Page 75 - DENG203_ELECTIVE_ENGLISH_IV

Elective English—IV

Notes Snowball, his competitor. Snowball in this context represents Leo Dawidowitsch Trotsky, Stalin’s
arch-rival in Russia. The parallels between Snowball and Trotsky are mysterious. Trotsky was
also exiled to Mexico, where he spoke against Stalin. Stalin was afraid that Trotsky followers
may try to kill him. The dictator of Russia tried hard to kill Trotsky as he had the fear of losing
his leadership. Trotsky believed in communism, but was of the opinion that he could run Russia
in a better manner. Trotsky was assassinated in Mexico by the Russian internal police, the
NKVD - the precursor of the KGB. Trotsky was found dead in his villa in Mexico with a pick axe
in his head.
Boxer: George cleverly used this name as a metaphor for the Boxer Rebellion in China in the
early twentieth century. In red China this rebellion signalled the beginning of communism.
Similar to the distorted Stalin view of socialism, this form of communism is present even today
in China’s oppressive socialist government. George uses Clover and Boxer to represent the
proletariat, or untrained manual labour class in Russia. This lower class is obviously drawn to
Stalin (Napoleon) because they feel that they may benefit most from his new system. Since
Boxer and the other low animals are not used to the “good life,” they aren’t really in a position
to make any comparisons between the life they had when governed by the czars (Jones) and
Napoleon’s government. Moreover, since the lowest class is usually not considered to be very
intelligent, it is easy to convince them that they are getting a good deal. The proletariat is also
fairly good at considering that communism is a good concept. Orwell supports this discussion
when he narrates, “Their most faithful disciples were the two carthorses, Boxer and Clover.
Those two had great difficulty in thinking anything out for themselves, but having once accepted
the pigs as their teachers, they absorbed everything that they were told, and passed it on to the
other animals by simple arguments.” Later, the significance of the proletariat is seen when
Boxer falls and injures himself because of whom his work productivity decreases drastically.
Despite the accident Boxer is taken for granted by the pigs, which send him away in a glue truck.
Boxer really is the biggest poster-child for gullibility.
Pigs: Orwell uses the pigs to support and surround Napoleon. They represent Stalin’s friends
and the communist party loyalists, as well as possibly the Duma, or Russian parliament. Unlike
other animals, the pigs live a luxurious life. They enjoy all the benefits of the society they help
to control. The discrimination and true hypocrisy and insincerity of communism are stated here
by Orwell, who disapproved of Marx’s simplified view of a socialist, “utopian” society. Orwell
obviously doesn’t believe that such a society can ever exist. Toward the end of Animal Farm,
Orwell highlights, “Somehow it seemed as though the farm had grown richer without making
the animals themselves any richer except, of course, the pigs and the dogs.”
Dogs: In his book, Animal Farm, Orwell uses the dogs to represent Stalin’s bodyguards. The
dogs are shown as arch-defenders of Napoleon and the other pigs. Even though these dogs don’t
speak, they still are a force the other animals have to deal with. Orwell in his book almost says
that the dogs are mindless robots, so committed to Napoleon that they can’t even speak for
themselves. This argument is supported when Orwell states that Napoleon took six puppies
away from their mother at a very initial stage in a suspicious manner. Napoleon uses his “secret
dogs” for the first time to chase Snowball. This happens even before Snowball gets a chance to
give a counter-argument to Napoleon’s disapproval of the windmill. When Snowball tries to
put his viewpoint across to Napoleon and the other animals, the dogs ferociously attack the pig,
forcing him to run away, never to come back. Orwell narrates, “Silent and terrified, the animals
crept back into the barn. In a moment the dogs came bounding back. At first no one had been
able to imagine where these creatures came from, but the problem was soon solved: they were
the puppies whom Napoleon had taken away from their mothers and reared privately. Though
not yet full-grown, they were huge dogs, and as fierce-looking as wolves. They kept close to
Napoleon. It was noticed that they wagged their tails to him in the same way as the other dogs

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