Characteristics:

• Idealist- guided more by what is ideal then practical considerations.

• Wise

• Persuasive

• Respected

Power and Corruption

Old Major taught the animals that humans are corrupt, however, Old Major’s vision is flawed because all creatures desire power and are thus capable of becoming corrupt. Old Major says that they must not resemble man but yet at the end of the novel “The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.”

Context

Old major’s principals represent Marx and Lenin’s (communist part) political ideas. They believed that a worker’s revolution would overthrow the Tsar and end inequality.

Quotes

Views on Man- “ Remove man from the scene and the root cause of hunger and overwork is abolished forever” . “ The produce of our labourers is stolen from us by human beings”

Utopian View- “ No animal must ever tyrannise over his own kind”

Desires Equality- “ Let there be perfect unity, perfect comradeship”