,
being the biggest and strongest animal on the farm, adopted the maxim, "I will work
harder!" soon after the Rebellion. He was keen to do his best for the good of all and was
motivated by the freedom the animals experienced at the time. His commitment is clearly
illustrated in the following excerpt from chapter three:
Boxer was the admiration of everybody. He had been a hard worker even in Jones's time,
but now he seemed more like three horses than one; there were days when the entire work of the
farm seemed to rest on his mighty shoulders. From morning to night he was pushing and pulling,
always at the spot where the work was hardest. He had made an arrangement with one of the
cockerels to call him in the mornings half an hour earlier than anyone else, and would put in
some volunteer labour at whatever seemed to be most needed, before the regular day's work began.
His answer to every problem, every setback, was "I will work harder!"which he had
adopted as his personal motto.
It was after 's expulsion
bythat Boxer really proved his mettle. Three Sundays after Snowball's removal, Napoleon declared
that the plans for the building of a windmill had actually been his idea and that they would
start erecting it. The construction, however, presented a number of problems since the animals
had to drag huge stones from the bottom of the quarry to the top, where they would then be
toppled over the edge to shatter into manageable pieces below.
This was a
slow and very difficult process, but Boxer inspired everyone with his hard work. Whenever Boxer
encountered a problem, including when a boulder was ready to slip, he would use every ounce of
his strength to stop it from rolling back into the quarry, as revealed in :
Nothing could have been achieved without Boxer, whose strength
seemed equal to that of all the rest of the animals put together. When the boulder began to slip
and the animals cried out in despair at finding themselves dragged down the hill, it was always
Boxer who strained himself against the rope and brought the boulder to a stop. To see him
toiling up the slope inch by inch, his breath coming fast, the tips of his hoofs clawing at the
ground, and his great sides matted with sweat, filled everyone with admiration. Clover warned
him sometimes to be careful not to overstrain himself, but Boxer would never listen to her. His
two slogans, "I will work harder" and "Napoleon is always right," seemed to
him a sufficient answer to all problems.
Later in the
novel, Boxer gave specific instructions so he could do even more work:
He had made arrangements with the cockerel to call him
three-quarters of an hour earlier in the mornings instead of half an hour. And in his spare
moments, of which there were not many nowadays, he would go alone to the quarry, collect a load
of broken stone, and drag it down to the site of the windmill unassisted.
He was even prepared to come out at nights during the harvest moon
to do extra labor.
Unfortunately, the half-built structure was destroyed
during a terrible storm and the animals had to start all over again, but Boxer was up to the
task. After the animals' exhausting efforts finished by autumn, the windmill was finally
finished, butstruck again when Frederick and his men blew it to pieces. Once again, it had to be
rebuilt and, once again, Boxer proved his mettle and dedication.
Boxer
worked so hard that it eventually affected his health. He suffered a split hoof, which took a
long time to heal. We read in chapter nine, however, that he refused to give up:
Boxer refused to take even a day off work, and made it a point of
honour not to let it be seen that he was in pain. In the evenings he would admit privately to
Clover that the hoof troubled him a great deal. Clover treated the hoof with poultices of herbs
which she prepared by chewing them, and both she and Benjamin urged Boxer to work less hard.
"A horse's lungs do not last for ever," she said to him. But Boxer would not listen.
He had, he said, only one real ambition leftto see the windmill well under way before he reached
the age for retirement.
Once Boxer's hoof was healed, he
worked harder than ever. He had, however, lost much of his vitality and looked weaker than ever
before, but continued working, even though Clover and Benjamin expressed concern and asked him
to look after his health. He only repeated his motto, "I will work harder!" and
continued to work.
Boxer's hard work was never really rewarded. We read in
chapter nine that he fell desperately ill and was lying on his side with blood trickling from
his mouth. The poor beast believed that he would be able to retire and then live a life of
comfort and relaxation. It was not to be. The pigs sold him to the knacker and bought a case of
whiskey with the proceeds.later spun a story about how bravely Boxer had passed away, stating
his last words were to encourage the other animals by whispering in his final breath:
"'Forward in the name of the Rebellion. Long live ! Long live
Comrade Napoleon! Napoleon is always right.' Those were his very last words,
comrades."
