Animal Farm - Mindmap

Animal Farm - Mindmap

1. Opening Scene

   • The two cart-horses, Boxer and Clover, came in together, walking very slowly and setting down their vast hairy hoofs with great care lest there should be some small animal concealed in the straw.
   • First mention of Boxer

2. Exit from Novel

   • Tired himself making him unwell, and unable to work
     • “Boxer has fallen! He is lying on his side and can’t get up!”
     • “It is my lung,” said Boxer in a weak voice."
   • As he was unwell, he was sent to a hospital in Willingdon to recover
     • “Good-bye, Boxer!” they chorused, “good-bye!”
   • However he was not taken to a hospital, but to a slaughterhouse as he was no longer of use
     • “‘Alfred Simmonds, Horse Slaughterer and Glue Boiler, Willingdon. Dealer in Hides and Bone-Meal. Kennels Supplied." Do you not understand what that means? They are taking Boxer to the knacker’s!”
   • Squealer convinced the other animas that he didn't actually get slaughtered instead he apparently died at the hospital.
     • “I was at his bedside at the very last. And at the end, almost too weak to speak, he whispered in my ear that his sole sorrow was to have passed on before the windmill was finished. ‘Forward, comrades!’ he whispered. ‘Forward in the name of the Rebellion. Long live Animal Farm! Long live Comrade Napoleon! Napoleon is always right.’ Those were his very last words, comrades.”
   • The animal realised
     • "All the animals took up the cry of “Get out, Boxer, get out!” But the van was already gathering speed and drawing away from them."
   • He died
     • "Three days later it was announced that he had died in the hospital at Willingdon, in spite of receiving every attention a horse could have."
   • The animals once again believed this
     • "The animals were enormously relieved to hear this."
       • Soon enough most had forgotten all about him
         • "Boxer was forgotten, except by the few who had known him."

3. Characterisation

   • He is Hardworking
     • He had been a hard worker even in Jones’s time, but now he seemed more like three horses than one; there were days when the entire work of the farm seemed to rest on his mighty shoulders. From morning to night he was pushing and pulling, always at the spot where the work was hardest. He had made an arrangement with one of the cockerels to call him in the mornings half an hour earlier than anyone else, and would put in some volunteer labour at whatever seemed to be most needed, before the regular day’s work began. His answer to every problem, every setback, was “I will work harder!”— which he had adopted as his personal motto.
     • Boxer would even come out at nights and work for an hour or two on his own by the light of the harvest moon.
   • He is Strong
     • "Boxer was an enormous beast, nearly eighteen hands high, and as strong as any two ordinary horses put together."
       • Boxer with his tremendous muscles always pulled them through.
     • Nothing could have been achieved without Boxer, whose strength seemed equal to that of all the rest of the animals put together.
   • He is not smart/educated
     • These two had great difficulty in thinking anything out for themselves
     • Boxer could not get beyond the letter D. He would trace out A, B, C, D, in the dust with his great hoof, and then would stand staring at the letters with his ears back, sometimes shaking his forelock, trying with all his might to remember what came next and never succeeding. On several occasions, indeed, he did learn E, F, G, H, but by the time he knew them, it was always discovered that he had forgotten A, B, C, and D. Finally he decided to be content with the first four letters, and used to write them out once or twice every day to refresh his memory.
   • Loyal
     • Their most faithful disciples were the two cart-horses, Boxer and Clover.
   • Punctual
     • They were unfailing in their attendance at the secret meetings in the barn
   • Remorsfull
     • “He is dead,” said Boxer sorrowfully. “I had no intention of doing that. I forgot that I was wearing iron shoes. Who will believe that I did not do this on purpose?”
     • “I have no wish to take life, not even human life,” repeated Boxer, and his eyes were full of tears.
   • Follower (Sheep)
     • Boxer, who had now had time to think things over, voiced the general feeling by saying: “If Comrade Napoleon says it, it must be right.” And from then on he adopted the maxim, “Napoleon is always right,” in addition to his private motto of “I will work harder.”
     • Boxer passed it off as usual with “Napoleon is always right!”
   • Inspirational
     • the other animals found more inspiration in Boxer’s strength and his never-failing cry of “I will work harder!”

4. Relationships

   • Benjamin
     • Nevertheless, without openly admitting it, he was devoted to Boxer; the two of them usually spent their Sundays together in the small paddock beyond the orchard, grazing side by side and never speaking.
       • Benjamin was the oldest animal on the farm, and the worst tempered. He seldom talked, and when he did, it was usually to make some cynical remark — for instance, he would say that God had given him a tail to keep the flies off, but that he would sooner have had no tail and no flies. Alone among the animals on the farm he never laughed. If asked why, he would say that he saw nothing to laugh at. Nevertheless, without openly admitting it, he was devoted to Boxer; the two of them usually spent their Sundays together in the small paddock beyond the orchard, grazing side by side and never speaking.
   • Animals
     • Boxer was the admiration of everybody

5. His death was predicted by...

   • You, Boxer, the very day that those great muscles of yours lose their power, Jones will sell you to the knacker, who will cut your throat and boil you down for the foxhounds.