Squealer

Squealer is the pig who serves as Napoleon's chief propagandist and mouthpiece on Animal Farm, using his brilliant oratory and persuasive skills to justify every authoritarian measure and rewrite history in the pigs' favor. A small, fat pig with very round cheeks, twinkling eyes, nimble movements, and a shrill voice, he is described as a brilliant talker with a way of skipping from side to side and whisking his tail that is somehow very persuasive; the other animals say of him that he could turn black into white. From the earliest days of the Rebellion, Squealer is one of the three pigs—alongside Snowball and Napoleon—who elaborate Old Major's teachings into a complete system of thought called Animalism, and he plays a central role in expounding its principles to the other animals during the secret meetings held several nights a week after Mr. Jones is asleep.

Role as Propagandist and Justifier

Squealer's most consistent function is to provide seemingly reasonable justifications for every policy that benefits the pigs at the expense of the other animals. When the milk and windfall apples are reserved for the pigs alone, Squealer is sent to explain that this is not selfishness but a necessity: milk and apples contain substances absolutely necessary to the well-being of a pig, who are brainworkers on whom the whole management of the farm depends. He appeals to the animals' deepest fear, asking, "Surely, comrades, there is no one among you who wants to see Jones come back?"—an argument that proves unanswerable. When the pigs move into the farmhouse and sleep in the beds, Squealer reinterprets the Fourth Commandment, claiming it only forbids sleeping in a bed with sheets, which the pigs have removed. When the pigs begin to drink alcohol, the Fifth Commandment is later revealed to read "No animal shall drink alcohol TO EXCESS." When the animals are executed after confessing to crimes, the Sixth Commandment is found to include the words "WITHOUT CAUSE." In each case, Squealer's glib explanations and the threatening presence of the dogs silence any doubt.

Rewriting History and Controlling Memory

Squealer is instrumental in systematically rewriting the history of the farm to serve Napoleon's power. After Snowball's expulsion, Squealer explains that Napoleon had never really opposed the windmill—that he had only pretended to as a tactical maneuver to get rid of Snowball, who was a dangerous character. He repeats the word "tactics" with a merry laugh, and the animals accept his explanation. Later, Squealer convinces the animals that the resolution against engaging in trade and using money had never been passed—it was pure imagination, probably traceable to lies circulated by Snowball. When the animals remember that Snowball fought bravely at the Battle of the Cowshed, Squealer counters that bravery is not enough and that Snowball's part in the battle was much exaggerated; eventually he claims that Snowball was actually Jones's secret agent from the very start, and that his wounds were part of the arrangement. Squealer's technique is to speak with such graphic detail and confidence that the animals come to believe they remember events as he describes them. He also uses the sheep's bleating of "Four legs good, two legs bad" to interrupt and drown out any discussion at crucial moments.

Enforcer of Ideology and Discipline

Squealer is the primary voice of the regime's ideology, delivering speeches on the joy of service and the dignity of labor, and reading out lists of figures that prove production has increased by two hundred, three hundred, or five hundred percent. The animals see no reason to disbelieve him, especially as they can no longer remember clearly what conditions were like before the Rebellion. He explains that a too rigid equality in rations would be contrary to the principles of Animalism, and that any reduction is a "readjustment," never a reduction. He organizes the Spontaneous Demonstrations, which feature processions, poems in Napoleon's honor, and speeches giving particulars of the latest increases in foodstuff production. When Boxer is taken away in the knacker's van, Squealer announces that he died in the hospital at Willingdon after receiving every attention, and that the van's markings were a mistake—it had previously been the property of the knacker and had been bought by the veterinary surgeon who had not yet painted the old name out. The animals are enormously relieved.

Physical Description and Final Transformation

Squealer's physical appearance changes as the pigs' power grows. By the end of the book, he is so fat that he can with difficulty see out of his eyes. In the final chapter, it is Squealer who first appears walking on his hind legs across the yard, a little awkwardly but with perfect balance, followed by a long file of pigs all walking on their hind legs. He is also the one who leads the sheep away to teach them a new song, and when they return, they burst out with "Four legs good, two legs BETTER!"—the final ideological revision that completes the pigs' transformation into the very humans they once rebelled against. Squealer's career on Animal Farm demonstrates how language, when wielded without scruple, can be used to justify any tyranny and erase any memory of freedom.