Gretchen Hintz

English 2 AC-4thHour

October 7, 1998

Animal Farm’s Mollie and the Spoiled Middle Class

Revolution is a dream of equality, but some people do not want to be equal. Animal Farm, written by George Orwell, has vastly unique characters which all symbolize an actual person or group of people that lived in early twentieth century Russia. Some animals of Animal Farm are leaders while some are workers, just as those living in Russia were. Yet despite the early cooperation of the farm, a selfish carriage horse named Mollie chose to live for herself. In Orwell’s Animal Farm, Mollie is an honest example of the worst type of selfishness in societies past and present because both she and the White Russians she represents only cared about preserving their comfortable lifestyle.

Mollie prefers being pampered than fighting for just causes. With ribbons in her mane, and more attention from the humans than any other farm animal, she does not even try to understand what the animal revolution stands for. Mollie only asks self-serving questions when the revolution is planned: “Will there be sugar after the revolution?” (Orwell 14) Likewise, after Jones is removed, she only shows interest in her own reflection in a mirror when the animals inspect the farmhouse. Later on, instead of helping in the Battle of the Cowshed, she hides amongst the hay without making the slightest attempt to help her comrades that are outside fighting nobly. Without humans to pet and pamper her, with no ribbons in her hair or sugar cubes to eat; she eventually runs off to another farm, deciding it is better to be owned and appreciated than independent and self-reliant. Because Mollie does not know true suffering, she never knows what it means to care about her fellow animals throughout the entire story.

The White Russians are Mollie’s true-to-life counterparts of the past. They are also great examples of how comfort can make people self-centered. The White Russians were Russian nobles, a middle class that was treated quite well by Czar Nicholas II in comparison to the others living in Russia at that time (Smele Web). They did not openly reject the revolution until they lost property for the sake of equality, and they lost many of the privileges that they once had under the Czar’s rule. So the Whites rebelled, having a Civil War against the Reds. The Whites lost the Civil War, partially because many soldiers ironically were concerned more with stealing booty than in fighting (Smele Web). Most of the Whites then fled to Europe with no concern over helping the millions of working class citizens still living in Russia (Simkin Web). The White Russians lived for their comforts and were too weak to protect anyone, including themselves.

Mollie and the White Russians share many similarities and a few differences. Vanity, foolishness, and betrayal are Mollie and the White Russians’ vices; faults that have plagued every society and only seem to be increasing over time. Both Mollie and the White Russians did not actively oppose their original leaders: Jones and Czar Nicholas II. They were comfortable and saw no need to rock the boat because others were suffering. Additionally, neither chose to grasp onto the ideals that went into revolution or learned to work towards change. They both fall under a “middle class” that does not know how to do back-breaking work. But though they are very similar, Mollie differs from the White Russians because she never actively revolts against the other animals. Like a coward, she disappears one night without any notice. Mollie is so infatuated with herself, she cannot even create a foundation to openly rebel against the ideals of Animalism, like the White Russians did in the Russian Civil War. Both Mollie and the White Russians could only live for their own self-preservation.

Consequently, Mollie portrays the faults of the White Russians and even more additional vices. What was George Orwell’s purpose for putting Mollie in this story? Was he trying to warn us to look past our own vanity and foolishness and think about more than just ourselves? Mollie is clearly depicted as an unlikeable character, but she gets away with her crimes to live an easy life, making a bitter statement that sometimes the worst people will not suffer consequences for their actions.

Work Cited

Orwell, George. Animal Farm. Austin: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1996. Print.

Simkin, John. The White Army. Spartacus Educational, 1997. Web. 9 Dec. 2014.

Smele, Jonathan. War and Revolution in Russia 1914 – 1921. BBC UK, 10 Mar. 2011.

Web. 9 Dec. 2014.