Examples Of Conformism In Animal Farm

A conformist is a follower, someone who does not break the rules. Someone like Boxer from the novel, Animal Farm. Boxer can be marked a conformist due to the fact that he follows authority figures blindly and does his leaders’ biddings. Boxer has many friends because of his loyalty and work ethic, but in the end of his life, it no longer matters. The opposite of a conformist is a non-conformist or someone who is different than most people and does not stick with tradition. An example of this would be Esmeralda from Victor Hugo’s, The Hunchback of Notre dame. She was a gypsy, something that was looked down upon in France during this time. She never had someone in her life besides the men who wanted to sleep with her because she was so beautiful (though she did not want to sleep with them)
“Boxer was the admiration of everybody. He had been a hard worker even in Jones’s time…”(Orwell, 29). By working hard, even with an abusive leader, he showed his loyalty and his ability to follow authority figures blindly. This soon leads to his downfall where he is sent to the knackers since he is ill and can no longer work. The knackers is where livestock is taken when they die or are close to death and turned into glue and other utilities. Even though Boxer did all he could to help Animal Farm in life and stayed true to Napoleon, he was sent to a horrible place and killed. Boxer spent the end of his life in agony and did not get a just ending. He had many friends and admirers but it did not help him in the end. He worked so hard and trusted people whole heartedly. “And from then on he adopted the maxim, Napoleon is always right.” (Orwell. 56) This quote explains how Boxer was kind of like a child, he expected Napoleon, his leader, to never do anything wrong and to know what was right nonstop. Boxer was a strong asset to the well being and success of animal farm making him an asset to Napoleon until Boxer could no longer help