Scout says of the finished snowman, “It’s lovely, Jem, it looks almost like he’d talk to you.” (89) Earlier, Jem who called the snowman a Negro snowman is now calling it beautiful when it is covered with the white outside, the snow. Later, Atticus “squinted at the snowman a while. He grinned then laughed.” (90) Atticus, appreciated Jem and Scout’s work on the snowman, he didn’t care whether it was black or white because he wasn’t racist. In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the snowman is an important symbol discussed. First while constructing the snowman Jem and Scout put dirt in the middle to make up for the lack of snow.
The only good human being is a dead one.’ Snowball is a ruthless leader who is committed to the revolution, so committed in fact that he indicates he’d be willing to die for Animal Farm. This arrogance towards the distressed horse Boxer and the commitment he displays mirrors that of Leon Trotsky in Russian society, it is this lack of empathy that differentiates him from the others animals, yet his hope and high ambitions ultimately contribute to his exile, but these traits are initially what made him a good leader. Orwell is using the character of Snowball to reflect the ideas that essentially, knowledge and ruthlessness is power. Trotsky was intelligent and ruthless just like many
I intend to write an essay in which I explain how power corrupts the main characters in ‘Animal Farm’. Firstly I will talk about the rebellion; it takes place after the animals become fed up of Mr and Mrs Jones the first two human characters that we are introduced to in the novel. Mr Jones Reign of the farm lead to the animals not being fed and miss treated. “So when evening came the animals were still not fed”. This is what causes the animals to rebel.
Squealer is in Animal Farm to illustrate the effect propaganda has on the masses, and how the masses easily change their minds. The allegory fits because the way Napoleon tyrannizes his people without opposition is similar to Stalin's regime. Squealer employs techniques from the entire spectrum of propaganda. He uses confusing vocabulary, impenetrable statistics, and limits the terms of any debate. HE uses glittering generalities, like "freedom" (from Jones) and "justice" (against Snowball).
The author describes Snowball as “a more vivacious pig” that is “quicker in speech and more inventive” than Napoleon, meaning that Snowball has great speaking skills that help him win the attention and loyalty to his fellow animals and exhibits innovative ideas that may help the farm both economically and socially (Orwell 12). Although Snowball has certain flaws such as allowing the creation of a greatly divided social hierarchy, he attempts to create animal rebellions throughout the countryside in other farms and better living conditions for the animals. However, these qualities fail Snowball and allow Napoleon to take complete control of the farm. When Snowball proposes the idea to create a windmill for electric power to the farm, his speech “conjured up images” in the animals “of fantastic machines which would do their work as they grazed in their fields,” and his words brought “astonishment,” hope, and motivation to work to achieve a dream (35). Snowball tries to use peaceful ways to run the farm, but Napoleon’s brutal, relentless rule proves to prevail after Napoleon commands his secret dog police to chase
The sheep, which are so stupid that they only know the phrase “Four legs good, Two legs bad,” are a caricature of the people of Russia. Orwell was telling them that they were blindly accepting this idea, when it was going to make them miserable. Of course, he did not think they were as dumb as the sheep, but the exaggeration helped the author get his point across. All of the characters in Animal Farm represent people or ideas, making the book an allegory. Napoleon is a caricature of Joseph Stalin.
There are many similarities between Mr. Frederick in Animal Farm and Hitler; the events in the book are comparable to real events that took place in World War II. After looking at these, it becomes clear who Orwell modeled Mr. Frederick after. Mr. Frederick from Animal Farm is Animal Farm’s crafty and cruel neighbor. After the initial animal rebellion, he pretended to be sympathetic toward Jones, but was inwardly thinking of ways he could benefit from Jones’ misfortune. During the timber selling incident, Napoleon first denounced Frederick as an evil man who tortured animals, and told the animals that the other contestant, Mr. Pilkington, was a good man.
A pig named snowball tries to change napoleons way to make all the animals life’s better, he tries to follow Old Majors commands. But Snowball is then chased out and banished by Napoleon. He tells the animals he was banished for their benefit but really Napoleon has just taken complete control and was abusing his power. Boxer, one of the horses, was injured by a cart of rocks falling on him. He could no longer work, napoleon tells the animals he is going to send him to hospital to get better but he is not.
The rivalry comes to a head over Snowball's idea to build a windmill. At the final debate about the windmill, Napoleon summonsdogs he has secretly reared to be his own vicious servants and has them chase Snowball from Animal Farm. Napoleon tells the other animals that Snowball was a "bad influence," eliminates the animals' right to vote, and takes "the burden" of leadership on himself. He sends around a pig named Squealer, who persuades the animals that Napoleon has their best interests at heart. Three weeks later Napoleon decides they should build the windmill after all.
Snowball’s control of Animal Farm is seen as decent, whereas Napoleon’s is corrupt. Snowball actually contributed as a political head with ideas to improve Animal Farm. He “buried himself with organising the other animals into what he called Animal Committees. He was indefatigable at this.” –pg 19. Snowball devoted time and effort for the success of the other animals.