Key Quote
“"I will work harder!"”
Boxer · Chapter 3
Focus: “harder”
Boxer's personal motto — his response to every crisis — demonstrates the tragic belief that individual effort can overcome systemic oppression, when in reality, his labour only enriches those who exploit him.
Technique 1 — EXCLAMATORY RESOLVE / SELF-EXPLOITATION
The exclamation mark gives Boxer's statement the force of a vow — he is not merely observing that more work is needed but COMMITTING to it with passionate energy. This is self-exploitation: Boxer does not need to be forced to work harder because he forces HIMSELF. The most effective oppression is that which the oppressed impose on themselves — Boxer is his own taskmaster, saving Napoleon the trouble of compulsion.
The comparative 'harder' has no upper limit — there is always a harder to reach. This infinite comparative traps Boxer in escalating self-demand: however hard he works, he can always work HARDER. The structure ensures that 'enough' never arrives — Boxer can never rest because improvement is always possible. The word 'harder' is a grammatical treadmill.
Key Words
RAD — STAGNATE
Despite Boxer's effort, nothing changes — the farm does not improve for the animals, only for the pigs. Boxer's work harder produces stagnation for the working animals: they expend more energy but gain nothing. The harder Boxer works, the more the pigs benefit. His effort does not produce progress but redistributes its benefits upward. Stagnation is disguised as effort.
Key Words
Technique 2 — MODAL VERB — 'WILL' AS TRAGIC DETERMINATION
The modal verb 'will' expresses determination, future commitment, and personal agency. But the irony is devastating: Boxer's 'will' is exercised in the service of those who will destroy him. His determination — his strongest quality — is precisely what makes him exploitable. The modal verb that should express freedom (I WILL do this) instead expresses servitude (I will work for THEM harder).
The pronoun 'I' isolates Boxer: he does not say 'we will work harder' but 'I will.' His commitment is personal, individual, solitary. This reveals the atomisation (separation into isolated individuals) that prevents collective action: if every worker says 'I' instead of 'we,' solidarity is impossible and the workers defeat themselves through individual effort rather than collective resistance.
Key Words
Context (AO3)
THE PROTESTANT WORK ETHIC
Max Weber identified the Protestant work ethic — the belief that hard work is morally virtuous and leads to success — as a foundation of capitalist culture. Boxer embodies this ethic: he works not because he is forced but because he believes working harder is inherently right. Orwell shows how this ethic serves the powerful while exhausting the workers.
EXPLOITATION OF LABOUR
Marx's theory of surplus value argues that workers produce more value than they receive in wages — the difference (surplus) is taken by the owner. Boxer is the purest example: he produces enormous value through his labour, but all the surplus goes to the pigs. His harder work means greater exploitation, not greater reward.
Key Words
WOW — DISCIPLINARY POWER (Foucault)
Foucault's concept of disciplinary power — power that works not through external force but through the subject's internalisation of norms — explains how Boxer exploits himself. Foucault argues that modern power does not need to punish or threaten: it creates subjects who discipline THEMSELVES. Boxer does not need a whip or a guard because he has internalised the value of hard work so completely that he becomes his own overseer. Foucault's concept of the panopticon — a prison where inmates behave because they MIGHT be watched — finds its ultimate expression in Boxer: he works harder even when no one watches or demands it, because the demand has been planted inside his own mind. The most effective power, Foucault argues, is invisible — and Boxer demonstrates this invisibility perfectly. He cannot see his own exploitation because the mechanism of control IS his own conviction. 'I will work harder' is not a response to external pressure but an expression of internalised power: the regime has succeeded in making Boxer demand from himself what it would otherwise have to impose by force.
Key Words