Boxer Animal Farm

One of the most traumatic times in world history occurred during World War II, which saw millions of people being murdered and victimized under the terror of totalitarian rule. In George Orwell’s book Animal Farm, Orwell uses the takeover of a farm by its animals and the slow downhill spiral of the group to provide an example that totalitarian governments like Communism have a tremendous effect on the people who live through them. The animals became united against a common cause by removing the farmer, Mr. Jones, from his farm and taking control over it. Eventually however, the pigs along with Napoleon, the most prominent horse, slowly recreated the dictatorship that Mr. Jones had before he was kicked off the farm. All of this represents the

Boxer was the hardest worker on the farm, putting in extra time and effort on the windmill so it could be completed and have it benefit the rest of the animals. Boxer was “universally respected for his steadiness of character and tremendous powers of work" because he sacrificed everything for the benefit of the farm (Orwell 26). When the windmill was destroyed the first time, Boxer went right back to work and didn’t complain about it. His infamous phrase “I will work harder” demonstrated how determined he was into finishing the job that he started. When the windmill went down the second time, he still never complained. Boxer, however, would end up working himself to death because of the determination that he had. In addition, it wasn’t just Boxer who was emotionally distraught after the windmills went down. All of the animals who had worked tireless hours every day to build them watched their creations come crashing down in a matter of moments. While all of this went on, Napoleon had to find a culprit for these heinous acts, so he turned on some of the animals for supposedly conspiring with Snowball. Napoleon had many of these animals executed, which caused tremendous emotional stress within the group by watching their fellow friends be killed. With the vivid descriptions that he was providing, Orwell was sending a message that what they were doing

For example, when the Seven Commandments were written on the side of the barn right after the rebellion, one of them stated “Four legs good, two legs bad”. By the end of the novel, almost all of the other commandments were scratched out, but there was one that remained and slightly altered. It then stated, “Four legs good, two legs better”. The animals realized that it had changed, but were convinced by the pigs that the commandment was what it was the whole time. Since they couldn’t read, they just followed the authority and believed whatever they said to be true. There were many strong-willed animals on the farm who had the ability to overthrow the dictatorship, but were not smart enough, so they were always “all too ready to accept authority” (Goodheart). Orwell’s non-intelligent animals compare to some of the higher ranking citizens of Russia during Stalin’s reign. In this case, it was not the intellectual capacity that was holding these people back, it was the terror factor. Many people saw with the banishment of Trotsky that anyone who went against the views of the Communist party was subject to disciplinary actions. Therefore, even though many people wanted to, no one spoke out against Stalin in Russia because they didn’t want to be one of the millions of people who were killed or murdered during the Revolution who went against