He is very cynical, he seldom talks and never laughs.Boxer's death doesn't exactly cheer up the old donkey. In fact, he's "more morose and taciturn than ever" (10.2). When the other animals want to know whether things were better before or after the rebellion, he replies with a characteristically cynical answer, "things never had been, nor ever could be much better or much worse—hunger, hardship, and disappointment being, so he said, the unalterable law of life" (10.6). Does Benjamin blame himself? Does he think that if he'd spoken up sooner, none of this would have happened?
Maybe—especially if you think (like Morris Dickinson) that Benjamin has a touch of Orwell in him. We'd buy it: he's definitely got the philosophical and distant air that Orwell's narrator adopts. But there's a crucial difference. Orwell speaks out against the injustices he sees, instead of just letting them unfold for his own twisted sense of humor.
The only time he seems to care about the others at all is when Boxer is carried off in the glue truck. It's almost as if the old donkey finally comes out of his shell, his perfectly fitted demeanour, when he tries to warn the others of Boxer's fate. And the animals do try to rescue Boxer, but it's too late. Benjamin seems to be finally confronting Napoleon and revealing his knowledge of the pigs' hypocrisy, although before he had been completely independent. After the animals have forgotten Jones and their past lives, Benjamin still remembers everything. Orwell states, "Only old Benjamin professed to remember every detail of his long life and to know that things never had been, nor ever could be much better or much worse; hunger, hardship, and disappointment being, so he said, the unalterable law of life.
He is very cynical, he seldom talks and never laughs.Boxer's death doesn't exactly cheer up the old donkey. In fact, he's "more morose and taciturn than ever" (10.2). When the other animals want to know whether things were better before or after the rebellion, he replies with a characteristically cynical answer, "things never had been, nor ever could be much better or much worse—hunger, hardship, and disappointment being, so he said, the unalterable law of life" (10.6). Does Benjamin blame himself? Does he think that if he'd spoken up sooner, none of this would have happened?Maybe—especially if you think (like Morris Dickinson) that Benjamin has a touch of Orwell in him. We'd buy it: he's definitely got the philosophical and distant air that Orwell's narrator adopts. But there's a crucial difference. Orwell speaks out against the injustices he sees, instead of just letting them unfold for his own twisted sense of humor.The only time he seems to care about the others at all is when Boxer is carried off in the glue truck. It's almost as if the old donkey finally comes out of his shell, his perfectly fitted demeanour, when he tries to warn the others of Boxer's fate. And the animals do try to rescue Boxer, but it's too late. Benjamin seems to be finally confronting Napoleon and revealing his knowledge of the pigs' hypocrisy, although before he had been completely independent. After the animals have forgotten Jones and their past lives, Benjamin still remembers everything. Orwell states, "Only old Benjamin professed to remember every detail of his long life and to know that things never had been, nor ever could be much better or much worse; hunger, hardship, and disappointment being, so he said, the unalterable law of life.
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