Its such a shame Napoleon drove Snowball off animal farm. It seems like everything just went downhill from there. Snowball was, along with Old Major, the visionary. He was kind of the driving force behind animal farm. He was extremely enthusiastic, and he had quite a few great ideas (like the windmill) and it was him who inspired the animals at the beginning of the book. Perhaps it was because of his influence that he was chased off. At the end of the book, it seemed like animal farm was devoid of both ideas and visionaries, so Snowball's absence was certainly something for the animals to lament about. Had they been able to think for themselves, they might have actually realised what a loss Snowball's absence was.