the sound of boxers drumming weakly on the back of the horse slaughter van grow fainter and dies away. in that dying sound is the dying hope of humanity. as areader of this novel animal farm sense the situation

The hope is dying for the animals and as such, they are actually becoming worse than the humans before them. The fact is, this novel symbolizes (at some level) that men are animals and the animals, no matter what, have no more noble motives than any. Boxer is the most loyal servant of Animal Farm, and yet he is the first to go as soon as he can no longer "work" for the pigs the way they want.