Character Analysis
(Avoiding Spoilers)
Overview... an intelligent and charismatic speaker, Snowball is the pig who rises in the ranks of Animal Farm by appealing to the masses. Snowball is likeable, but doesn’t have the same kind of muscle as his rival, Napoleon, who rises to de facto leader of Animal Farm after a revolution leaves the farm to its animals. To gain control over the animals’ hearts and minds, Snowball is willing to go head-to-head with Napoleon – both rhetorically and physically.
Personality… slick, passionate, and straightforward. Although Snowball understands that certain facts need not be shared with the simpler animals, he's still a pig of the people – er, animals, to be more precise. A great public speaker, Snowball has enough passion to rile the animals when a push is necessary, but he'd rather direct his energy toward his goals, not Napoleon's.
Get to Know him in...
-
Animal Farm is the most famous by far of all twentieth-century political allegories. Its account of a group of barnyard animals who revolt against their vicious human master, only to submit to a tyranny erected by their own kind, can fairly be said to have become a universal drama. Orwell is one of the very few modern satirists comparable to Jonathan Swift in power, artistry, and moral authority; in animal farm his spare prose and the logic of his dark comedy brilliantly highlight his stark message. Taking as his starting point the betrayed promise of the Russian Revolution, Orwell lays out a vision that, in its bitter wisdom, gives us the clearest understanding we possess of the possible consequences of our social and political acts.
