Snowball

Snowball is one of the pigs. He wants to be the leader of the farm and is supposed to represent Leon Trotzky. He holds great speeches and his nice and friendly appearance blinds the animals. He is really intelligent, knows how to hold speeches, and knows how to get in favor of the animals. He shortens the amendments to “Four legs good, two legs bad” because the animals struggled with remembering the amendments. He was on a really good way and most of the animals on the farm preferred him over Napoleon. But then he gets chased off by Napoleon’s dogs making him ineligible for the leadership.

Napoleon

Napoleon is also a pig. He becomes the leader of the farm after he chases Snowball off the farm with his dogs. Napoleon is supposed to represent Joseph Stalin. His speeches are not as good as Snowball’s but they are not bad either. He is really intelligent and knows how to manipulate the animals. In the end of the book he starts living a really luxurious life and violates his own laws. He changes the laws like he wants to and becomes more and more like the humans. Eventually you can’t even tell the difference between him and the humans anymore. He starts walking on two legs, drinking alcohol, wearing clothes, and being in the farmhouse. All of these things are against the laws that he established.

Mr. Jones

Mr. Jones was the farmer until the animals overthrew him. The animals felt like they were enslaved by him and they wanted freedom. In addition to that he was lazy and often drunk. They decided to chase him off the farm after he was really drunk and didn’t feed them for a few days. But he does not just accept this. He tried twice to fight back with neighbouring farmers but he was defeated. Mr. Jones is supposed to represent Tsar Nicholas II who was also overthrown by his own people. The leading animals demonize everything that is associated with humans such as clothes or alcohol. The initial hope of freedom gets destroyed over time because Napoleon’s leadership turns out to be very similar to Mr. Jones’. In addition to that his personality gets more and more similar to the one of Mr. Jones.

Comparison

At first the three characters may seem really different. But it does not take long for you to realize that in the end they are all the same; hungry for power and control over the people (or in this case animals). All of the 3 have the potential to be a leader. After Mr. Jones is overthrown Napoleon gets in the leading position of the farm. In the beginning the animals are really happy and Napoleon is encouraged to better the situation on the farm. But after time passes he adapts more and more the behaviour of Mr. Jones. In the end he basically is Mr. Jones. He is evil and lets the animals work while he lives a luxurious life, just like the old leader. Napoleon changes laws and breaks them by himself. Snowball was first really liked by the animals because he could hold great speeches and knew how to manipulate them even better than Napoleon. After some time he gets chased off by Napoleon’s dogs and therefore does not get the leadership of the farm.

Who they represent

All three characters are supposed to represent important persons of the Russian revolution. Mr. Jones is thought to be Tsar Nicholas II who gets overthrown by the Russian people who are the animals of the farm. After tsar Nicholas II (Mr. Jones)gets overthrown a fight between Stalin (Napoleon) and Trotzky (Snowball) over the leadership breaks out. Stalin (Napoleon) emerges as the leader. At first the people of Russia (animals) are very happy and think that everything is going to be better. But after some time the people realize that the new government (Napoleon) is just as bad, if not worse than the old one (Mr. Jones). He wants even more power and control over the animals than Mr. Jones. In addition to that you can say that the rebellion of the animals made everything worse because an evil animal emerged as the leader of the farm.

I personally really liked the book because of these references to the Russian revolution.

Works Cited

Orwell, G. Animal Farm, 1956. Print.