Boxer from Animal Farm and the Apple Family

[Silly Lily 80]

Here's a list of similarities that I find:

• Family: good qualities of the 'working' class
• Family: farming
• Applejack: "we gotta collect them all for the pigs to eat." (Sisterhooves Social)
• Applejack in Applebuck season is basically "I will work harder!"
• Applejack: faithful and strong; represents honesty (and very loyal as well)
• Applejack: simple "don't use your fancy mathematics on me"
• Big Macintosh: smart "one pony plus hundreds o' apple trees just doesn't add up"
• Big Macintosh: one of the strongest, if not the strongest, pony in Ponyville but still a gentle giant
• Big Macintosh: Eeyup; Nnnope
• Big Macintosh was injured when we first met him
• Apple Bloom: somewhat impressionable (but that's probably because she doesn't have her cutie mark)

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And here's something I wrote about Big Macintosh and Boxer a while ago:

 

 

Physically

Introduced as an "enormous beast" who is "as strong as any two ordinary horses" and facial features that "gave him a somewhat stupid appearance". Is this Boxer from Animal Farm or Big Macintosh? Both are very physically impressive with strong muscular bodies and at least for Big Mac his half-closed eyes give a bored, tired, or dull appearance.

 

Intellectually

Boxer is said to have "had great difficulty in thinking anything out for (himself), but having once accepted the pigs as (his) teachers, (he) absorbed everything that (he was) told, and passed it on to the other animals bysimple arguments." Personally, the ability to teach others and break down hard arguments into easy ones is very smart.

 

Speaking of simple arguments, when Big Macintosh is talking to Applejack, he does makes fairly simple statements about tree and ponies which are even accused of being "fancy mathematics".

 

Thus, I'm not going to say that Big Mac isn't smart, and, frankly, I wouldn't even say Boxer wasn't smart; it's a different kind of smart. Being both workhorses/ponies, both possess a practical wisdom of physical labour of working with the land in harmony with nature - a "work smarts" that can only be learned via experience.

 

Prowess

Now, after thinking about Applebuck Season, it seems pretty apparent to me that Sweet Apple Acres rests (or did rest upon) the work done by Big Macintosh. Sorry AJ, but as strong or as hardworking as you may be, Big Macintosh probably did a majority of the physical labour and, on a farm, work has got to be done when it's needed. As for strong, it takes AJ two legs to buck while Big Macintosh not only uses one leg but with a lot less effort on his part.

 

Industry

Stressing that fact that "nothing could have been achieved without Boxer, whose strength seemed equal to that of all the rest of the animals put together." I'm going to compare it to Applejack's ability of only harvesting 1/2 the apples from Sweet Apple Acres. Not taking that away from her, it is amazing but, in context, it was extremely hard on her. Even though she took time off from bucking for her friends, she was already out of it when she tried to help and thus, relatively speaking, helping her friends didn’t really account for her weariness. She just couldn't handle 1/2 the farm.

 

Now, why was she so tired after doing 1/2 the farm? I think it’s either she doesn’t do 1/2 the farm or she doesn’t do 1/2 the farm in that amount of time. As we’ve seen Big Macintosh is insanely strong (to the point Pinkie Pie-extremes) and, given his common-sense attitude he’s probably much better at pacing himself. He’s also a lot better at estimating things, "too big for you to handle on your own" and "biting off more than you can chew is just what I'm afraid of." It's as if he is the super-stallion and he knows he's the super-stallion but doesn't really care about it in regards to being 'super', i.e., his humble soft-spoken attitude rules everything about him. Applejack, however, might have thought it a bit condescending when Big Macintosh thought it was too much for her?

 

The point of the previous paragraph was to suggest that Big Macintosh probably does/did well over 1/2 the trees of Sweet Apple Acres and probably 3/4 of them. Like Animal farm without Boxer, Sweet Apple Acres without Big Macintosh isn't really going to work. The fate of the farm rests on their shoulders.

[Radiance64 7,053]

Ok, so the Apple family is similar to a horse named Boxer from the novel Animal Farm- yes, I suppose that's an easy comparison to make.

[I used to be a stranger 7,993]

Now, why was she so tired after doing 1/2 the farm? I think it’s either she doesn’t do 1/2 the farm or she doesn’t do 1/2 the farm in that amount of time. As we’ve seen Big Macintosh is insanely strong (to the point Pinkie Pie-extremes) and, given his common-sense attitude he’s probably much better at pacing himself. He’s also a lot better at estimating things, "too big for you to handle on your own" and "biting off more than you can chew is just what I'm afraid of." It's as if he is the super-stallion and he knows he's the super-stallion but doesn't really care about it in regards to being 'super', i.e., his humble soft-spoken attitude rules everything about him. Applejack, however, might have thought it a bit condescending when Big Macintosh thought it was too much for her?

Well for all we know about him, that might actually be the voice of experience talking, rather than an estimation.

Time will only tell, for deeper context of the noble red stallion.

 

The point of the previous paragraph was to suggest that Big Macintosh probably does/did well over 1/2 the trees of Sweet Apple Acres and probably 3/4 of them. Like Animal farm without Boxer, Sweet Apple Acres without Big Macintosh isn't really going to work. The fate of the farm rests on their shoulders.

 

Forgive my obtuseness but I never read it. I suppose paralells could be drawn, but tropes like these are common in many places.

People draw similarities between Rarity and The Spy from Team Fortress 2 for goodness sakes.

[Snow Shadow 41]

I can see the comparisons. But, any character can be compared to another. Similarities are bound to be found. We could compare Twilight Sparkle to Raven or my friend Nick all day. One is defined by their differences and their similarities. Judging on one is absolutely fatal.