Leon trotsky: snowball
In the novel Animal Farm, the character Snowball is portrayed by Russian Marxism revolutionary, Leon Trotsky.
Leon Trotsky was born in a prosperous Jewish family in 1879, Yelizavetgard. Until now, he is widely known as the man that got defeated by Stalin. He was born under the rules of the Czar in Soviet Russia and studied in a Marxism school when he was young. He then became a political figure at the beginning of the Russian Revolution by tearing down the czarist autocracy. When Lenin was appointed as the head leader of the Soviet Council, he was the commissioner for foreign affairs. Nonetheless, he retired after a while due to disagreements he had with Lenin towards the peace negotiation with Nazi, Germany. Later on, he led the “Red Army” into victory during the Russian Civil war. After the victory, Trotsky immediately became the second leader of the country. Nonetheless, as Stalin’s forces gained momentum after Lenin’s death in 1924, Trotsky was utterly defeated by Joseph Stalin and was then forced to exile the country. In 1940, Trotsky was assassinated by Ramon Mercader under’s Stalin’s order. (Wikipedia, 2013)
Where did the name "Snowball" came from in Animal Farm? As opposed to how the name “Napoleon” came with Stalin, the name “Snowball” is used to reflect on Trotsky’s belief of the “Snowball effect” and how it should spread around the world to benefit the society. (Shmoop, 2008)
What is the connection between such character in the novel when compared to real life? In Animal farm, Snowball was an influential character to other animals as most of them looked up to him in the beginning of the novel. Like Snowball, Trotsky was has always been looked up to and people loves his leadership as he only does things that would be beneficial to the society. They were both very skillful at wars that could be displayed in the victory at the beginning of the novel when Snowball led the animals to fight against the human while Trotsky was the leader of “Red Army” and won the Russian Civil War. After the war, both Snowball and Trotsky became an influential character and essential leader to the society. Trotsky then proposed a five year plan which were meant to benefit the country while Snowball proposed the idea of a windmill where they write all their rules in it. Nonetheless, both of them failed to keep in power and was defeated by their enemies, respectively Stalin (Trotsky) and Napoleon (Snowball).
In the end, both Snowball and Trotsky got exiled from the farm/country, and they went live and work on their own. Napoleon then manipulates facts and discredited him on his victory bacl in the “Battle of Cowshed” and convinced others that he was sided with the humans and declared him as an an enemy. Snowball was then pronounced then after a very long time. Similarly, Stalin convinced others that Trotsky was not beneficial for the country. Nevertheless, Trotsky did not entirely lost his power immediately after he got exiled like Snowball did in the novel, instead, his power only slowly and gradually decreased over time as Stalin’s status increases. Moreover, Napoleon later on approved the windmill project that were proposed by Snowball earlier on just like how Stalin took the idea of the Five year plan proposed by Trotsky.
In the beginning of the book, Orwell has clearly shown that Snowball was amongst one of the leaders, since the pigs was considered as smart and supreme species in the farm. Like Trotsky, Snowball was the only one that stood up agains Napoleon (Stalin), the fact that he lost the leadership battle against Napoleon makes it very clear that he represents the character of Trotsky in the Russian Revolution. Nevertheless, I don’t think that Orwell represented Trotsky fully by representing him as a pig. This is because the characteristics and qualities of a pig does more suit Stalin instead of Trotsky because this could confuse the readers about whether the author is criticizing against Trotsky or Stalin because they are represented by the same species. In my personal opinion, Trotsky does not have similar attributes as Stalin because unlike Stalin, Trotsky really care about the people and try to do whatever that is beneficial towards them while Stalin only cares about the issues that might affect his standing and his control over the country. However, by using the name “Snowball”, Orwell might be trying to deliver a message to the readers saying that even though Trotsky has some pig characteristics in terms of his arrogant and bossy personality, however he is a clean polititian and only does what is good for the country.
