Friday, December 5, 2014

If Mollie was a person, what would she be like?

Thank you for asking such a fun question!

As I'm sure you know, Animal Farm is a satire and all the characters and events were written to satirize the Russian Revolution that took place between 1917–1945. George Orwell wrote the novel in 1943-4 in London, so he was satirizing the political environment of what was to him contemporary Russia. The country's political problems obviously impacted the rest of the world, especially England. It might have been dangerous for Orwell to write a novel that directly criticized important political figures and events, so he wrote a 'fable' and used animals to represent the real people involved.


Mollie, as I'm sure you know, represents the Russian bourgeoisie, or aristocrats, who fled Russia shortly after the revolution.


If she were a person, she would be a young woman, rich and pampered. Because she had a lot of money, she would sympathize with the government even though they oppressed the peasants. Mollie the person would enjoy having expensive, fashionable clothing and delicious food that most people could not afford. The expensive clothes are represented by the ribbons in Mollie the horse's hair: "She had taken a piece of blue ribbon from Mrs. Jones's dressing-table, and was holding it against her shoulder and admiring herself in the glass in a very foolish manner" (Chapter 2), and the delicious food is represented by the sugar cubes Mollie the horse enjoys eating: "The very first question she asked Snowball was: 'Will there still be sugar after the Rebellion?'" (Chapter 2)


Mollie is a stupid animal in the book: "The stupidest questions of all were asked by Mollie, the white mare."(Chapter 2) If she were a human, she would be a bimbo with first-world problems. She would purposefully do poorly in school because she expects to be looked after for her whole life: "Mollie refused to learn any but the six letters which spelt her own name." (Chapter 3) If her parents cut her off from her bank accounts and told her to get a job, she would run away to live with her boyfriend:



"Three days later Mollie disappeared. For some weeks nothing was known of her whereabouts, then the pigeons reported that they had seen her on the other side of Willingdon. She was between the shafts of a smart dogcart painted red and black, which was standing outside a public-house. A fat red-faced man in check breeches and gaiters, who looked like a publican, was stroking her nose and feeding her with sugar. Her coat was newly clipped and she wore a scarlet ribbon round her forelock. She appeared to be enjoying herself, so the pigeons said. None of the animals ever mentioned Mollie again." (Chapter 5)



Of course, I'm talking about what Mollie the person would be like if she were alive today. You might want to think about the Russian bourgeoisie from the early 1900s to form your description of Mollie the person.

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