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Animal Farm

Characters

Animal Farm Moses Character Analysis

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Characters Animal Farm Moses Character Analysis

Moses, a tame raven and Mr. Jones’s pet, is disliked by the animals and looked at as a nuisance by the pigs. He is constantly telling stories of Sugarcandy Mountain, which is an after-life “heaven” for animals. Sugarcandy Mountain is mysterious because it offers a better life, but only after death. A life where it is Sunday seven days a week, there is food in abundance, and the animals are free to rest forever. In this regard, the pigs are right to be wary of Moses, as his tall tales work to subdue and placate Animal Farm with a fantasy of a better place.

Moses himself is skeptical of the pigs’ schemes as well as the Rebellion. Moses is given crusts of bread soaked in beer by Mr. Jones, and he hardly works. Moses doesn’t see what better life would be granted to him if the Rebellion succeeds. Thus, after the Rebellion is achieved, Moses disappears, but he eventually comes back years later. Though the pigs are still suspicious of Moses, they keep him around. The novella suggests that as the mouthpiece for divine law in the form of Sugarcandy Mountain, and religion in general, he serves a function on the farm to placate the possibility of any further rebellion against the pigs’ supremacy. Allegorically, Moses, representing the Russian Orthodox Church, symbolizes how dictators use religion (and their control of religion) for their own purposes.

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