Exploring Snowball's Character: Leadership in George Orwell's Farm

This essay provides an in-depth analysis of Snowball's character in George Orwell's Animal Farm. Snowball, a key figure in the animal rebellion, is portrayed as an intelligent and innovative leader who envisions a better society for the animals. The essay explores his contributions to the farm, his conflicts with Napoleon, and his eventual expulsion. It examines how Snowball's ideas, such as the windmill, are initially embraced but later undermined by Napoleon's power-hungry tactics. The analysis also delves into the symbolic representation of Snowball, often compared to Leon Trotsky, and how his character reflects the complexities of revolutionary movements and the dangers of totalitarianism. The essay references both the novel and its animated adaptations to provide a comprehensive understanding of Snowball's role and legacy within the context of Animal Farm, highlighting his lasting impact as a symbol of idealism and thwarted revolution. Desklib offers a wealth of similar essays and study resources for students.

Running head: English essay
George Orwell's Animal Farm (1945)
Name of Student
Name of the University
Author notes

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ENGLISH ESSAY
Animal Farm is one short novel written by George Orwell, during Second World War
and published in the year 1945. The main story line of this novel revolves around a group of
farm animals who become rebel against the farmer. The novel also tells that the firm animals
have a hope of creating a society, in which animals will be free, happy and will be treated
equally (Dabbaghian and Sanaz). Ultimately, in the end, the rebellion has found to be
betrayed and the farm ends up in a situation as worst as it was previously, under dictatorship
of one of the pig whose name was Napoleon.
Snowball, the white fat pig has believed in the continued revolution: he had an
intention of defending the Animal Farm. To do this he come with an idea of strengthening the
Old Major's dream; to leave a life without humans (GONÇALVES). Moreover, he also think
to stir up other rebellions of different farms of England. However, there was always a conflict
between Napoleon and Snowball as the former never supported to the idea of the later. The
main intention behind showing disagreement is that, Napoleon never wanted Snowball to be
the hero of the Animal Farm and lead the farm by gaining more popularity. The main conflict
between Napoleon and Snowball started and continued due to the windmill. The windmill,
initially was an excellent idea of Snowball, he wanted it badly so that the entire farm will get
benefits from this. Napoleon, being the negative character, opposed this idea and according to
him, windmill will slow down the food production of the farm. Additionally, Napoleon
always wanted to stockpile the weapons; on flip, Snowball wanted to enhance and spread the
revolution to many other farms present all over the England. Therefore, that windmill, acted
as the root cause of a heated debate between the two. The increasing conflict between the
two, eventually lead to the forced out of Snowball from the farm. Napoleon was very rude
and used his guard dogs for attacking Snowball and forcing him to get out of the farm. After
that, he also faced the blame of creating problems in the farm. It was also believed that
Snowball was in support of the farm owner from the start and sowed seeds with weeds. The

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ENGLISH ESSAY
author has outlined that, “tough he fought bravely at the Battle of the Cowshed, the facts are
altered to say he openly fought for Jones and that the shot wounds are changed to wounds
Napoleon inflicted on him”. The animals who were in favour of Snowball are punished
brutally by Napoleon. Napoleon also declare reward for finding out Snowball and his
supporters. Finally, to end this, the farm decided to undertake a voting on this idea. It was
clear before that the idea of windmill is going to pass by the farm members. However, before
the vote could took place, Napoleon called out the all the nine puppies, who were raised by
him and ordered them to attack on Snowball. Following their master’s order obediently, the
dogs attacked and chased Snowball out of the farm. After Snowball left the farm, Napoleon
then imposed his own laws and ruled over the farm.
The character of Snowball's leaving the animal farm was expressed as symbolic.
Snowball is identified as a thinker of both the warring pigs and showed efficient leadership
quality. The hard work, competency and intelligence had helped him to set an example of an
excellent leader. He was an idealist and always believed in innovation. Without using any
kind of force, Snowball believed on giving debates for convincing other farm members to
follow him and adopting his idea. Ultimately, he was undermined by the brute force. The
situation is similar to the, rhetorical debate about undermined communism by the military
control that become the main reason of despotism. However, after the expulsion of Snowball
from the farm, it was found that his reputation was tarnished and the particular character was
accused of working unethically for the neighbouring farmers, sabotaging all their grown
crops, and also blamed for attempting to destroy the created windmill.
Analysing overall, it can be said that Snowball is one inventive pig whose intention
was to influences for standing with the right thing. The intelligence as well as compassion of
him made him different from others. However, after his escape, what exactly happened to
him was never disclosed. Following the information provided in the Animal farm 1954

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ENGLISH ESSAY
(animated adaptation) it is found that the dogs sent by Napoleon had killed him (Putra,
Abdillah and Hum). However, in contrast to the previous version, in the year 1999, another
animation action got released and, and it showed survival of the Snowball by escaping the
dogs. Yet, Napoleon declared him as dead. George Orwell has represented the character of
Snowball as one string, brave and efficient leader of the revolt in his novel Animal farm. Due
to the similarities in attitude, the character of snowball always compared with Leon Trotsky.

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ENGLISH ESSAY
Reference
Awan, Abdul Ghafoor, and Syed Ahmad Raza. "The Effects of Totalitarianism & Marxism
towards dystopian society in George Orwell’s selected Fictions." Global Journal of
Management and Social Sciences 2.4 (2016): 21-37.
Dabbaghian, Amin Amir, and Sanaz Solimany. "The application of Baker's Taxonomy on
translation of literary texts, a case study of George Orwell's animal farm/Amin Amir
Dabbaghian and Sanaz Solimany." International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR)
2.12 (2013): 280-284.
GONÇALVES, Davi Silva. "Snowball vs. Snowman: A dystopian bridge between George
Orwell’s Animal Farm and Margaret Atwood’s Oryx & Crake." Pensares em Revista 2
(2013).
Putra, Aldino Hartan, Abdillah Nugroho, and M. Hum. Dictatorship Of the Proletariat In
George Orwell’s Animal Farm Novel (1945): A Marxist Analysis. Diss. Universitas
Muhammadiyah Surakarta, 2019.