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Benjamin
A fat pig who’s a skilled orator. Squealer works closely with Snowball and Napoleon at first—and later, just Napoleon—to interpret or distill what the pigs’ plan is for the other animals. Squealer is purportedly able to convince animals of anything, and he’s very effective in his job. Sometimes he’s effective because of the way he’s able to manipulate language; other times, Squealer is effective because the attack dogs accompany him. He benefits from Napoleon’s rule, as Squealer is often tasked with addressing the animals during Sunday meetings and gets the same extensive rations as the rest of the pigs. At the end of the novel, Squealer learns to walk on two legs and teaches the sheep the new maxim “Four legs good, two legs better!” He’s present at the meeting between the pigs and the farmers. Squealer represents the Soviet press, which Stalin controlled throughout his rule.
Squealer Quotes in Animal Farm
The Animal Farm quotes below are all either spoken by Squealer or refer to Squealer. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 3 Quotes
“Comrades!” he cried. “You do not imagine, I hope, that we pigs are doing this in a spirit of selfishness and privilege? Many of us actually dislike milk and apples. Milk and apples (this has been proved by Science, comrades) contain substances absolutely necessary to the well-being of a pig. We pigs are brainworkers. The whole management and organization of this farm depend on us. Day and night we are watching over your welfare. It is for your sake that we drink that milk and eat those apples.”
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35-36
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Squealer gives this speech to defend the way the pigs have hoarded milk and apples away from the other animals. He claims that they need the nutrients from the foodstuffs to properly run the farm and thus best serve the needs of others.
This speech represents a critical turning point in the novel: whereas previously the pigs’ subterfuge had remained secretive and unacknowledged, here they publicly admit to withholding resources from the other animals. Their explanation is that such unequal distributions actually will have overall positive effects on the animal society. In this way, they take advantage of an ambiguity in the idea of equality: if equality is defined based on social well-being, the thinking goes, then redistributing resources to the intelligent pigs could theoretically create more equality by bettering the lives of all.
Squealer’s flowery language also harnesses uncertainty and vagueness as a propaganda strategy. He uses the rhetorical question, “You do not imagine” to ridicule any potential criticism and summons the abstract idea of “Science” as an objective standard without offering any specific data. Squealer also claims that the pigs’ supposedly selfish behavior is actually entirely selfless. In these ways, he becomes a parody of governmental speeches that justify the unfair distribution of resources to those in power.
Chapter 5 Quotes
“No one believes more firmly than Comrade Napoleon that all animals are equal. He would be only too happy to let you make your decisions for yourselves. But sometimes you might make the wrong decisions, comrades, and then where should we be?”
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Chapter 7 Quotes
If a window was broken or a drain was blocked up, someone was certain to say that Snowball had come in the night and done it, and when the key of the store-shed was lost, the whole farm was convinced that Snowball had thrown it down the well. Curiously enough, they went on believing this even after the mislaid key was found under a sack of meal.
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Chapter 8 Quotes
At the foot of the end wall of the big barn, where the Seven Commandments were written, there lay a ladder broken in two pieces. Squealer, temporarily stunned, was sprawling beside it, and near at hand there lay a lantern, a paint-brush, and an overturned pot of white paint. [...] None of the animals could form any idea as to what this meant, except old Benjamin, who nodded his muzzle with a knowing air, and seemed to understand, but would say nothing.
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Chapter 9 Quotes
Besides, in those days they had been slaves and now they were free, and that made all the difference, as Squealer did not fail to point out.
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Chapter 10 Quotes
Somehow it seemed as though the farm had grown richer without making the animals themselves any richer—except, of course, for the pigs and the dogs.
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“Four legs good, two legs better!”
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ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL, BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS.
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The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
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Squealer Character Timeline in Animal Farm
The timeline below shows where the character Squealer appears in Animal Farm. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 2
...see that they must prepare for the promised rebellion. With a small fat pig named Squealer, who is a brilliant orator and can convince listeners of anything, they hold secret meetings...
