Animal Farm – Elements Of Literature Essay, Research Paper

I believe that George Orwell used direct characterization to introduce his characters. For example when he introduced Old Major he said, ?he was twelve years old and had lately grown rather stout, but he was still a majestic looking pig, with a wise and benevolent appearance in spite of the fact that his tushes had never been cut?. Another example is when he introduced Snowball and Napoleon, there he said, ?Pre-eminent among the pigs were two young boats named Snowball and Na0oleaon, whom My. Jones was breeding up for sale. Napoleon was a large, rather fierce-looking Berkshire boar, the only Berkshire on the farm, not much of a talker, but with a reputation for getting his own way. Snowball was a more vivacious pig than Napoleon, quicker speech and more attentive, but was not considered to have the depth of character.? George Orwell also described them with their appearance before we actually saw them. We also learned somewhat about the characters by the speeches that they give; Old Major could be seen as the leader of the animals because everyone looked up to, in my thoughts he talked with power. In the book I feel that Snowball is the protagonist and Napoleon is the antagonist. Snowball was the likeable person among the animals also very admirable. The other animals looked up to him and not only because he was the leader. He put effort into the ideas that he and all the other animals came up with. He also worked with the animals and did not slack off because he was the leader. Napoleon on the other hand took advantage of his rank. He did not work with the other animals and broke all the rules. When this happened he made an excuse or changed the rule. For example the original commandment stated that ?No animal shall drink alcohol?, but after getting drunk the rule mysteriously changed to ?No animal shall drink alcohol in excess.? This and a few other rules that were changed are a few examples. The major commandment that he broke though was ?No animal shall kill any other animal?, but when he instructed his nine bodyguards to kill some geese, the rule mysteriously changed. The new rule stated that ?NO animal shall kill any other animal without cause.? At this point it shows that he really is an antagonist. I also feel that the humans were also antagonists, just of the fact how they treated the animals. The dynamic characters in the story would be, in my thoughts, Snowball, Napoleon, and the humans. Snowball changed in the story when he was chased away. And in Napoleons mind he changed even more. He supposedly changed so much that he began sabotaging the windmill and even destroying it, he also was blamed to milk the cows in their sleep and take the chickens eggs. Napoleon changed in a big way at the end of the story, he became a human. It was leading up to something like this just from the fact of his relations with them. The humans I believe are also dynamic characters because they too had a big change, at the end they became pigs. Pigs to humans, humans to pigs. This is how the story ended. And it ended up being a chain of events that never ended. Eventually Napoleon will get kicked out and it will all happen again. Being a dynamic character does not only mean changing though, it also means learning. During the story the pigs mainly learned how to do many things, but it was not only the pigs that learned, all the animals learned something. All of the pigs learned how to read and so did the other animals somewhat. Snowball learned about electricity, how to build buildings, and he also read a book on Julius Caesars war strategies and that his how he came up with the plan he used during the second confrontation with the humans. Napoleon learned how to make whiskey and beer at the end by buying books from Mr. Whymper. The static characters in the story would most of all be Squealer and Boxer. Throughout the whole book no matter what Squealer would always back Napoleon up or lie about him. When Napoleon became drunk and had a hangover Squealer said he was very ill and the animals should not worry that he was drinking alcohol. And before the animals new about the big change at the end of the book Squealer took the sheep and taught them the new maxim. Basically Squealer was Napoleons gopher. Boxer also never changed during the story. No matter who the leader was he kept working, he never stopped. Even when he was hurt he kept working non-stop up until the point when he could not work anymore. The flat character in the story would be Boxer because to sum him up all you would need to say is Boxer was an ignorant carthorse that was loyal and worked very hard. He was not too bright, we know this because he could not remember but up to five letters at a time; this defines the ignorant part. He was loyal to his leader no matter if it were Napoleon or Snowball; this defines the loyal part. And his ability to work overtime, such as one hour early each morning and one hour late each night. This shows how much of a hard worker he was. You really could also call Napoleon a flat character, because he only had one personality, one that thought of being a human. Napoleon could also be considered a round character by what we find out about him throughout the story. Being able to sum his personality up in one sentence and being able to write a page on his personality give him both of the characteristics in being a flat and round character. Another round character is Snowball; you cannot really sum up his whole personality because we do not know enough. But from what we do know Snowball was a good leader that was looked up to. He is also someone who would not take advantage of his position; he would do the same amount of work that any other animal would do.