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Boxer Personality: Boxer is one of the most honorable and loyal characters in Animal Farm. He often overworks himself because of his loyalty. He never wants to take a day off from working for the farm, he even goes as far as to work with Benjamin after everyone stops and even when it rains.

Boxer Appearance: Muted reddish-brown cote with a memorable white stripe down his nose and white 'socks', longing black eyes, and a black main and tail.

Extra Info: Boxer is a cart-horse owned by Mr. Jones in Manor Farm. In April, Boxer was with Clover during the meeting with Old Major. Old Major talked with the animals about his epiphany about the animals rebelling against the humans to form an independent community from the humans and a government named "Animalism" in which the animals would not do anything that is human-like. During his meeting, when mentioning what Jones is going to be doing with animals given some years, he says that Jones will send Boxer to the knackers once Boxer's strength gives out.

After Old Major's peaceful death three nights later, the pigs spent the next three months working on the ideology of Animalism, with Boxer and Clover being the most faithful disciples. They would listen to everything the pigs said and tell them to the other animals. They were never absent in any of the meetings and led the singing of their anthem, "Beasts of England", at the end of each anthem.

On June 24, after Jones neglects to feed and water the animals for days, the animals break into the barn and start eating the food. After Jones and his men start trying to whip, they are met with being kicked and stomped by the animals, forcing them to be run out of their farm. The animals renamed the farm Animal Farm and various items that were used to keep the animals hostage and other human markings were either thrown down a well or burned. Among the items burned were horse ribbons and Boxer's straw hat. The barn that the humans resided in was preserved as an artifact of the humans who resided in it.

Boxer and Clover helped harness the cutters and horse rakes. Boxer was admired by many of the animals because of his strength. Boxer's motto to every problem was "I will work harder." Boxer's strength and the cleverness of the pigs would help with harvesting the corn later in the year. The pigs later teaches the animals how to read and spell. Boxer was only able to learn the first four letters of the alphabet: A, B, C, and D. When he did learn E, F, G, and H; he would forget about the first four letters. He decided to just be content with the first four letters and would write them on the dirt occasionally in order to refresh his memory. Most of the other animals could not learn past the letter A. The Battle of the Cowshed

On October 16, A group of humans, led by Jones, attacked Animal Farm using guns. The animals retaliated and attacked the humans through kicking and biting them.

The most terrifying spectacle was when Boxer kicked a man from Foxwood farm with iron-shoes, knocking the man unconscious. After the humans retreated, Boxer looks at the man he kicked. Boxer believes that he killed him and expresses remorse and sorrow.

The animals look for a dimwitted horse named Mollie and find her in hiding. She had gone hiding after hearing a gunshot. The man wakes up during this time and runs away from Animal Farm. Boxer and a pig named Snowball who is one of the leaders are awarded with a military decoration named "Animal Hero, First Class".

Napoleon's Takeover and the Windmill

The animals worked and toiled throughout the winter. Snowball proposes building a windmill in order to help the animals with their work. However, the other leader named Napoleon disagrees with Snowball's ideas. However, Snowball manages to win over the other animals. Nine hunter dogs suddenly appear and chase Snowball out of the farm.

The dogs turn out to be the puppies that Napoleon took away from and Bluebell. Napoleon announces that he will be taking over Animal Farm and all problems will be discussed by the pigs in private. This sends shock to the animals, including Boxer who didn't know what to say. Napoleon's spokesman, Squealer claims that Napoleon will be a great leader and Snowball was nothing more than a criminal because he wasn't loyal. The animals were reassured and Boxer adopted the maxim, "Napoleon is always right."

On third Sunday following Snowball's exile, Squealer reveals that Napoleon was only pretending to be against the windmill to run Snowball out. For the next spring and summer, the animals worked 60 hour weeks in order to build the windmill. In order to build it, the animals had to drag a boulder across a quarry and push it over the edge in order to break it. Because Boxer's strength was equal to all the other animals combined, he managed to be of most help with the boulders. He was always warned by Clover about overexerting himself, but Boxer always retorts it.

Destruction of the windmill and Napoleon's propaganda

By the autumn, the windmill was half complete and the animals were happy about it. After the harvest, they toiled on the windmill harder than before to build it another foot high. Boxer would come out at night and work for an hour or two alone. I November, raging winds forced the animals to stop working on the windmill. The windmill eventually collapsed due to a lightning storm. Napoleon falsely places the blame on Snowball.

