Sugarcandy Mountain Summary

The russian orthodox church was granted many privileges by the Russian Czars before the fall of the Russian Empire, and had lots of power over the government and people. Many government officials were religious, and the religious leaders had lots of power. Once the final Czar was overthrown, and the Communists took charge of the country, there was a separation of religion and government, as the Communist leaders didn’t like religion and believed it was the opiate of the masses. The government drove out, killed, and sometimes even tortured religious leaders, and priests. They also launched massive propaganda campaigns against the church, and all other religions. The communist government didn’t allow the church to return in strength until 1941,

Moses, the Raven is on the farm, and away from the farm at times that correspond with when the Orthodox church is present or absent from the soviet union. He also believes in a place called Sugarcandy Mountain, which is an obvious representation of Heaven. “He claimed to know of the existence of a mysterious country called Sugarcandy Mountain, to which all animals went when they died”(Orwell 17-18). Heaven is a place people go when they die, and Sugarcandy Mountain is as well. Moses talks about how Sugarcandy Mountain is a place where it’s sunday everyday, sugar grows on hedges, and is all in all, a perfect place, just like heaven is. The final reason that Sugarcandy Mountain is heaven is that Moses said that Sugarcandy Mountain is a place somewhere in the sky, above the clouds, which is where the christian version of heaven is and is the literary version of heaven. Moses was also on the farm at times the corresponde perfectly with the times the Church was in the Soviet Union, and when being part of the Church was illegal. “In the middle of the summer Moses the raven suddenly reappeared on the farm, after an absence of several years”(Orwell 49). Moses had left at the beginning of the revolution, right when Mr. Jones, the Czar, left the farm, just like the Orthodox Church left Russia right as