Key Quote
“"Napoleon is always right"”
Boxer · Chapter 5
Focus: “always”
Boxer's unquestioning devotion to Napoleon — despite increasing evidence of corruption — represents the tragedy of the loyal working class whose trust is exploited by the very leaders they serve.
Technique 1 — ABSOLUTE ASSERTION / FAITH AS ENSLAVEMENT
The adverb 'always' transforms a statement of political trust into an article of faith: 'always right' admits no exceptions, no errors, no possibility of criticism. This absolutism replaces political judgement with religious devotion — Napoleon is not evaluated but worshipped. The statement is grammatically identical to religious statements ('God is always good') and functions identically: it places the authority figure beyond question.
Boxer's statement is technically unfalsifiable (incapable of being proven wrong): if Napoleon does something that appears wrong, Boxer's maxim instructs him to conclude that HE is mistaken, not Napoleon. This creates a closed logical system where no evidence can challenge the conclusion — the hallmark of totalitarian thinking.
Key Words
RAD — STAGNATE
Boxer's absolute loyalty represents intellectual stagnation: he cannot learn from experience because his maxim prevents him from interpreting experience critically. No matter what happens — purges, executions, broken promises — Boxer returns to the same conclusion: 'Napoleon is always right.' His mind is trapped in a loop, processing new information through a fixed filter that always produces the same result.
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Technique 2 — DRAMATIC IRONY — THE AUDIENCE'S KNOWLEDGE
The reader experiences dramatic irony: we know Napoleon is corrupt, self-serving, and increasingly tyrannical, while Boxer continues to trust him absolutely. This gap between the reader's knowledge and Boxer's ignorance transforms Boxer's loyalty from admirable to tragic — his greatest virtue (loyalty) becomes his fatal flaw. The irony is excruciating because Boxer's eventual fate (sold to the knacker's yard) is the direct consequence of the trust he places in the leader who betrays him.
Boxer's mantra reveals how loyalty and stupidity are deliberately confused by authoritarian regimes: the regime values Boxer's loyalty precisely because it is uninformed. Critical loyalty — loyalty that asks questions — would be dangerous. The regime needs the kind of loyalty that CANNOT question, and Boxer provides it perfectly.
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Context (AO3)
THE STAKHANOVITE WORKER
Boxer represents the Stakhanovite worker — named after Alexei Stakhanov, a Soviet miner celebrated for his extraordinary productivity. Stalin's regime glorified hard work while exploiting workers ruthlessly. Boxer's motto 'I will work harder' mirrors Stakhanovite culture: productivity as patriotic duty.
THE KNACKER'S YARD
Boxer's sale to the knacker's yard (a slaughterhouse for spent horses) is the novel's most emotionally devastating moment. It literalises the capitalist and Stalinist treatment of workers: useful when productive, discarded when spent. The regime extracts maximum labour and then destroys the labourer.
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WOW — THE BANALITY OF EVIL (Arendt)
Hannah Arendt's concept of the banality of evil — the idea that great evil is often perpetrated not by monsters but by ordinary people who follow orders without thinking — illuminates Boxer's tragedy. Boxer is not evil: he is kind, hardworking, and loyal. But his refusal to think critically makes him complicit in Napoleon's tyranny. By working harder, by never questioning, by always believing Napoleon is right, Boxer enables the very system that will destroy him. Arendt argued that Adolf Eichmann — the Nazi bureaucrat she studied — was terrifyingly ordinary: he did not hate Jews but simply followed orders without moral reflection. Boxer is Orwell's Eichmann: a decent individual whose intellectual surrender serves monstrous purposes. The banality of Boxer's faith — 'Napoleon is always right' — IS the banality of evil: not dramatic wickedness but quiet, unthinking obedience that enables others' wickedness to flourish.
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