Khasawneh 1

Sheerin Khasawneh

Mrs. Lucidi

Advanced English 1 , Period 5

17 April 2016

Can hope be religious?

Is hope so important to people, or even animals, that they would need it to get through the

day? ​Animal Farm​ by George Orwell is a successful allegory embedded in politics by using

animals to represent people in history.​ ​The character Moses is a raven seeking for some animal

to hear his guidance to Sugarcandy Mountain which is a symbol for Heaven. ​Moses is deported

out of the farm due to his epidemic of optimism to the animals which is looked at as a threat

towards Napoleon (the leader of Animal Farm). ​Moses the biblical figure is a prince and prophet

who is trying to convince his people-the Jews- of Egypt to believe that there is a God and a

Heaven where people can relax from the laborious work they have had to endure throughout

their lives.​ Moses the raven is represents the biblical figure of Moses; both these characters

provide hope for the future and give others something positive to believe in.

As said before, Moses the raven represents Moses the prophet. Moses was born in Egypt

to a woman named Jochebed. The year Moses was born was the same year when the pharaoh

ordered all hebrew male newborns to be thrown into the nile in, “​Every Hebrew boy that is born

you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live” ​(​The NIV Bible, Exod. 1:22​)​. ​ He did this

because he has had dreams of his son being overthrown by a hebrew. The prophecy in the

Pharoah’s dream stated: “An old man was standing before him as he sat on his throne, holding a

balance in his hand. The old man placed all the nobles and governors of Egypt on one side of the
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balance, and on the other side, he placed one small lamb. To Pharoah’s great astonishment, the

lamb outweighed all the leaders of Egypt” (​The Jerusalem Bible, Exod. 4:31​). This dream was

said to all the servants and fortune tellers, for the Pharaoh wanted to know what it meant. One

servant told him it meant there will be one hebrew that will have the power to conquer the

Pharaoh's son and release all the hebrews from Egypt. The Hebrew were prisoners and were

forced to do labor by the Pharaoh. Jochebed knews of the law to get rid of all hebrew newborns,

for she fled with Moses in a basket; Jochebed prayed after setting the basket into the nile. She

told Moses’ older sister to keep watch of the basket and make sure there is no harm in it’s way,

“As The Lord guides Moses through the nile, pushing him away of thou crocodile, pushing away

of thou boats, and pushing towards a new life: the pharaoh's palace” (​The Jerusalem Bible, Exod.

3:29)​ . Moses becomes a prince in the palace growing more and more aware of his own Hebrew

blood. Moses also becomes more aware of the slaves that were Jews. Moses grows up with

prince Ramses and called him brother until Ramses became Pharaoh. Moses fled only to come

back with a Hebrew family of his own and a message sent to him by God to stop the slavery of

Hebrews. Ramses did not take this message well and believed that he is the only God and that

the Hebrews were what kept the country going. God made Egypt go through terrible plagues,

sandstorms, raining bugs and frogs, etc. for Ramses to agree. Eventually, Ramses was swallowed

by the nile due to Moses’ power and Moses continues the Exodus and took his people into a new

country.

The animals on the farm are vulnerable and Moses wiggle’s his way into the heads of the

animals by talking about Heaven and religion. Moses is purposely not given a big role in this

story because he is supposed to look unimportant. Moses, just like Moses the prophet, would
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explain how there is always something at the end of the road and that the work they are going

through will end. Moses the raven speaks of a place called Sugarcandy Mountain which is

Heaven but the pigs believe this to be “lies that are a struggle to counteract. Moses, who [is] Mr.

Jones’s especial pet, [is] a spy and a talebearer, but he [is] also a clever talker” (Orwell 17).

Moses the biblical figure is a prince and is committed to doing no work which is why the

Hebrews took awhile to accommodate to what he was truly saying. This is what Moses the raven

is going through: lack of attention to him, “The animals [hate] Moses because he did no work,

but some of them believed in Sugarcandy Mountain, and the pigs [have] to argue very hard to

persuade them that there [is] no such place” (Orwell 18). Moses is special to Mr. Jones for a very

important reason: Mr. Jones can be represented as the Pharaoh. The Pharaoh favored Moses

which is why he took him under his care when he first found him in the nile. It seems that Moses

is favored purposely to distract the animals from all the work from time to time. Moses is kicked

off the farm then brought back to persuade but is once again drunken purposely to make it look

as if he has been saying nonsense. The animals, being vulnerable, believe in Moses’ talk of

Sugarcandy Mountain, “the existence of a mysterious country to which all animals went when

they [die]. It [is] situated somewhere up in the sky, a little distance beyond the clouds, Moses

[says]” (Orwell 17). Sugarcandy Mountain is represented as Heaven, therefore, the animals

believe there really is hope for them. The animal’s are always doing laborious tasks and would

use the motivation from Moses as something to work for. The animals are driven by their

self-optimism.

Hope is all about one's self-drive and confidence, which is what the animals on the farm

have. The animals are all the different but the one thing they all have in common is being
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optimistic and Moses really proves that the animals can do anything if they have something to

work for. Moses the prophet and Moses the raven are both religious and optimistic and so they

both share their thoughts with other people to use their beliefs to a good cause. ​Animal Farm

proves that being optimistic can take one a long way.

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Works Cited

​ ew York: Signet, 1996. Print

Orwell, George.​ Animal Farm. N

The Jerusalem Bible​. Ed. Darton Longman New York: Doubleday, 1966. Print.

The NIV Bible.​ London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1997. Print.