Napoleon's True Colors (Q2: 5)

Quote: "So the animals trooped down the the hayfield to begin the harvest and when they came back in the evening it was noticed that the milk had disappeared." (34)

This quote occurs just after the Revolution on Animal Farm. The cows needed to be milked, and to ease their suffering the pigs milked the cows into buckets. It looks really appetizing to all of the animals but Napoleon tells all to the animals to follow Snowball to the field while he deals with the problem.

I used this quote because it makes good use of foreshadowing. Napoleon's deceitful and greedy nature is illustrated in the way that he steals the milk for himself. Also, while they are describing the milk a little bit before, the diction involved with the milk was very good, conjuring a very appetizing and delicious image of a bucket of milk.

Analysis: Napoleon will continue to be the main antagonist throughout the book, but here is the first time that we realize that he is perfectly willing and able to trick his fellow animals to obtain what he wants. Later, Napoleon employs cleverer tactics, but essentially the same idea is applied to his control of Animal Farm, to fool the populace with illusion and lies. We also see here Snowball's slightly naive assumption that Napoleon means well and would not trick him into or out of anything, which is further foreshadowing.