Snowball (Animal Farm)

Snowball is a fictional pig in the book Animal Farm written by George Orwell. Together with the pig Napoleon, he leads the animals' revolt against the human farmer, but is driven away from the farm (a comparison to the Russian government) by his former comrade Napoleon in the later part of the story. Unlike Napoleon, he has the best interests of the animals in mind. He is most attuned to the thinking of Old Major (whose role resembles that of Lenin or perhaps Marx and Engels). He devotes himself to bettering the animals in intellectual, moral and physical ways. His role on the farm bears a significant and intended resemblance to the role of Leon Trotsky in the early Soviet Union.

Snowball was actively changing Animal Farm, and though not all of his ideas worked very efficiently, they at least helped to make Animal Farm a better place. Like Trotsky, Snowball was exiled after Napoleon seizes power by force, modeled after Stalin. After Snowball is exiled, he is used as a political pawn and blamed for various things that go wrong on the farm. For example, he is blamed for weeds springing up in the crop because he supposedly mixed weed seeds into the wheat seeds under the cover of night. He is also blamed for the destruction of the windmill the animals had created, though as a pig he probably didn't have the capabilities to destroy such a thick windmill. Other animals make false confessions (an idea Orwell expands in 1984) saying they helped him in his "nightly visits" and are executed brutally in public. There is never a sure confirmation that Snowball is alive or dead, but he was possibly killed by Napoleon's agents.

Snowball's ideas

Snowball believes in a continued revolution (he argued that in order to defend Animal Farm that the animals should stir up rebellions everywhere) and continued striving for the betterment of the Animal Farm. He tries to accomplish this through many failed committees, like the Cleaner Tails Organization for the cows and various other committees. Snowball and Napoleon were political enemies from the start, and Napoleon always seemed to disagree with Snowball's ideas. When Snowball thought that instirring more revolutions on other farms would protect Animal Farm from harm (similar to Trotsky's idea of Permanent Revolution), Napoleon thought of learning to use firearms and other more advanced weapons. When Snowball actively converted the animals into groups of committees (even if they were failures), Napoleon simply stated that the education of the young was all that was needed.

Snowball also writes the first version of the Seven Commandments, which is later altered by Squealer under the orders of Napoleon.

The windmill

When Snowball finally comes up with his brilliant idea of the windmill which was supposed to leave the animals with a 3 day work week, Napoleon immediately counters such an idea by expressing his opinion that there would be food shortages and that the windmill wouldn't work (though he doesn't provide any ideas of his own). The windmill design was drawn from various books which previously belonged to Mr. Jones.

Exile

Snowball was exiled by Napoleon during a vote on the windmill. Snowball's enthusiasm had carried him away in creating the plans for a new windmill which he claimed could provide electricity for the entire farm, allowing hot-water showers and a three-day week. Napoleon's concise speech was composed of several sentences telling the animals to vote against the windmill. Snowball's eloquence quickly persuades the animals to join his cause.

However, before a vote could take place Napoleon ordered his nine puppies which had now grown fully into vicious dogs to chase Snowball out of the farm. He then assumed total control and discontinued the Sunday meetings.

Snowball's exile was similar to that of Leon Trotsky's. Trotsky was exiled by Stalin when Stalin was in power, being as Trotsky was a political opponent to Stalin.

Blaming Snowball

Harry is the master, urging the humans during the Battle of the Cowshed to attack the animals, replacing the corn seeds with the seeds of weeds, and other horrible things. This results in the killing of many animals who confessed to various crimes related with Snowball's "activities". (The killing is a parallel to the Great Purge started by Stalin in 1936 when he tries and executes many of his political adversaries using forced false confessions.)

Napoleon used Snowball as a scapegoat for pretty much anything bad that happened following Snowball's departure from the farm.