Benjamin is, as Orwell describes him, a cryptic character in Animal Farm In fact, cryptic is the very word that Orwell twice uses in connection with Benjamin repeated comment that "Donkeys live a long time. None of you has ever seen a dead donkey" (p. 12; also see p. 26).
Benjamin is clearly a comrade that the other animals cannot understand. But is he so hard for us to understand? What do we know about Benjamin? What is he like? What are his important characteristics?
And these questions lead, naturally, to another set: what group in our societies is symbolized by Benjamin? What is Orwell symbolically telling us through this character? Who does he remind you of? Why?
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My Yes/No question is:
Is Orwell's character Benjamin so cryptic?
Does he remind you of anyone?
My answer is:
Yes/No. Coming in a comment
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Reference
Yes, Benjamin remind me about a person named Chuwit. He is a politician in Thailan. As far as I know, he like to critique everything, don't care about everything except himselves and no one can harmful him.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I don't know too much about his background or political affair which he involves. That's why, I avoid to choose this character although it sound interesting character.
I think he's interesting, too, but perhaps a little more effort is required to unwrap his secrets, where are, as Orwell says, cryptic.
DeleteThe first person that Benjamin makes me think of is the ancient Greek philosopher Diogenes the street dog. But that's just the start ...
ReplyDeleteDiogenes of Sinope was around roughly at the same time as Plato, Aristotle and Alexander.
DeleteThe more modern versions of Benjamin are probably more interesting, but this is the one I always think of first, even though I'm not sure how well the symbolism holds up to critical analysis.
Yes, I think Benjamin is cryptic. From the story, he seems to know something but he didn't say it. He think nothing would change after the rebellion. He seems to be the cleverest one but he didn't show off. His characteristic reminds me of monk and professor. These people are clever, normal people would hardly understand what they are thinking. Although some of their thought might be useful but because of their characteristic it's hard for them to interest people because they didn't show off as a leader or important person from the beginning. That's why they think if there's no one listening to them, they better don't say it.
ReplyDeleteI like the professor idea - who fail to speak what they know until it's too late. There seem to me a lot of failures by the characters in Animal Farm, with one of the biggest being Major's, but also Snowball and most of the others are guilty of bringing about the inevitable end. At least for Clover and Boxer, their failure is understandable.
DeleteCould the end have been other than it is, or would any other outcome require random events?
I do not think that Benjamin is so cryptic but I think he is more of a sarcastic person. As he always says, "Donkeys live a long time. None of you has ever seen a dead donkey". This is quite a bit of exaggeration, no extremely exaggerated. If I shot Benjamin in Animal Farm, he sure die in front of all other animals. I think he is extremely talkative and usually have overstatement. He is quite similar to Squealer if judging from only the speech mentioned. Benjamin is also overconfident as we can witness with his sarcastic tone while we read (I can imagine that just like how my friends talk in such sarcastic tone). But in fact, he is only just an animal that can only exaggerate and has almost no contribution to the animal rebellion or any conflict animals' farm have. This reminded me of some Thai politicians whom I do not want to say out the name as I scared that I might be put behind the bar if stated. For safety reasons, I would not like to compare Benjamin with anyone.
ReplyDeleteI would say that Benjamin is a cryptic character. From the outside look, Benjamin is not so cryptic because of his claim that he has lived long enough to know how awful the world really is. Some people will think that he is more stubborn than wise. But if we want to go into details or what he has in his mind, I might not be able to understand what he has experienced and what he has understood. So Benjamin could be really cryptic by what he's hiding inside him.
ReplyDeleteBenjamin reminds me of those who stay behind the scene living day by day without contributing any major effects to the politics. Those people have known a lot about how bad the political system really is and how they should act towards it. It seems like they do not care about anything happening, but who knows whether they have already known the results that will follow.
Yes, I couldn't agree more. He is so cryptic that other animals seem never understand what he implies at all.
ReplyDeleteWithin a short time of thinking, this character reminds me to think of one of the famous politician in Thailand who now is in jail, Shuwit Kamolwisit. Even though he was not really mysterious person, his behavior is to reveal the reliable fact that people have never thought before or misunderstood, especially for political issues about corruption, conspiracy and deception. Instead of telling directly, he usually tell the people with implied speech or masterful language to lead to other authorities and people help criticize and examine.
He seems to be able to see through the others'tricks and predict the future situation quite reasonably and accurately.
No, I don't think he is a cryptic character, since there is this kind of skeptical personality in every culture. The person who he remind me of is "Nuamthong", the taxi driver who sacrifice his own life to protest the coup in 2007. In those day, many people, even a large groups of academic, seem to agree with that coup, because almost everyone blame Thaksin for his misbehave and cheer up the military to make a coup. He is the only one who can see the hazardous future to invite the military to involved in the politics and give them the license to "coup", then the tragedy begins for a decade and we cannot imagine what is the ending of political polarisation among Thai society. I hope the ending of this chaos in Thailand will be better than the future that Benjamin saw in his situation in the novel.
ReplyDeleteYes , he is. Benjamin in Animal farm is on the steoreotipically stubborn old animal. He has an unfriendly nature,but intelligent that was the animal who can read influently. The rebellion didn't change his personality, although he eventually helped the animals read the lettering on the side of the van and change Seven commandments.
ReplyDeleteBenjamin remind me of stereotype people. I has been seen many Thais like Benjamin such as Thais teachers, Thai officials, and some relatives, etc. I think they they live long time and also still think that they always right while many thing had change.
ReplyDeleteBenjamin is a donkey, an oldest animals and most thoughtful animal on the farm; he is always cynical to comment. He reminds me the author of Orwell, himself. He is the witness of the all crucial events on the farm but says nothing on it. He quietly warns the situation something like a historian.
ReplyDeleteYes, Benjamin is so cryptic character. everyone can know exactly nothing about his way while he shows that he know everything even a future.
ReplyDeleteIn the social, many people act like his character by using fanciful words to persuade other to increase the value in other sight whether is it good for social or not.