2.1.2
Snowball
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Snowball
Animal Farm is an allegory; all of the events and characters symbolise 20th century historical and political events.
5 key words
- Popular.
- Brave.
- Naïve.
- Noble.
- Scapegoat.
Intelligent and popular
- Snowball is intelligent and persuasive. He believes in and works towards making Animalism success. He commits himself to improving the animals in all ways.
- He is, to some extent, dishonest and hypocritical; he does not protest that the pigs unfairly have the milk and apples, while the other animals do not.
- He is popular, eloquent and persuasive. He can convince the animals to agree with him through the power of his speeches, even though they don’t always understand what he is saying.
Brave leader
- He is a good, strategic military leader. He is logical when it comes to defending the farm. However, he is naïve in other respects - he fails to notice his own hypocrisy in taking the apples and he does not appear to challenge Napoleon for taking the puppies.
- He is both brave and ruthless in battle and in defence of Animalism. He is clearly committed to his vision for Animal Farm and is willing to die for his beliefs.
Noble but idealistic
- Although Snowball takes the milk and apples, he is noble. He wants to improve the animals’ lives and works tirelessly, even though his plans often fail. He also wants to build the windmill so that the animals will eventually have more leisure time and a better quality of life.
- He is idealistic; his plans are often unachievable or unrealistic and therefore end in failure.
Scapegoat
- Napoleon’s nine dogs chase Snowball off the farm and thereafter Snowball is used as a scapegoat and blamed for anything that goes wrong on the farm.
- It is impossible to know whether Snowball would have been a good leader or whether he also would have been corrupted by power. It is possible because he did take the milk and apples and he did not oppose the class systems that appeared straight after the rebellion.
Context
- Snowball’s character represents Trotsky.
- Trotsky believed in the same communist ideas as Marx and Lenin.
- He was intelligent and led the Communists to victory in the Russian Civil War against Tsar Nicholas.
- Trotsky was violently pushed into exile by Stalin.
Snowball - Key Quotes
Here are a few key quotes concerning Snowball's character:
Intelligent and a good leader
- “Quicker in speech and more inventive”.
Brave and committed to Animalism
- “He himself dashed straight for Jones”.
Popular and eloquent
- “Snowball often won over the majority with his brilliant speeches".
Noble
- “Snowball conjured up pictures of fantastic machines”.
Scapegoat
- “In league with Jones from the very start”.
1Important Plot Features
2Characters & Their Links to History
2.1Key Characters
3Key Themes & Orwell's Purpose
4Language, Form & Structure
4.1Language, Form & Structure
5Recap: Main Quotes
5.1Characters Quotes
5.2Text Structure Quotes
Jump to other topics
1Important Plot Features
2Characters & Their Links to History
2.1Key Characters
3Key Themes & Orwell's Purpose
4Language, Form & Structure
4.1Language, Form & Structure
5Recap: Main Quotes
5.1Characters Quotes
5.2Text Structure Quotes
Practice questions on Snowball
Can you answer these? Test yourself with free interactive practice on Seneca — used by over 10 million students.
- 15 key words describing Snowball:Fill in the list
- 2Which historical figure does Snowball represent?Multiple choice
- 3Which of these are true of Snowball?True / false
- 4Why does Snowball want to build a windmill?Multiple choice
- 5Key quotes describing Snowball:Fill in the list
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