Throughout the novel, the natural characteristics of each animal figure heavily in their motives and pronouncements. How do the actions of Napoleon, Boxer, Benjamin and the dogs and sheep reflect the traits normally associated with the animal? Explain you why think Orwell purposefully chose certain types of animals to assume certain roles.
In the fable, Animal Farm, the animals of Manor Farm rebel against the farmer in hope to create a Utopian paradise, but after the rebellion, all does not go as planned. The author, George Orwell, wrote this story to reflect the happenings of the Russian Revolution of 1917 and he purposefully uses specific types of animals to play certain types of roles. He decides which animal is going to play each role by using the “personality traits” that man has already associated with each animal. For example, pigs are generally thought to be very greedy animals, Napoleon reflects this trait in many ways. For instance, Napoleon sells Boxer to the Horse slaughter in order to get money to buy a crate of whisky for himself. Orwell made Napoleon the animal that was supposed to represent Joseph Stalin. Many other characters on the farm also reflect the traits normally associated with the animal they are and people from the Russian Revolution of 1917.
Napoleon was made to represent Joseph Stalin, because in the Russian Revolution Stalin was greedy for power but to get power, he made people believe that he would do things but in the end he never did them. These characteristics are just like a pigs, hence Napoleon was born. In the novel, Napoleon reflects the genuine characteristics of a pig in his actions and words. For example, pigs are thought to be greedy, Napoleon and the pigs in general reflect this trait in many ways. An example of Napoleon’s rapaciousness is found in chapter 3, the animals find out where the milk that was supposed to be shared has gone to. “The mystery of the milk was soon cleared up. It was mixed every day into the pig’s mash.” We can see that while Napoleon promises to share everything equally among the animals, a small thing like milk was only given to himself and the pigs. This shows that Napoleon is very avaricious. After the happening of the milk, the animals in the farm should have realised that Napoleon was very gluttonous and will do anything to get control and wealth.