Old Major

Major, also called Willingdon Beauty during showings, is a fictional character of 1945 novella Animal Farm. A prize Middle White boar, the pig is a kind, grandfatherly philosopher of change.

Old Major is the first major character introduced in the novella, written by George Orwell. He serves as an allegory for both Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin, whose ideas together influenced the Marxist-Leninist communist ideology that was later shaped by Joseph Stalin. Stalin, in turn, is represented in the novella by Napoleon, the story's main antagonist.