Introduction

Benjamin is Animal Farm’s donkey. He was the oldest animal on the farm and the worst tempered. There was mentioned in the book that alone among the animals on the farm he never laughed. If you asked why, he would say that he saw nothing to laugh at. Nevertheless, without openly admitting it, he was devoted to Boxer; the two of them usually spent their Sundays together in the small paddock beyond the orchard.

Windmill from his point of view

He was the only animal on the farm that was not inspired by the Revolution and at the same time the only unchanged animal after it. In the situation when animals formed themselves into two factions under the slogan, "Vote for Snowball and the three−day week" and "Vote for Napoleon and the full manger." Benjamin was the only animal who did not side with either faction. He refused to believe either that food would become more plentiful or that the windmill would save work. Windmill or no windmill, he said, life would go on as it had always gone on−that is, badly.

My theory

Every time something happened on the farm, Benjamin was not surprised. In my opinion, the reason is that he has seen and experienced several Revolutions in his past. At the same time, it is the reason why he was constantly silent. From the beginning, he realized that their enthusiasm after the Revolution would be just short-lived, and we could read that he was right. Their life at the beginning was cruel and they have exactly the same life at the end of the book.

Evidence:

"Donkeys live a long time. None of you has ever seen a dead donkey."

His comment that they have never seen a ‘dead donkey’ is a hint that he has seen similar events in the past and so he is not as excited as the other animals.

Was he a realist or did he perceive everything negatively?

There are undoubtedly many opinions and answers to this question. Many people think he was very gloomy and his worldview was very dark and negative. I cannot agree with this view. According to the things we read, we can clearly say that he had the right to have such negative (real) opinions. From the beginning, he was right about everything, and all his thoughts came true. So, his negative view of the world was only realistic.

Evidence:

" Only old Benjamin professed to remember every detail of his long life and to know that things never had been, nor ever could be much better or much worse – hunger, hardship, and disappointment being, so he said, the unalterable law of life. "

What does he represent?

Benjamin is very intelligent. He can read as well as any pig. However, he did not use his ability to help other animals, even though they asked him to do so a few times. We can see that Benjamin represents all the intelligent people who have decided to go against political power. Political power on the Animal Farm are pigs. In a situation where his best friend Boxer was injured, Benjamin finally broke his rule (that he would not go against the politicians on the Farm) and tried to help and save Boxer. Unfortunately, he did not have enough time and he failed to save his best friend. It was too late. Political officials at Animal Farm told them he died in the hospital, but it was clear to Benjamin that this was a lie. At the end of the book, Clover realized that another commandment had changed. This was the moment Benjamin for the first time read something to help animals.

At the beginning, this commandment was " All animals are equal. " But now it has been changed to " All animals are equal BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS."

The main thing we have learned is that Benjamin is a symbol of intellectuals who choose to ignore political power for the greater good.