These animal names each represent a character or group of
people during the Russian Revolution. Their names have great
siginificance.
Snowball
represents Trotsky who was a great military leader. Well, he had great ideas anyway.
This name probably signifies the fact that the plans he made grew and grew
and grew, but so did his troubles. Snowball being run off the farm is
comparable to Trotsky's being run out of
Russia.
Moses represented the
Russian Orthodox church, or organized religion. Here is an interesting irony though, in
the bible Moses was not a good speaker, he needed his brother to speak for him. Orwell
could have used that particular biblical name because of the silencing done to the
church.
Squealer,
appropriately named, represented the media. Pravda was the news during the Russian
Revolution that would spin the truth in such a way that the people believed all kinds of
lies. Every squeal, although well taken by the animals, was entirely painful just like
the sound. Lies hurt and Squealer was good at making them appear
true.
Boxer represented the
regular working class people. Many of these people lost their lives because they were
the working class who were literally worked to death. The choice of the word Boxer to
represent the working class is an interesting one because the Boxers went against the
government. This Boxer stayed true to the government to the very end. Perhaps that's
because this Boxer thought he was part of a revolution that did not turn out to be so
revolutionary.
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