The Theme of trust In Animal Farm

1. The Theme of trust In Animal Farm

2. Who are the most trusting characters in the novel? • Clover is a trustworthy animal. She is a motherly figure to all the animals and they all look up to her. All the animals feel safe around her and know where they can go if they need help. “The animals huddled about Clover”. This shows she wants to look out for all the animals on the farm and not cause any trouble. If the animals have a problem or feeling down she would be the first animal they would probably go to.

3. Why the animals are so trusting of the pigs • The pigs are trusted by the animals because all the other animals are not bright so it’s really easy for the pigs to manipulate them. Squealer is the propaganda machine and he twists the truth and manipulates the animals throughout the book “Comrades! He cried. You do imagine, I hope, that we pigs are doing this in a spirit of selfishness and privileges? Many of us dislike milk and apples.” This quotes shows that the pigs are very manipulative because they are willing to use the animals trust to get what they want. Boxer trusts the pigs extremely because he has the slogan, “Napoleon is always right.” This shows that Boxer trusts Napoleon because he believes that he is always right, because a hard working loyal animal like Boxer trusts Napoleon, the other animals look up to Boxer and therefore look up to Napoleon.

4. Was Snowball more trustworthy than Napoleon? • Throughout the book up until Snowball is chased off by the dogs, he is more trustworthy than Napoleon because Napoleon is used to getting his own way and the animals know this. To us he is misleading and manipulative but all of the animals trusted him more in a way because he runs the farm and they go by whatever he says. This contradicts the idea of communism because they are going by one leader and trusting one person.

5. Who should not be trusted? • Jones shouldn’t be trusted as he fails to do things on time and hasn’t got his life on track properly. He drinks a lot and can’t stay focused on what's meant to be happening and can’t do his duties on the farm in time. If somebody needed him to do something he would most probably forget to do it or if it was a secret tell everyone whilst not being on a good form. “Mr Jones, of the Manor Farm, had locked the hen-houses for the night, but was too drunk to remember to shut the pop-holes.” • Napoleon and Squealer also shouldn’t be trusted as they lie to the animals and do things to benefit themselves and the pigs rather than the whole farm.

6. The link between trust and communism • In communism everyone trusts everyone because it is about equality between everyone. But in Animal Farm the animals trust the pigs more than themselves, which shows everyone isn’t equal.

7. How the novel would’ve been different if the animals didn’t trust each other • If the animals did not trust each other the novel would be a completely different story. If the animals did not trust each other the animals would not have been likely to rebel against Jones at all because they wouldn’t have been working as one unit.