An elderly Middle White boar, his "purebred" of pigs is a kind, grandfatherly philosopher of change.

[1][2] Major proposes a solution to the animals' desperate plight on Manor Farm under the Jones administration and inspires thoughts of a rebellion.

[3][4] But when he dies three days after delivering his speech, the animals immediately set to work on bringing about the rebellion,[2] driving Jones and the farmhands off the farm and removing many of the implements of his rule.

[4] The Seven Commandments that Snowball transcribes, which are supposed to encompass Major's general philosophy, are gradually altered and deformed under Napoleon until they have entirely different meanings from those originally intended.

In the 1999 version (voiced by Peter Ustinov), Farmer Jones slips in mud while investigating the sounds coming from the barn, setting off his shotgun and indirectly hitting Major in his backside so that he staggers backward and falls from the top of the barn to his death.