Humor in Animal Farm by George Orwell Essay

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.

Have you ever wondered how well Napoleon in “Animal Farm,” a novel by George Orwell relates to the real Joseph Stalin that he is meant to portray? To understand fully the relationship between the two we need to know a little about the background of the Russian revolution itself.

In George Orwell’s Animal Farm, he criticizes the way the government worked through a story. He criticizes government officials and how they become corrupt. In the story, Orwell’s character Napoleon is meant to represent Joseph Stalin, who was possibly one of the most corrupt political figures. Throughout the story, Napoleon became more and more corrupt, much like Stalin did during his reign.

The working class of a society include people employed for harsh, physical labor. In the novel Animal Farm, written by George Orwell, Napoleon enslaves the creatures of Animal Farm under his dictatorship. In this allegory, Orwell uses animals to represent various people in former Soviet Russian society. Boxer, the horse, symbolizes the Russian working class, or proletariats. Both embody qualities of strength, dedication, and blind obedience. As the farm animals face oppression from Napoleon, Boxer and the proletariat’s personality traits allow the tyrannical leader to take advantage of them.

To represent the working class, Orwell introduces a character named Boxer. Boxer is the hardest working animal on the farm and is admired by the other animals. Like the working class, Boxer is often treated poorly but he does not recognize that. Boxer is not the smartest animal on the farm and at times can be too trusting of the animals in control. Boxer continues to work hard in hope for the better future that was promised like the working class in russia. Multiple times boxer says “I will work harder”(orwell) in the story because he does not want to give up. Not only does he continue to push himself for his own sake but for the better future for all animals. A second phrase that seems to stick with Boxer is “Napoleon is always right.”(Orwell). Boxer is being manipulated by napoleon and fails to see his dishonest actions.

From the beginning of the book in the introduction of all the animals, Orwell has clearly stated that Boxer is a horse renown for his strength and loyalty although he is not the sharpest tool in the shed. His lacks of common sense make him susceptible to Napoleon’s manipulative ways. Boxer is seen as a threat to Napoleon in a variety of ways so he decides to give Boxer a huge workload to be able to control him. Boxer symbolizes the gullible, naïve, and innocent source of labor

The animal farm is ruled by a pig named Napoleon. He is portrays a ruthless dictator who betrays the trust of all the animals on the animal farm. His rule is threatened by a horse named boxer. Why? Well, because Boxer is a strong, hardworking, honorable horse, who always says “I will work harder”.

‘Animal Farm’ is a novel written by George Orwell that allegorically depicts communism and the Russian revolution. It is the story of animals overthrowing their human master and the rise of a harsh and deceiving dictator, a pig named Napoleon. Throughout the novel, Animal Farm explores themes of power, oppression and politics and more specifically corruption, terror and propaganda. As a result of the power the pig’s gain, the system becomes heavily corrupt. Moreover, the reigning Napoleon uses terror and violence to oppress the animals on the arm.

For example, Major, the prize-winning boar can be related to Karl Marx, who laid the foundation for the socialism. Snowball is meant to be Leon Trotsky, Stalin’s counterpart who was exiled and later murdered. Napoleon’s, use of propaganda sheds light on the brainwashing methods used by Stalin during his tyranny. Boxer the horse symbolizes the workers who are reluctant to question the regime and provide the base for Stalin’s rule. Orwell depicts this brainwashing through Boxer’s slogans, “Napoleon is always right.”

As a political writer and socialist of the time, Orwell turns the tragedy of the Russian people, when the Stalin regime crushed their dreams of a communist utopia, into a message to society. The government treated the people of the Russia just as poorly, if not worse, than before the revolution, because of political innocence and an authoritarian government. With his novel, Animal Farm, serving as an allegory for the Russian revolution, Orwell warns that absolute power among the leaders destines any society to become corrupt and oppressive because a leader’s manipulation of power for personal benefit is inevitable. Even revolutions that have the best intentions will ultimately fail if the public does not hold the leaders accountable.

In this novel, Napoleon represented the dictator of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Joseph Stalin. Stalin was the dictator of the USSR from 1929 to 1953 ( a quarter of a century). Thanks to Stalin's management skills the Soviet Union was transformed from a low social status society

Orwell was no stranger to the fear Stalin instilled in communist Russia. He fled Spain in a panic, due to the fact that communists were trying to kill him for fighting on the side of their political adversaries during the Spanish Civil War (Woodcock). “The experience left him with a lifelong dread of communism…” (Woodcock). Literary scholar, John Wain, believes it was a turning point for Orwell (25). Not only was he afraid of communism, but he also felt compelled to write about the horrors of communism. Guidorizzi’s article uses Orwell’s own words to illustrate his feelings on the subject. Orwell states, “Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism; Animal Farm was the first book in which I tried, with full consciousness of what I was doing, to fuse political purpose and artistic purpose into one whole” (Guidorizzi).

Though Animal Farm can be considered nothing more than a charming animal fable depicting a doomed rebellion, its origin is actually of a more serious and political nature. It is not only the tale of Napoleon and Animal Farm, but a satire and commentary on that of the Russian Revolution, Stalin and Communism. For a person to gain a true understanding of Orwell's meaning in Animal Farm, it is best that he or she has an understanding of the political parties and history surrounding Communism, Stalin, and the upheaval and fear that followed Stalin's rise to power.

In George Orwell's tale Animal Farm, he tells a story of what would happen if the animals on a farm would raise up against the farmers. After the revolution two pigs Snowball and Napoleon rise up to lead and defend the now free Farm; but as the farm continues to grow there could only be room for one leader. In the book, there are three characters Napoleon, who can seen as the brain and the supreme comrade of the farm. Squealer who can be seen as a body and Napoleons voice as he tells the animals what is right and wrong. Boxer is a tool for he is the hardest working animals on the farm but not the smartest. These three help conven one of the central themes of the book. The power of intelligence and that the smartest animals will rule, control, and manipulate the dumb animals.

To begin with, Napoleon’s most used and efficient propaganda happens to be fear. There are numerous occasions where Napoleon advocates fear in order to either persuade a large number of animals or force upon new sets of ideas. One of the most strategic techniques that Napoleon used were the dogs. Since he was portrayed as a secretive person, he would stealthily train the hound of dogs, “they were puppies whom Napoleon had taken away from their mothers and reared privately.” (Orwell 38) The dogs created fear in all of the animals, therefore, made it extremely simple for Napoleon to ascend to the position of the leader of Animal Farm. Using the dogs to enforce fear also prevented rebellion against Napoleon or any questioning of his authority. An additional example would be when Napoleon relaunched the