A donkey, one of the oldest, wisest animals on the farm, and one of the few who can read properly. He is skeptical, temperamental and cynical: his most frequent remark is, "Life will go on as it has always gone on—that is, badly."[21] The academic Morris Dickstein has suggested there is "a touch of Orwell himself in this creature's timeless skepticism"[22] and indeed, friends called Orwell "Donkey George", "after his grumbling donkey Benjamin, in Animal Farm.