Sunday, April 20, 2014

What is the significance of Sugarcandy Mountain in Animal Farm?

Sugarcandy Mountain is what the animals call heaven in Animal Farm. The raven Moses tells the other animals stories about it. It floats up in the sky, and is where animals go when they die. It is a paradise: "In Sugarcandy Mountain it was Sunday seven days a week, clover was in season all the year round, and lump sugar and linseed cake grew on the hedges," Moses explains. He flees with Mrs. Jones when the animals take over the farm.


The pigs at first work hard to convince the animals that Sugarcandy Mountain isn't real. But a few years later, Moses reappears and now the animals, hungry and overworked, are more willing than ever to hear his talk of Sugarcandy Mountain. 


Oddly enough, the pigs don't chase Moses away. They scoff at his words but also give him a beer allowance every day.


Moses is clearly supposed to be a Christian priest, telling, from a communist point of view, false stories about heaven so that the animals will bear their miserable lot in the hope of an afterlife. It is significant that the pigs encourage Moses to stay: it shows how the farm is becoming more corrupt and the pigs more like their former human masters.

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