The ideal of Animalism is established before the Animal Revolution when Old Major speaks of a world ruled by beasts where all the animals work together freely to take care of one another. In Animal Farm, the Achilles-heel of the creatures' Shangri-la is the fact that they cannot overcome their own natures; Orwell clearly illustrates this animadversion with the characters of the sheep, the farmers, and the pigs.

The sheep represent the vacillating factory workers in the Soviet Union who simply obeyed the dictates of the government because they do not believe themselves capable of making their own decisions. Just after the revolution, the sheep appear to support the revolution using the revolutionary slogan: "Four legs good, two legs bad" (Orwell, 1956, p. 50). Their constant repetition of the inflammatory shibboleth makes it appear as though they iterate the catchword because they strongly support the creed of Animalism. However, we...