Boxer: A Signifier

By Anji, 13, Crossroads Academy, Lyme, NH

An allegory is a work which uses characters and events to signify themes and figures beyond the text. George Orwell’s Animal Farm is rich with descriptive and detailed allegorical figures hidden under the depth of an unreal fantasy. The signifiers in the story allude to characters and events in the Russian Revolution, Czarist Russia, and even the French Revolution.! The story includes faithful and unfaithful animals who rebel against their farmer but realize that revolution is not so carefree as it seems. Backstabbers, betrayals, and brutalities all take place in this daring novel.

One character who has a strong purpose is Boxer. Boxer is a muscular and athletic horse who was young and rather stupid during the farmer’s reign. However, though he remained illiterate throughout the text, he pledged his loyalty to the reigning leaders after the rebellion and worked harder than anybody else, learning beyond his capacity and putting his best efforts into everything. Yet, we are only skimming the deep waters that are Animal Farm, only touching the tip of the iceberg. Is Boxer just a horse–albeit a faithful horse–or is he more? Is George Orwell meaning to make a character who follows but does nothing else or is he trying to warn readers about an underlying enemy?

Boxer, in the mind of George Orwell, is really a signifier who represents the proletariat, or working class, of Russia. They, mistreated and malnourished, are the first to rebel, and the most enthusiastic. After said rebellion, they feel a sense of victory, but in the end, they are the ones being tricked, being the oppressed yet again. Boxer is the valued citizen in the climax, doing most of the work, but in the end, climbing into a truck with a brutal destination after being told to enter, he is betrayed yet again, and all his hard work, all his help, all his loyalty . . . he has lost this endless game being played by the aristocratic society. They have pulled these strings, fashioned the puppets, and he is placed so precariously, with such a sense of surety, and yet he can never win.

George Orwell added a subtitle to his works: “A Fairy Story.” He was so brilliant, well aware that his social criticism could get him in trouble – so, to protect himself and others, and to warn those worthy of learning, he has created this brilliant network of allegories that encompasses the story like a spider’s web. So, when you open Animal Farm, try to look beyond the simple story and find the symbols and signifiers beneath.