farm. These two animals are completely different. They have different opinions, life directions, priorities and so on.

George Orwell includes a strong message in his novel Animal Farm that is easily recognizable. Orwell’s Animal Farm focuses on two primary problems that were not only prominent in his WWII society, but also posed as reoccurring issues in all societies past and present. Orwell’s novel delivers a strong political message about class structure and oppression from the patriarchal society through an allegory of a farm that closely resembles the Soviet Union.