Question

And you, Clover, where are those four foals you bore, who should have been the support and pleasure of your old age? Each was sold at a year old—you will never see one of them again. In return for your four confinements and all your labour in the fields, what have you ever had except your bare rations and a stall?

–Animal Farm,
George Orwell

Relate the character of Clover to the historical context. Which group does she most likely represent from the time Orwell was writing?

the royalty and nobility
the wealthy upper class
the exploited working class
the ruling government officials

Answer 1

Correct answer: the exploited working class.

Clover is a maternal, hardworking cart-horse who toils in the fields, receives only bare rations and a stall, and watches her foals sold off—she embodies the exploited proletariat/peasantry. Orwell uses her to represent ordinary working people who do the labor and suffer deprivation under regimes that promise betterment but ultimately betray them.