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Chapter 3
...should get all the fallen apples, which the other animals assumed would be divided evenly. Squealer makes the case that the pigs are “brainworkers” and therefore need the milk and apples...
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Chapter 5
Later, Squealer makes the rounds to explain the new rules. He points out that Napoleon is sacrificing...
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...asks everyone to walk past it reverently, while during meetings, the animals sit separated. Napoleon, Squealer, and a pig named Minimus sit together surrounded by the nine dogs, while the other...
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Later, Squealer explains privately that Napoleon never opposed the windmill—it had been his idea and Snowball stole...
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Chapter 6
...he’s hired a solicitor named Mr. Whymper to deal with their affairs. After the meeting, Squealer sets everyone at ease by telling them privately that they must all be imagining that...
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About this time, the pigs move into the farmhouse. Squealer circulates to assure everyone that it’s not actually true that there was a resolution forbidding...
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Squealer, accompanied by a few dogs, passes by and helps put things in perspective for Clover....
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Chapter 7
...case. Snow stops their progress for a while and the animals struggle to feel hopeful. Squealer gives many speeches on the dignity of labor, but the animals find more inspiration in...
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...fierce dogs. When he occasionally comes out, it’s a ceremonious affair and dogs surround him. Squealer conducts the Sunday meetings. One morning, he announces that the hens will need to surrender...
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...dogs tour the farm, finding evidence of Snowball’s scent everywhere. This frightens everyone. One evening, Squealer calls the animals to tell them that they’ve discovered something terrible: Snowball sold himself to...
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Boxer questions this and shares his recollection of events, but Squealer insists he’s mistaken—they have, in Snowball’s own writing (which Boxer unfortunately cannot read) that Snowball...
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...other animals join in and sing it mournfully. When they finish their third time through, Squealer and two dogs arrive and announce that “Beasts of England” has been abolished. Stiffly, he...
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Chapter 8
...now than they did for Mr. Jones, but possibly for less food. On Sunday mornings, Squealer reads lists of figures that prove production is up by at least 200 percent and...
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...In the farmhouse, he lives alone and eats off of the Crown Derby dinner service. Squealer and the other pigs relay his messages, and it’s decided that the farm will fire...
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...the Cowshed and made up the story of the honor to make himself look better. Squealer convinces everyone that their memories were faulty.
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...the windmill’s foundations and note that they won’t even be able to reuse the stones. Squealer skips up to them looking satisfied as the gun booms in the distance. Squealer cries...
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...farmhouse, and Napoleon inexplicably gallops around the yard in Mr. Jones’s hat. In the morning, Squealer is the first to emerge at nine a.m. He announces that Napoleon is dying because...
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...wake to a crash. They discover a broken ladder by the Seven Commandments along with Squealer, who is stunned on the ground next to a lantern, a paintbrush, and white paint....
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Chapter 9
...is cold and hard. The animals, except for the pigs and dogs, suffer reduced rations. Squealer explains that equality in rations isn’t in line with Animalism—and furthermore, that they’re not short...
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Except for Benjamin and Clover, all the animals run to tell Squealer what happened. Squealer concernedly tells Boxer that Napoleon is going to send him for treatment...
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...kicks a few times—but he’s too weak. They never see Boxer again. Three days later, Squealer announces that Boxer died in the hospital and that he was with Boxer to the...
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Suspiciously, Squealer notes that he’s heard rumors that some animals believe Boxer went to the glue factory....
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Chapter 10
...even Boxer is forgotten. Clover is now 14, but she’s still not retired. Napoleon and Squealer are both huge and fat. There are many animals on the farm, but not as...
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...seems richer, the animals, except for the pigs and the dogs, don’t feel any richer. Squealer talks often about how much work the pigs must do to supervise and organize the...
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One summer day, Squealer takes the sheep to an overgrown part of the farm to browse and leaves them...
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