Throughout the winter, the animals worked on rebuilding the windmill. The only animals who never lost heart were Boxer and Clover. In spring, further lies were spread about Snowball, with him being rumored with frequenting Animal Farm at night to terrorize the farm. Eventually, Squealer declared that Snowball sold himself to Mr. Frederick of Pinchfield Farm and that Snowball was in league with Jones the entire time. This puzzles the animals. Boxer points out that Snowball was wounded in the Battle of the Cowshed. Squealer retorts it, saying it was all an act. He manages to persuade Boxer by pointing out that Napoleon believes this to be true.

Four days later, Napoleon holds a meeting. The dogs seize four of the pigs by the ear. They go mad after tasting blood and three of them launch towards Boxer. Boxer catches one of them and ponders whether he should kill it; looking at Napoleon for orders. Napoleon orders him to let the dog go, which Boxer does. The pigs confess to working with Snowball and they are killed by the dogs. Following this, other animals confess with working with Snowball and they are all killed by the dogs. Afterwards, all the animals are shaken by this. Boxer is devastated and decides to get up a full hour early as his solution to any future occurrence of that sort.

The Battle of the Windmill and Boxer's death

The animals continued to work on the windmill, this time making the walls twice as thick. Napoleon was having a complicated matters with two other humans, Mr. Pilkington of Foxwood Farm and Mr. Frederick of Pinchfield Farm. Napoleon was seemingly settling on selling timber to Mr. Pilkington, who spread horrific tales of Mr. Frederick's actions towards his animals. The windmill structure was finished by autumn. Napoleon decided to sell the timber to Mr. Frederick, with Mr. Pilkington getting vilified by the animals.

Mr. Frederick got the timber from Napoleon and paid them in banknotes, which Boxer sniffed when they passed by him. Four days later, it was revealed that the banknotes were forgeries. Napoleon declares the death sentence on Mr. Frederick. The next morning, Mr. Frederick and his men blow up their windmill. The animals retaliated and a bloody and violent battle ensued. In the battle, Boxer broke three of the men's heads by kicking them. By the end of the battle, the animals won, but they everyone was wounded. Boxer was bleeding from his knee, lost a horseshoe, had a split hoof, and pellets lodged into his hind leg.

Squealer celebrates this as a victory because they had won back their land. Boxer braces himself for the work needed to rebuild the windmill again. Boxer realizes for the first time that his muscles weren't what they used to be. A funeral was held for the casualties of the battle. Boxer and Clover pulled a wagon that acted as a hearse for the dead animals. Despite his split hoof taking a long time to heal, Boxer made it a point in honor not to let the animals see that he is injured and refused to take a day off of work.

Clover and Benjamin tried to convince Boxer not to work as hard as he is doing, but Boxer refused to listen. Retirement for animals after a certain age is discussed among the pigs. By April, Animal Farm was declared a republic and Napoleon was elected as president. Boxer's hoof eventually healed up and Boxer started working harder than ever. Boxer never faltered even during the hours of insufficient food. One summer evening, Boxer is carrying a load of stone when his lung bursts. He collapses onto the ground and cannot get up.

Arrangements are made to take Boxer to the hospital. After Boxer recovers a half hour later, he is taken to straw bed where he rests for two nights, with food administered to him by Clover. Boxer is eventually hauled off by a van. However, Benjamin reads the writing on the van and the animals realize that Boxer is being carried off to the knacks. Clover tries to warn Boxer. However, by the time Boxer realizes that he will be meeting his death in the knacks, it is too late and he cannot escape.

Legacy

Boxer's death was falsified by Squealer, who gives a moving testimony of him seeing Boxer die in the hospital. He claims that the knackers van was bought by the vets and didn't paint the old name out. It becomes apparent that Napoleon sold Boxer to the knackers and bought whisky using the money earned. Benjamin was always reclusive and angst, but was dedicated to Boxer. Following Boxer's death, Benjamin became even more taciturn. By the end of the novel, very few remember who Boxer was with the exception of those who knew him.

Boxer is a symbol for the proletariat working class people of the Soviet Union under Stalin's rule as part of the story's overall allegory about the Russian Revolution.

A huge, gentle carthorse. Boxer isn’t especially intelligent—he only learns the first four letters of the alphabet—but Old Major’s speech and the equality expressed in the Seven Commandments appeals to his generous nature. Because of this, Boxer becomes one of Napoleon and Snowball’s biggest disciples as they attempt to spread the ideals of Animalism to others, as Boxer is capable of making simple, easy to understand arguments to his peers. After the rebellion, Boxer then becomes one of the most valuable members of Animal Farm, as he’s fully sold on its ideals, entirely loyal to Napoleon, and convinced that his hard work is absolutely essential to the success of the farm. On that final point, Boxer is right: his labor is what makes it so that the animals are able to build both attempts at their windmills. To this end, Boxer adopts two personal mottos: “I will work harder,” and “Napoleon is always right.” Through these mottos, the novel shows how someone like Boxer sacrifices himself to the cause at the expense of everything, including his health, his intellect, and his possibility for advancement. Boxer never realizes that Napoleon is the reason conditions are so poor on Animal Farm, and he never becomes aware of his own strength or power to change anything. This means that when Boxer collapses, he fully believes that Napoleon is going to send him to a human veterinarian—and he can’t read the writing on the van that comes to take him away, which is a van bound for a glue factory. By the time other animals alert Boxer to what’s going on, Boxer is far too weak to make any successful attempt to save himself, and instead, his death goes on to benefit the ruling class of pigs on Animal Farm. Boxer represents the male working class and peasants of the Soviet Union.

