Benjamin's cynicism

Benjamin was the oldest animal on the farm, and the worst tempered. He seldom talked, and when he did, it was usually to make some cynical remark—for instance, he would say that God had given him a tail to keep the flies off, but that he would sooner have had no tail and no flies. Alone among the animals on the farm he never laughed. If asked why, he would say that he saw nothing to laugh at. Nevertheless, without openly admitting it, he was devoted to Boxer; the two of them usually spent their Sundays together in the small paddock, grazing side by side and never speaking.

The Rebellion came and transformed the farm, but Benjamin seemed quite unchanged. He did his work in the same slow obstinate way as he had done it in Jones's time, never shirking and never volunteering for extra work either. About the Rebellion and its results he would express no opinion. When asked whether he was not happier now that Jones was gone, he would say only, "Donkeys live a long time. None of you has ever seen a dead donkey," and the others had to be content with this cryptic answer.

When the animals debated the windmill, Benjamin refused to believe either that food would become more plentiful or that the windmill would save work. "Windmill or no windmill," he said, "life would go on as it had always gone on—that is, badly."

In the autumn, when the animals toiled harder than ever and walked round the half-finished mill, admiring its strength and perpendicularity, only old Benjamin refused to grow enthusiastic about the windmill, though, as usual, he would utter nothing beyond the cryptic remark that donkeys live a long time.