Who Is The Smooth Talker In Animal Farm

One of the main leaders since the beginning of Orwell’s novel is Squealer -- a manipulative, deceitful, and undeniably persuasive pig. Given these traits, it comes as no surprise that his position in the triad of pigs (involving also Snowball and Napoleon) was the smooth talker and the voice to their final decisions. Frequently Squealer would read off the statistics of Animal Farms production in an effort to convince the animals that living conditions were actually better than they had been when Jones was in charge. When the animals found out that the pigs were drinking the milk from the cows, Squealer was quick to explain that the pigs needed to drink the milk to keep them healthy. His driving point on the topic was, “Surely you don’t want Jones to come back?” Squealer was able

to play on the dimmer intelligence of the other animals and convinced them that if anyone disagreed with the pig, Jones would surely come back. Furthermore, he continued to play on the animals stupidity or at least, their faulty memories as the seven commandments of animalism were slowly changed and removed. Squealer and the other pigs insisted that you could sleep in a bed as long as it didn’t have sheets, and drink alcohol as long as it wasn’t excessive, and so one through the commandments. With Squealer’s speeches and his persuasive skipping, no one saw any reason not to believe him, even when he was caught painting the changes to the commandments.
As a follower, Boxer was as devoted as they come.

His fierce loyalty and empathetic nature were admirable, yet they also led to his downfall. While there is no real danger in hard work there does come a point when one simply cannot work any harder. Boxer wanted to see the farm prosper so he would work extra hours and if he ever encountered a problem his solution was simply “I will work harder!” Even being of his own free will, Boxer eventually began to lose his freedom by committing to that motto because it bound him not only to the farm but it’s work. This also opened an opportunity for leaders such as Napoleon to eventually assign larger loads of work to Boxer for longer periods of time. Another motto of Boxer’s was “Napoleon is always right.” The problem with this is that no person is always right and the fact that he believed it gave multiple leaders the chance to abuse the power of those words. Napoleon justified slaughtering dozens of animals in front of their comrades. When Boxer spoke up against the action he was hushed by the statement that Napoleon had said to do so. Following the motto and being loyal as he was, Boxer determined that if Napoleon had said it, then it must be

true.