The Danger Of An Intelligent Working Class

Hannah Dinwiddie
English II
Period 8
17 February 2017

Title: The importance of education and the danger of an intelligent working class
Imagine this, you wake up and find yourself in the 1920’s, when Joseph Stalin was a leader. You try to go back asleep and wake up back in your own time but you are stuck. It is an endless nightmare. George Orwell describes this situation in a more simple way by using animals instead of humans in his novel Animal Farm. In the beginning of the novel Old Major, an old pig, gave a speech about how they were going to overthrow the humans and run the farm without the help of any human. Squealer and Napoleon (the pigs) use their education to rule over the animals and create the 7 commandments that eventually they
would all ignore. Boxer, a horse, who is the most devoted worker in the farm has great dedication and is Napoleon's most enthusiastic supporter.
Clover is an mare who acts like an motherly figure to the animals and is Boxer good friend. The sheep (who have no names) blindly follow Napoleon's every command. The importance of education and the danger of an intelligent working class is demonstrated in the novel Animal Farm by George Orwell through the characterization of Boxer, the sheeps and the pigs.

Boxer who symbolizes the working class represents the danger of the uneducated animals through how Napoleon deceives Boxer. This is one of the first times Boxer realizes that it is important to be educated, “‘I do not believe that,’ he said. ‘Snowball fought bravely at the Battle of the Cowshed. I saw him myself. Did we not give him Animal Hero, First Class, immediately afterwards?’ ‘That was our mistake, conrade. For we know now-it is all written down in the secret documents that we have found - that in reality he was trying to lure us to our doom.’ ‘But he was wounded,’ said Boxer. ‘ We all saw him running with blood.’ ‘That was part of the arrangement!’ cried
Squealer. ‘Jones’s shot only grazed him. I could show you this in his own writing, if you were able to read it.”’ (Orwell 31).Since Boxer did not know how to read, he could not prove that Snowball was not a traitor. Napoleon was trying to brainwash Boxer into thinking that Snowball planned for the battle to go down the way it did and that he purposely had Jones's graze him with a bullet. Squealer started twisting the truth about how the battle actually went down and he described it with a lot of details that the animals started to “remember” that Snowball was actually trying to help Jones win the battle. Boxer also realizes that it is important to be educated when he was sold,“‘Alfred Simmonds, Horse Slaughterer and Glue Boiler, Willingdon. Dealer in Hides and Bone-Meal. Kennels Supplied.’ Do you not understand what that means? They are taking Boxer to the knacker’s!’” (Orwell 47).If Boxer was educated and knew how to read then he would have realized that he was going to be sold to the horse slaughterer. Napoleon still sold Boxer even though he was one of the hardest working and most dedicated follower to Napoleon.Boxer demonstrates that it is important to be educated through Snowball being a traitor and how Boxer was sold to an horse slaughterer.

The sheep who symbolize the people who follow the government blindly represent the importance of education through how they are controlled by Napoleon. This is one of the ways the sheep were tricked because they were not properly educated: “Of late the sheep had taken to bleating ‘Four legs good, two legs bad’ both in and out of season, and they often interrupted the Meeting with this. It was noticed that they were especially liable to break into ‘Four legs good, two legs bad’ at crucial moments in Snowball’s speeches” (Orwell, 19). Napoleon taught the sheep to chant the motto, four legs good, two legs bad so that he could get his way against Snowball or anyone else by having the sheep say it over and over again, until they get tired or forget what they were going to say.Napoleon used the sheep to get what they wanted: “But just at that moment, as though at a signal, all the sheep burst out into a tremendous bleating of - ‘Four legs good, two legs better! Four legs good, two legs better! Four legs good, two legs better!’” (Orwell, 5l). In preparation for the pigs walking on their hind legs Squealer brought the sheeps to an empty field and taught them a new chant. Once the pigs started walking on two legs the sheep chanted their brainwashed song, four legs good, two legs better over and over again to stop the animals from questioning the commandment which said whatever goes on two legs is an enemy.The Sheep demonstrate that it is important to be educated through being brainwashed into saying both of the chant or songs.

The pigs are another way the importance of education and the danger of an intelligent working class is demonstrated. This is how Napoleon always got his way from here and out: “When they had finished their confession, the dogs promptly tore their throats out, and in a terrible voice Napoleon demanded whether any other animal had anything to confess” (Orwell 33). “It ran: ‘No animal shall kill any other animal without cause.’” (Orwell 35). After Napoleon concluded that Snowball was a traitor everyone started confessing to doing different things that Snowball told them to do. Then Napoleon had his army of dogs kill all of those who confessed. Napoleon then had the 6th commandment changed from “No animal shall kill any other animal” to “No animal shall kill any other animal without cause”. This then brainwashed them to believe that they forgot the last two words of the commandment and that there was a cause to the killing. This is how the pigs brainwashed the animals to think whatever they want them to think: “They had thought the Fifth Commandment was ‘No animal shall drink alcohol,’ but there were two words that they had forgotten. Actually the Commandment read: ‘No animal shall drink alcohol to excess.’” (Orwell 42).The first time Napoleon drank he got so sick the next morning and everyone thought he was dying (it was really just a hangover). When Boxer died Napoleon used the money that he said went to all Boxers expensive hospital bills to buy a case of whiskey. The pigs demonstrate the danger of an intelligent working class through changing the laws to benefit them.
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Conclusion (you must write at least 6 sentences)
Boxer, the sheep, and the pigs all demonstrate the importance of education and the danger of an intelligent working class in George Orwell’s novel Animal Farm.
At the end of the novel the pigs are together in a room with a bunch of the neighboring farms, laughing, singing, playing card games and drinking beer. The pigs have become just like the humans. Some of the animals who were watching could not even tell the difference from the pigs and the humans. Both Napoleon and Mr. Pilkington made a big long speech and Napoleon ended up changing the name of the farm from Animal Farm back to Manor Farm.If the animals would have put the time and effort into learning the alphabet then Napoleon would not have gained so much power and they could have stood up to Napoleon when he changed the
commandments.