Snowball (Animal Farm)

Snowball is a fictional pig in the book "Animal Farm" written by George Orwell.

Fictional biography

Together with the pig Napoleon, Snowball leads the animals' revolt against the human farmer, but is driven away from the farm (a comparison to Trotsky) by his former comrade Napoleon in the later part of the story. Unlike Napoleon, he has the best interests of the animals in mind. He is most attuned to the thinking of Old Major (whose role resembles that of Vladimir Lenin or perhaps Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels). He devotes himself to bettering the animals in intellectual, moral and physical ways. His role on the farm bears a significant and intended resemblance to the role of Leon Trotsky in the early Soviet Union.

In his short-lived time as a leader, Snowball actively works to change Animal Farm, and although not all of his ideas work very efficiently, he is shown to have genuinely good intentions. Despite his altruism, however, he has his faults, such as when he, like the other pigs, hoards the milk and windfallen apples. Like Trotsky, Snowball is exiled after Napoleon seizes power by force, modeled after Joseph Stalin. After Snowball is exiled, he is used by Napoleon as a political scapegoat and is blamed for various problems on the farm. For example, he is blamed for allegedly mixing weed seeds into the wheat seeds under the cover of night to explain the growth of weeds in the farm's crops. He is also blamed for the destruction of the windmill the animals had created. Other animals make false confessions (an idea Orwell expands in "1984") saying they helped him in his "nightly visits," or he came to them in a dream telling them to do bad deeds and they are executed brutally in public. (The killing is likely a parallel to the Great Purge started by Stalin in 1936 when he tried and executed many of his political adversaries using forced false confessions.) There is never a sure confirmation that Snowball is alive or dead as he was never seen again after his exile.

He returns to bring Capitalism to the Manor Farm in John Reed's controversial 9/11 follow up Snowball's Chance, where he brings capitalism to the Manor Farm. Like Napoleons puppies, he had a team of goats that helped him out. The George Orwell estate objected to the publication of the work. [ [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/11/27/wfarm27.xml&sSheet=/news/2002/11/27/ixworld.html London Telegraph] ] [ [http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F40711FB3A5D0C768EDDA80994DA404482 New York Times] ]

Snowball's ideas

Snowball believes in a continued revolution: he argues that in order to defend Animal Farm, the animals should stir up rebellions in other farms throughout England. He continues striving for the betterment of the Animal Farm. He tries to accomplish this through many failed committees, like the Cleaner Tails League for the cows. Napoleon is shown to have been Snowball's enemy from the very start of the revolution, disagreeing with almost all of Snowball's ideas. For example, when Snowball proposes inspiring more revolutions on other farms in order to protect Animal Farm (similar to Trotsky's idea of Permanent Revolution), Napoleon proposes learning to use firearms and other more advanced weapons. When Snowball actively organizes the animals into groups of committees, Napoleon simply states that the education of the young is all that was needed.

Snowball also writes the first version of the Seven Commandments. These are later altered by Squealer under the orders of Napoleon to accommodate the treacherous actions of the pigs. For example, the commandment stating "No animal shall drink alcohol" is changed to "No animal shall drink alcohol "to excess"."

References