Another Lesson From Animal Farm.

Another lesson from Animal Farm.

One of my favorite characters from Animal Farm by George Orwell is the character Boxer. Boxer is an enormous Clydesdale and he is the hardest worker on the farm. His work ethic never falters. He inspires the other animals to keep going. Boxer goes above and beyond to do heavier work and longer hours. Every time the windmill is destroyed Boxer gets up earlier, stays out later, works harder on less, determined to see the project to completion. His personal maxims are “I will work harder” and “[Our Leader] is always right”. 

While all the animals work hard to sustain Animal Farm, all while the pigs in charge who sit back and make rules and supervise take the milk, the best apples, and greater food rations than anyone else on the farm. They convince the animals constantly through use of propaganda, manipulation, and fear tactics that their hard work and their reward of very little is patriotic, for the good of all, that they should take pride in how they are sustaining themselves on next to nothing, that they are indeed free animals working for themselves and not for humans - most of the animals are too poorly educated to understand how severely their “freedoms” are being controlled and manipulated. Most of them don’t understand that things are actually *worse off* than before they rebelled against the humans because the pig leaders are so good at manipulating them into nationalism. 

Anyway, that part of it is going off topic from what I want to say about Boxer specifically. 

Boxer ages throughout the story and his ceaseless hard work begins to take a toll but he presses on. His body is beginning to break down but he does not let that stop him. He starts to realize he may not be able to finish the project he has worked so hard to complete before his promised age of retirement. However he begins to look forward to simply completing as much as he can and that soon he will be able to rest in the lovely pasture that the pigs have promised for years to set aside for aging animals. He’ll get better rations. His hard work will be rewarded and he will be taken care of in his latter years.

But one day while Boxer is up before every other animal working hard and straining himself, sides heaving as he struggles to breathe, bloody foam around his muzzle, he collapses and cannot get up. His friend finds him and word is soon all over the farm that Boxer is not doing well.

Maybe Boxer who has been the backbone of the farm, constantly working hard, never giving up, will be allowed to retire early. He will be able to go to the nice pasture. He’ll be able to recover and heal from his work-induced injuries and fatigue. He will be honored and be able to live a nice retirement until he is gone. The pigs (leaders) have promised this after all.

The pigs lied.

The pigs use the pasture for themselves. 

The don’t give a shit. But they promise the animals that they will take care of good ol’ Boxer. They will send him away to a vet so he can get well and soon, Comrades, Boxer will be back and he’ll be healthy and able to continue work.

A truck comes to take Boxer away and his friends are all wishing him well he’s going to get medical help and he’ll be fine! The animals are stupid. They’re not educated. Most of them cannot read. Benjamin the Donkey can read. He sees the terrible words on the side of the truck.

Boxer is not being taken away to be helped. He’s not going to get medical care. He’s not going to get a nice retirement in a promised green pasture with sugar cubes and bright apples to reward him for his toil and contributions. 

Boxer is being taken to the glue factory.

He is of no use to the pigs any longer so they sold him away to his death.

They literally use the profit from Boxer’s body to buy alcohol for themselves and get drunk and have a grand old time if I recall correctly. 

Benjamin begins shouting at the other animals who are smiling and cheering as Boxer is carted off down the lane “FOOLS” and he tells them what the words on the truck say, and they all try to stop them, but it’s too late. Even after Boxer is gone the pigs fabricate a story that Boxer was taken to the vet and died while being as comfortable as possible. The vet had simply purchased the truck from a glue factory and had yet to repaint it. By now a lot of the animals are questioning the pigs, but a lot of them are also still accepting, and by now it is also largely too late.

Does this sound familiar?

By the way this and many other reasons is why I am always telling people to read this book. 

Anyway, Boxer isn’t a horse.

He is the poor and working class who bust their ass, work until they are in pain and exhausted day after day, still barely able to make ends meet, etc. But at least we’re supposed to have healthcare to help us, and social security, and our hard work is what keeps our country together! Working people are the backbone! We are strong! We are gritty and determined and inspirational because we keep going on through our struggles and hardship and wow we are so resilient! One day we can have a shiny red apple that was promised to us if we work hard enough. 

But no… we can’t afford a house, or even to pay bills, the healthcare we should be able to have access to is a lie–it is a glue cart sold to us as medicine. The pasture we may have dreamed of one day has been robbed of us. It’s not there. The Pigs Do Not Give A Fuck. 

They are selling us to the glue factory and people who are uneducated and unaware and taken in by nationalism and propaganda stand by wearing their MAGA hats and cheer as their peers are being taken to slaughter by greedy liars who have built their empire on the backs of working people. 

Read the fucking book and don’t be a fool.

Open your eyes.

Don’t let the Pigs sell you for glue.

All the Boxers and all of us deserve better than this kind of a story.

Fuck the Pigs. 

FUCK the Pigs.