Skip to main content

In Animal Farm, Moses is allowed to return to the farm. What does he have to say? How do the animals respond?

Moses is a tame raven who lives on Manor Farm before the animals take over. Mr. Jones treats him like a pet and feeds him bread crusts, but most of the animals hate him because he does no useful work and produces nothing of value. He is known for being a spy and telling tales:



He claimed to know of the existence of a mysterious country called Sugarcandy Mountain, to which all animals went when they died. It was situated somewhere up in the sky, a little distance beyond the clouds, Moses said. In Sugarcandy Mountain it was Sunday seven days a week, clover was in season all the year round, and lump sugar and linseed cake grew on the hedges...



Although most of the animals resent him, some believe his stories about Sugarcandy Mountain. The pigs consider Sugarcandy Mountain to be a myth that is antithetical to the teachings of Animalism, and with some difficulty they manage to convince the other animals of this.


When the animals revolt, Moses flees with Mrs. Jones, and he is not seen again until the end of the novel, when he reappears spreading the same tales of Sugarcandy Mountain. The pigs still claim to loathe him, but they tolerate his presence and even give him a weekly ration. As for the others,



Many of the animals believed him. Their lives now, they reasoned, were hungry and laborious; was it not right and just that a better world should exist somewhere else?



The character of Moses represents religion, specifically the Russian Orthodox Church. The first communists believed that religion was a tool that the ruling class used to keep the lower classes in line, as expressed by Karl Marx in his famous statement that “religion is the opiate of the masses.” Just as the communists thought that the hope of heaven was a dream that kept the poor and downtrodden workers from trying to improve their lot on Earth, so the pigs thought that Moses’ “Sugarcandy Mountain” was a distraction from the work of creating an animal-run utopian farm. 


Once Napoleon has taken over and the pigs give up on an egalitarian utopia in favor of accumulating power and wealth, however, they allow Moses to return and preach a message that will give the animals hope despite their present situation. They keep and feed Moses just as Jones did, because he is useful to them, and because in many ways they have become just like Jones.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

etymology - Origin of the greeting "Sweet dreams".

Does anybody know the etymology of the phrase "sweet dreams"? I tried googling but did not find anything satisfying. Is this a relatively new phrase of the modern world or has this been in use for some time? I think it's the latter one. Answer The OED has the interjection as "a farewell to someone going to bed" from the 20th century: 1908 Sears Roebuck Catal. 198/1 Tenor Solos..Good Bye, Sweet Dreams, Good Bye. But it goes back until at least the 19th and possibly 18th centuries. John Wolcot, writing under the pseudonym of Peter Pindar, used it in his poem "Orson and Ellen; A Legendary Tale" published in 1801: Also from 1801 in The infernal Quixote (Page 287) by Charles Lucas: In the March 1776 of The Universal Magazine was published "The Serenade. A Pastoral Tale. From the German of Gesner" , where the shepherd Daphnis watches over his beloved as she sleeps and sings: The same tale appears in 1776's as Idyl XI, " Daphnis ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...
Post a Comment
Read more

What are the similarities between the relationships of the characters in The Outsiders and Romeo and Juliet?

At first glance, it might appear as if the characters in  The Outsiders  by S. E. Hinton and  Romeo and Juliet  by William Shakespeare do not have much in common; however, when one isolates the core of the conflicts, it becomes clear that the relationships in both stories are rooted in rivalry and secrecy.  In both  The Outsiders  and  Romeo and Juliet , an overarching theme is rivalry. While   socioeconomic status separates the greasers from the Socs in The Outsiders , last names separates the Montagues from the Capulets, who appear to be relatively equal in terms of socioeconomic status. Due to these rivalries, there are instances of deadly interactions in both stories. In  The Outsiders , Johnny kills Bob (whether his actions were justified or not is debatable). In  Romeo and Juliet , Romeo kills Tybalt and Paris, and Tybalt kills Mercutio. These deaths have profound effects on the main characters. In Ponyboy's case, the Johnny's death and other events in the novel inspire h...
Post a Comment
Read more