Animal+Farm+Chapter+9

Animal Farm Chapter IX

**__ Summary __** Animal farm becomes a republic with Napoleon the president. Boxer collapses one day and is sent to the slaughterhouse. The pigs are able to afford whiskey while the animals are starving.

__**Characters**__ > > > >
 * Benjamin tries to rally the animals to save Boxer, but it is already too late. This represents the intellectuals of Soviet Russia that could see what was happening from the start, but didn't do anything until it was too late.
 * Boxers split hoof shows how damaged the working class is in Russia at the time.
 * Boxer's dissapperence shows how the Russain government is turning on its lower class.
 * Napoleon becoming the republican president shows how much power Stalin is getting over Russia.
 * [[image:http://in-humanity.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/horse-slaughter-patition.jpg]]

__**Event Parallels**__
 * Command Economy is examplified in the book when the pigs are allowed beer and extra food. In a command economy the higher group that decides on what the people do in Russia were given more benefits.
 * Animal Farm becoming a republic parallels how Soviet Russia claimed to be a republic (USSR). In a true republic people elect officials that make decisions for the country, but in Russia Stalin was the only candidate, therefore there was no real choice. Russia was really a totalitarian government. The government controlled what the people did instead of the other way around.
 * Moses's being allowed to stay on the farm without working parallels the Soviet ideology that religion is the opiate of the masses and that religion should be used to exploit the daze of the working class.
 * Boxer's broken hoof and appearance changing parallels the war when Germany invaded Russia and killed millions of Russians. Germany hurt the Russian working class because they destroyed their farms and killed the peasants.
 * Boxer's fall and sending to the horse slaughterer at old age parallels a decline in hard working communist members. It also shows the ruling class's disregard for the working class and how they will use anything to do better for the farm, even if it means killing off their own members in order to prevent them from eating. In the beginning of the book Old Major says that Jones would sell Boxer to the knackers as soon as he wasn't useful. The pigs only took the place of the oppressors instead of making life better for the animals.

** __Important Quotes__ ** "They found it comforting to be reminded that, after all, they were truly their own masters and that the work they did was for their own benefit. So that, what with the songs, the processions, Squealer's list of figures, the thunder of the gun, the crowing of the cockerel, and the fluttering of the flag, they were able to forget that their bellies were empty, at least part of the time." (page 116) This shows that the propaganda the pigs used worked in that it made the other animals believe that they were serving themselves when really the pigs were taking most of the crops for themselves just like Jones did. This is very similar to the effect of Stalin's demonstrations, posters and constant barrage of patriotism. In "Summary of the Fulfillment of the First Five-Year Plan for the Development of the National Economy of U.S.S.R. " there were misleading statistics like Squealer's list of figures that made it seem like food production was higher even though the people were starving. Little attention was paid to the quality of what was produced.

"You, Boxer, the very day that those great muscles of yours lose their power, Jones will sell you to the knacker, who will cut your throat and boil you down for the fox-hounds." (page 9) Under Stalin's command Russia became just as bad as it was before the revolution. One of the reasons the Tsar was overthrown was his lack of regard for the lives of his people. When Boxer really is sold to the knacker it violates the promises that got him to revolt in the first place. Stalin made promises to people that he occupied that were not kept. Among these was the promise of free elections for Poland. This got him support in an important part of the Soviet Union, but he always really intended to have a regimen friendly to himself in Poland.

"'Don't take your own brother to his death!' But the stupid brutes, too ignorant to realise what was happening, merely set back their ears and quickened their pace." (page 123) The horses in this book represent a working class that actually provided the power for the revolution to happen but then just followed blindly and submissively. Orwell blamed, at least partially, the working class for allowing Stalin to do terrible things.

http://www.jstor.org/pss/1824895 http://www.fsmitha.com/h2/ch24cld.html