Boxer is a character from George Orwell's 1945 novella Animal Farm, who is shown as the farm's dedicated and loyal labourer. The cart-horse Boxer serves as an allegory for the Russian working-class who helped to oust Tsar Nicholas II and establish the Soviet Union, but were eventually betrayed by the government under Joseph Stalin.

He is described as "faithful";[1] and he believes any problem can be solved if he works harder.[2] David Low used a cart horse as a symbol for the T.U.C. in cartoons for many years before Orwell began to write Animal Farm.

Boxer can only remember four letters of the alphabet at a time but sees the importance of education, aspiring to learn the rest of the alphabet during his retirement. Boxer is a loyal supporter of Napoleon. Boxer listens to everything the self-appointed ruler of the farm says and assumes that everything Napoleon tells the farm animals is true, hence "Napoleon is always right".

Boxer's strength plays a huge part in keeping Animal Farm together prior to his death: the rest of the animals trusted in it to keep their spirits high during the long and hard laborious winters. Boxer was the only close friend of Benjamin, the cynical donkey.

Boxer fights in the Battle of the Cowshed and the Battle of the Windmill. He kicks a stable boy during a fight, mistakingly believing he has killed the boy. Though he dislikes humans, he hates himself for doing so, thinking that he went too far. When Boxer defends Snowball's reputation from Squealer's revisionism, the pigs designate him as a target for the Great Purge. However, when the dogs attack, Boxer pins one under his hooves, causing the other dogs to flee, and the captured dog is spared at Napoleon's request. When he collapses from overwork, the pigs say they have sent him to a veterinarian. In actuality, they have sent him to the knacker's yard to be slaughtered, in exchange for money to buy a case of whisky for the pigs to drink. Benjamin, who is described as "devoted to Boxer", noticed that the van Boxer is taken away in is the knacker's; however, Squealer deceives the other animals by saying that the van was owned by a veterinarian who failed to repaint the van. Squealer concocts a sentimental tale of the death of Boxer, saying that he was given the best medical care possible, paid for by the "compassionate" Napoleon. Boxer's death is turned into a day of honoring him. Squealer says that his sayings, "Comrade Napoleon is always right" and "I will work harder!" should live on in all the animals, another excuse to make the animals work even harder.

During Old Major's speech, which inspired the principles of Animalism, a specific reference is made to how Boxer would be turned into glue under Farmer Jones' rule, thus implying that it would not happen to him under Animalism. "You, Boxer, the very day that those great muscles of yours lose their power, Jones will send you to the knacker, who will cut your throat and boil you down for the foxhounds." Horses are universally prized for their strength, and Boxer is no exception: Standing almost six-feet tall, Boxer is a devoted citizen of the farm whose incredible strength is a great asset to the rebellion and the farm. As soon as he learns about Animalism, Boxer throws himself into the rebellion's cause. At the Battle of the Cowshed, Boxer proves to be a valuable soldier, knocking a stable-boy unconscious with his mighty hoof. (Note that Boxer, however, is not bloodthirsty and feels great remorse when he thinks he has killed the boy.) His rising early to work on the farm and his personal maxim — "I will work harder" — reveal his devotion to the animals' cause. He also proves himself to be the most valuable member of the windmill-building team.

Boxer's great strength, however, is matched by his equally stunning innocence and naiveté. He is not an intelligent animal (recall his inability to learn any of the alphabet past the letter D) and therefore can only think in simple slogans, the second of which ("Napoleon is always right") reveals his childlike dependence on an all-knowing leader. Even when he collapses while rebuilding the windmill, his first thoughts are not of himself but of the work: "It is my lung ... It does not matter. I think you will be able to finish the windmill without me." His hopes of retiring with Benjamin after his collapse display the extent of his innocence, since the reader knows that Napoleon has no intention of providing for an old, infirm horse. Even when he is being led to his death at the knacker's, Boxer needs to be told of his terrible fate by Benjamin and Clover. He becomes wise to Napoleon's ways too late, and his death is another example of Napoleon's tyranny.