Boxer, Blind Loyalty, and the Betrayal of the Working Class

Right, so if Animal Farm is an allegory for the Soviet Union, with Napoleon as Stalin and Snowball as Trotsky, Boxer represents the proletariat? Spot on. Specifically, the ordinary, uneducated working classes of early twentieth-century Russia. After the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, the Soviet state relied on the sheer physical labour of millions of workers. They were the ones building the dams, the railways, and the factories. Just like Boxer building the windmill. Precisely. Boxer hauling those boulders up the quarry parallels Stalin's Five-Year Plans. The state set impossibly high production quotas, and workers were expected to break their backs meeting them. But didn't workers rebel when things got too hard? Some did, and they were crushed. But many others bought into the propaganda. Have you ever heard of the Stakhanovites? Stakhanovites? No. What were they? In 1935, a Soviet miner called Alexei Stakhanov was reported to have mined fourteen times his coal quota in a single shift. The propaganda machine turned him into a national hero overnight. Work harder, produce more, sacrifice yourself for the glory of the state. So Boxer is basically Orwell's Stakhanov. Exactly. And notice the animal Orwell chooses: a cart-horse. A beast of burden. Born to pull weight. Blinkers on. Blinkers on. A cart-horse is powerful, but its power is directed by whoever holds the reins. Boxer has immense strength, but because he lacks political education, he cannot direct it for himself. He lets the pigs hold the reins. Orwell admired the decency and work ethic of the working class. But he was also terrified of what happens when decent people do not have the education to question their leaders. Boxer's loyalty and dedication become exactly the qualities the pigs weaponise against him.

That brings us to Boxer's maxims. Whenever things get tough, he falls back on two slogans: "I will work harder" and "Napoleon is always right." Yes. Let's unpack them. Why these phrases? "I will work harder" comes first, right after the rebellion. It shows his sense of responsibility. If something goes wrong, he assumes he just needs to put in more effort. It is a noble impulse. But in a totalitarian regime, taking all the blame yourself is dangerous. If the windmill falls down, the pigs never have to admit their planning was flawed. Boxer simply vows to wake up an hour earlier. So his work ethic actually covers for the pigs' failures. Exactly. And the second maxim is even darker. "Napoleon is always right" is not about effort. It is about surrendering judgement. Whenever Boxer gets confused by Squealer's propaganda, the slogan gives him a shortcut. He does not have to think it through; he can just stop thinking. Brilliant. Orwell is obsessed with the relationship between language and thought. Boxer's slogans become a form of self-imposed thought control. Squealer's lies are full of tactics, readjustments, and fake statistics. They give Boxer a headache. It is easier to say, "If Comrade Napoleon says it, it must be right." It's almost a coping mechanism. If he admits Napoleon might be wrong, he has to admit the whole revolution was a failure. Exactly. And during the purges, Boxer is horrified, but he still retreats into labour. Then comes the crucial moment: Napoleon's dogs attack Boxer, and Boxer pins one of them beneath his hoof. He has the power to crush the dog, and with it the regime's secret police. But instead, he looks to Napoleon for permission. That is Boxer's tragedy in a single image. He has the strength to end the terror, yet his loyalty hands that strength back to the tyrant.

His lungs give out. He collapses hauling stone for the windmill. He is twelve years old. His coat is dull, his great flanks have shrunken, and he has worked himself to the bone for Animal Farm. Squealer announces that Napoleon is sending him to a human hospital in Willingdon. Which is a lie. A monstrous lie. Boxer lies in his stall looking forward to retirement. He even hopes to spend his final years learning the rest of the alphabet. Then a closed van arrives. The animals are in the fields. Benjamin, cynical silent Benjamin, comes galloping towards them, braying at the top of his voice. It is the only time in the novel we see him show open panic. He reads the writing on the van. "Alfred Simmonds, Horse Slaughterer and Glue Boiler." The knacker's van. They are sending Boxer to the glue factory. The animals chase it. They scream at Boxer to get out. And Boxer, dear loyal Boxer, finally understands. He kicks at the sides of the van. But he has no strength left. The drumming of his hooves grows fainter, and then dies away. He is never seen again. It is the ultimate betrayal. He gave them everything, and they sold his body for profit. And Orwell twists the knife further. A few days later, Squealer claims Boxer died praising Napoleon, and soon after a crate of whisky arrives at the farmhouse. The pigs drink away the money earned from selling the farm's most loyal worker. They literally consume the working class they claimed to liberate.

So, when you write about Boxer in an essay, do not settle for character summary. Think about function. He is a tragic symbol. He represents the exploited working class, but he also represents the danger of unquestioning loyalty. Exactly. Orwell is not attacking Boxer. He loves Boxer's decency, humility, and work ethic. The anger of the novel is aimed at the pigs who exploit those virtues. But there is a warning there too. A huge warning. Decency and hard work are not enough to protect a society from tyranny. If you outsource your judgement to a slogan like "Napoleon is always right", you help build the machinery that will destroy you. Boxer's tragedy is that he builds the windmill, but never gets to enjoy the world it was meant to create. He becomes a monument to every worker ground down by the system they helped build. And that brings us to the end of today's deep dive into Animal Farm. If you can bring that combination of tragedy, political irony, and symbolic meaning into your essays, you will be well on your way to top marks. I'll definitely work harder on my next essay. Just make sure you do your own thinking along the way. Thank you for listening. Be sure to check the show notes for further resources, practice questions, and more literary analysis. Until next time, keep reading, and keep questioning.