English Year 10 - Animal Farm: Characters

- the primary antagonist of the novel; a pig who is one of Old Major’s disciples, along with Snowball. At first, Napoleon and Snowball work together to develop the ideology of Animalism and spread its ideals throughout all the animals on the farm, but Napoleon proves to have very different goals than Snowball.

- the most sympathetically drawn character in the novel, Boxer epitomizes all of the best qualities of the exploited working classes: dedication, loyalty, and a huge capacity for labour.

- a revered old boar who, at the beginning of the novel, gathers the animals together to speak to them about what’s wrong with their world. He proposes that humanity is their one true enemy.

- Benjamin is Animal Farm’s donkey. He is the only animal who never really believes in the rebellion, but he doesn’t oppose it, and he doesn’t oppose Napoleon’s rise to power either.

- Snowball, with Napoleon, develop the theory of Animalism from the ideas of Old Major’s speech, and later they distill these ideas down into the Seven Commandments

- the silver-tongued pig abuses language to justify Napoleon’s actions and policies by whatever means seem necessary.

- the owner of Foxwood, a farm near Animal Farm