Snowball's bravery

At the Battle of the Cowshed, Snowball displayed both strategic cunning and personal courage. He had prepared an ambush in the cowshed, and when the men of Jones, Foxwood, and Pinchfield rushed into the yard in disorder, he gave the signal for the charge. He himself dashed straight for Mr. Jones, who raised his gun and fired. The pellets "scored bloody streaks along Snowball's back," killing a sheep, but Snowball "without halting for an instant, flung his fifteen stone against Jones's legs," hurling him into a pile of dung and disarming him. Snowball's tactical planning and his willingness to lead the attack directly against the armed human were central to the victory.

The animals immediately recognized Snowball's bravery. The battle was named the Battle of the Cowshed, and Snowball was awarded the newly created "Animal Hero, First Class" — a brass medal worn on Sundays. Yet a contrast already existed: Boxer, who had killed a stable-lad with his iron-shod hoof, wept and said, "I have no wish to take life, not even human life." Snowball replied, "War is war. The only good human being is a dead one." This divergence — between Snowball's unflinching intensity and Boxer's moral distress — foreshadowed the later slanders against Snowball's character.

After Snowball's expulsion, Napoleon's regime systematically dismantled his reputation. Squealer began to hint that "the time will come when we shall find that Snowball's part in it was much exaggerated," and that "bravery is not enough." Later, Squealer announced that Snowball had been "in league with Jones from the very start" and that his wound was a deliberate part of the plot. The animals, recalling how Snowball had charged ahead and rallied them, found it "a little difficult to see how this fitted in with his being on Jones's side." Yet, under Squealer's graphic descriptions and the pressure of the dogs, their memories shifted: "they all remembered, or thought they remembered" the version that served the regime.

Snowball's bravery thus became a contested site of memory. The animals' genuine recollection of his heroism at the Battle of the Cowshed could not withstand the constant propaganda and the threat of violence. The episode illustrates how the regime not only controlled the present but also colonized the past, rewriting even the most visible acts of courage. Snowball's bravery was real, but its meaning was stolen.