Benjamin is one of the oldest animals on the farm and is
still alive in the concluding chapter of the novel. Consequently he is well qualified to
comment on the final outcome of the entire history of the rebellion of the animals and
the final state of affairs on the farm.
In the last chapter
of the novel Orwell concludes that although the rebellion of the animals began very
optimistically it has now deteriorated to a stage where the pigs - the ruling elite -
had completely hijacked the rebellion for their own selfish ends, so much so now they
are no different from the men whom they had
overthrown:
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.
Benjamin, of
course, is the intelligent cynic, the voice of Orwell who comes to the sad conclusion
that the lot of the common man will never change, no matter the form of government, as
long as man is greedy, selfish, and power crazy. And that is why he concludes that the
lot of the common man is one of unmitigated misery:
hunger, hardship, and disappointment being, so he
said, the unalterable law of life.
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