Shmoop. (n.d.) Napoleon (a pig). Retrieved April 10, 2013, from http://www.shmoop.com/animal-farm/napoleon-pig.html
Wikipedia (2013) Leon Trotsky. Retrieved April 10, 2013, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Trotsky
Leon Trotsky was born in a prosperous Jewish family in 1879, Yelizavetgard. Until now, he is widely known as the man that got defeated by Stalin. He was born under the rules of the Czar in Soviet Russia and studied in a Marxism school when he was young. He then became a political figure at the beginning of the Russian Revolution by tearing down the czarist autocracy. When Lenin was appointed as the head leader of the Soviet Council, he was the commissioner for foreign affairs. Nonetheless, he retired after a while due to disagreements he had with Lenin towards the peace negotiation with Nazi, Germany. Later on, he led the “Red Army” into victory during the Russian Civil war. After the victory, Trotsky immediately became the second leader of the country. Nonetheless, as Stalin’s forces gained momentum after Lenin’s death in 1924, Trotsky was utterly defeated by Joseph Stalin and was then forced to exile the country. In 1940, Trotsky was assassinated by Ramon Mercader under’s Stalin’s order. (Wikipedia, 2013)
Where did the name "Snowball" came from in Animal Farm? As opposed to how the name “Napoleon” came with Stalin, the name “Snowball” is used to reflect on Trotsky’s belief of the “Snowball effect” and how it should spread around the world to benefit the society. (Shmoop, 2008)
What is the connection between such character in the novel when compared to real life? In Animal farm, Snowball was an influential character to other animals as most of them looked up to him in the beginning of the novel. Like Snowball, Trotsky was has always been looked up to and people loves his leadership as he only does things that would be beneficial to the society. They were both very skillful at wars that could be displayed in the victory at the beginning of the novel when Snowball led the animals to fight against the human while Trotsky was the leader of “Red Army” and won the Russian Civil War. After the war, both Snowball and Trotsky became an influential character and essential leader to the society. Trotsky then proposed a five year plan which were meant to benefit the country while Snowball proposed the idea of a windmill where they write all their rules in it. Nonetheless, both of them failed to keep in power and was defeated by their enemies, respectively Stalin (Trotsky) and Napoleon (Snowball).
In the end, both Snowball and Trotsky got exiled from the farm/country, and they went live and work on their own. Napoleon then manipulates facts and discredited him on his victory bacl in the “Battle of Cowshed” and convinced others that he was sided with the humans and declared him as an an enemy. Snowball was then pronounced then after a very long time. Similarly, Stalin convinced others that Trotsky was not beneficial for the country. Nevertheless, Trotsky did not entirely lost his power immediately after he got exiled like Snowball did in the novel, instead, his power only slowly and gradually decreased over time as Stalin’s status increases. Moreover, Napoleon later on approved the windmill project that were proposed by Snowball earlier on just like how Stalin took the idea of the Five year plan proposed by Trotsky.
In the beginning of the book, Orwell has clearly shown that Snowball was amongst one of the leaders, since the pigs was considered as smart and supreme species in the farm. Like Trotsky, Snowball was the only one that stood up agains Napoleon (Stalin), the fact that he lost the leadership battle against Napoleon makes it very clear that he represents the character of Trotsky in the Russian Revolution. Nevertheless, I don’t think that Orwell represented Trotsky fully by representing him as a pig. This is because the characteristics and qualities of a pig does more suit Stalin instead of Trotsky because this could confuse the readers about whether the author is criticizing against Trotsky or Stalin because they are represented by the same species. In my personal opinion, Trotsky does not have similar attributes as Stalin because unlike Stalin, Trotsky really care about the people and try to do whatever that is beneficial towards them while Stalin only cares about the issues that might affect his standing and his control over the country. However, by using the name “Snowball”, Orwell might be trying to deliver a message to the readers saying that even though Trotsky has some pig characteristics in terms of his arrogant and bossy personality, however he is a clean polititian and only does what is good for the country.
Shmoop. (n.d.) Napoleon (a pig). Retrieved April 10, 2013, from http://www.shmoop.com/animal-farm/napoleon-pig.html
Wikipedia (2013) Leon Trotsky. Retrieved April 10, 2013, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Trotsky