“Animal
Farm”
Comparing
and Contrasting: Snowball & Napoleon
December. 6, 2009
I
chose to compare and contrast two major figures in this book. They
are named Snowball & Napoleon, and they are the most polar
opposite characters in the novel “Animal Farm”. So, these two
have an immense amount of differences and a lacking number of
similarities.
First, I will introduce Snowball. He is a clever, strong speaking,
and inventive young boar who represents Leon Trotsky in the Russian
revolution. Snowball was known to be a “more vivacious pig than
Napoleon,”
but at the same time, was “not considered to have the same depth
of character” (p.35). He had positive thoughts towards the future,
hoping for animalism to flourish among all the farms, not just his
own. He used his wits, and planned to build a great windmill that
would produce electricity for the animals' advantage. He hoped for a
better future for all his comrades. Snowball was genuinely concerned
for his people. But, in the end, he was brutally murdered by a pack
of Napoleons' dogs after his speech to build a windmill was
beginning to convince the animals to join his side at a
meeting.
Now, Napoleon (Joseph Stalin) was a cruel, power-hungry and “rather
fierce-looking Berkshire Boar,” (p.35) (George Orwell, Animal
Farmwho was also “not much of a talker” (p.35). He cheated
and lied his way to the respect and leadership of Animal farm. He
spread rumors around the farm about his enemies to make it seem like
was far better than his true self. Napoleon also used many animals.
For example, he used Moses (the raven), to convince the animals to
work harder to get to 'sugar candy mountain', the land of eternal
happiness. He also used squealer to talk his way into persuading
them to work harder to get what they deserved. He raised the dogs
into his own personal intimidates, and they would frighten anyone
who would disagree, disobey, or threaten Napoleon's power, just as
Snowball did.
Napoleon used squealer to tweak the original seven commandments to
make his life easier, completely ignoring his own comrad's needs. He
could care less about animalism, which is exactly what made Snowball
so different from his greedy self. After Snowball's 'disappearance',
he blamed him for all the flaws the farm experienced afterwards.
Napoleon even worked behind his comrad's backs with humans such as
Mr.Pilkington, Mr.Friedrick, and Mr.Whymper. He told the farm that
life was better, but in reality, nothing was changed since Mr.Jones
was thrown out of Animal Farm. Napoleon slaughtered any of his
animals if they confessed to sinning against him, and in the end,
Napoleon turned into a human clone.
Snowball
and Napoleon were always disagreeing with each other in the group
meetings. They could never, not once agree on anything. They had far
different intentions and ideas on how to deal with the newly changed
farm now that it was in their hands and not in Mr.Jones’s
obligation. I think the only thing these two characters had in
common were that they were both leaders (unfair or not) in the
revolution, and they were both pigs.