Minor Characters In Animal Farm Essay

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In the novel Animal Farm, George Orwell uses several different events and characters to represent and symbolize different ideas and people that were present in the Russian Revolution. Minor characters in the novel played a key role in representing some of these different ideas and groups of people. Mollie, the white mare, is used to represent those who are vain and selfish. The dogs, raised by Napoleon himself, are used to represent the secret police that were present during the revolution. Finally Moses, the raven, is used to symbolize the idea of religion and its role in the time of the revolution. Through different events and circumstances in the novel, Orwell uses minor characters to represent the roles of different groups and ideas during …show more content…

Napoleon uses the dogs to get rid of Snowball in order to gain overall leader on the farm. The dogs also represent the secret police as they are used to inflict a sense of fear on the farm in order to force support for Napoleon. One way the dogs inflict fear on the farm is through executions. This fear is shown after the first executions when Orwell writes,
“A few days later, when the terror caused by the executions had died down, some of the animals remembered - or thought they remembered - that the Sixth Commandment decreed: ‘No animal shall kill any other animal.’ And though no one cared to mention it in the hearing of the pigs or dogs. . .” (61).
The animals have concerns and doubts about what is happening on the farm but are too scared to say anything for the fact that if they do they may get executed. No one on the farm dares say anything that may contradict the ways of Napoleon for fear of what the consequence may be. The dogs in animal farm are used to represent the secret police that were present during the time of the revolution. Finally, Moses the raven is used throughout the novel to represent the idea of religion during the revolution. The first way Moses represents the idea of religion is by talking to the animals about Sugarcandy Mountain. Moses is claimed to have known