In
, Moses the raven represents organized religion in the Soviet Union. This is shown
clearly in Chapter Two when Moses starts telling the other animals about a place called
"Sugarcandy Mountain:"
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.
Just like the Christian
view of Heaven, Sugarcandy Mountain is a place where animals go when they die. Like Heaven, too,
Sugarcandy Mountain is an idyllic utopia where there is no suffering or pain.
When Stalin first became the leader of the Soviet Union, he actively oppressed
organized religion. He did not want his citizens to believe in God or go to Church. He wanted
them to be completely obedient to the state. But, when he was trying to encourage people to
support the war effort in the 1940s, he reintroduced religion because he realized that it could
serve a purpose for his regime. Specifically, it can make people accept harsh and unfair
conditions because they think that they will go to a better place when they die.
It is for this reason that the pigs allow Moses to stay on the farm. They even give him
a daily ration of beer because they know that his talk of Sugarcandy Mountain is good for
morale. It will keep the animals from rising up againstbecause they think that they will be
rewarded for their obedience and hard work when they die.
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