George Orwell’s classic novella “Animal Farms” is an allegorical tale about the terror of authoritarianism; one that is much read and dissected by high-schoolers throughout the world.
The book itself is short, only about 150 pages. I spent a delightful afternoon at a local Starbucks reading the whole thing. It started off quite amusing with its eclectic cast of animal characters, satirical and humorous proses, and themes that is obviously allegorical to the Bolshevik Revolution and the subsequent rise of Stalin. But as the story progressed, the plots became darker. I felt attached to the characters (particularly Boxer the horse), and I was deeply saddened by their eventual demise.
As expected from a book that has been so extensively studied, there are many interesting online articles dissecting the many subtleties with “Animal Farm”. With proper historical context, the story becomes that much richer and poignant.
Every plot point, character, and detail in the story is allegorical to some real-life person or event.
I am a huge fan of literary works like Animal Farm; simple allegorical tales that present lucidly so many intriguing social questions and commentaries, yet still readable by a grade-schooler. One need not have read Das Capital, nor understand Hegel’s dialectic to have an intuitive understanding of the various themes in Animal Farm. The book is both poignant and thought-provoking while also being immensely tractable.
Given the fact that “Animal Farm” has been analyzed thousands of times by literary experts around the world, I doubt I have anything remotely interesting to add. Instead, I will summarize the major plot points and also note down some of the memorable sections.
Chapter 1 - Manifesto
The story begins on a Manor Farm, a poorly run farm in England owned and operated by Mr. and Mrs. Jones.
Major, a elderly pig on the farm, had a dream one night that revealed to him the injustices that is being done to them, and the solution to end their suffering and bring forth utopia. He gathers all the animals on the farm and gave a speech that espouses the many tenets of Marxism. Quoting Major:
Now, comrades, what is the nature of this life of ours? Let us face it: our lives are miserable, laborious, and short. […]
But is this simply part of the order of nature? […] No, comrades, a thousand times no! The soil of England is fertile, its climate is good, it is capable of affording food in abundance to an enormously greater number of animals than now inhabit it. […]
the whole of the produce of our labor is stolen from us by human beings. There, comrades, is the answer to all our problems. It is summed up in a single word - Man. […]
Is it not crystal clear, comrades, that all the evils of this life of ours spring form the tyranny of human beings? Only get rid of Man, and the produce of our labor would be our own!
Major then calls for revolution, and an end to their enslavement. A few days later, Major passed away.
Chapter 2 - Revolution
With Major gone, two pigs: Snowball and Napoleon, took on the task of bringing Major’s utopian experiment into fruition. It was noted early on that Snowball and Napoleon often disagreed with each other.
With a coordinated attack, they managed to drive out Mr. and Mrs. Jones. With all the humans out of Manor Farm, it was renamed to “Animal Farm”. The pigs naturally took leadership roles because they were the smartest out of all the animals. The animals agreed to the seven commandments of Animalism:
It was noted that most of the animals knew only a few letters on the alphabet. Only a selected few can actually read the 7 commandments. For example, the sheep could not remember all of the maxims and had simplified the principle to: “four legs good, two legs bad”
Chapter 3 - A New Life
In the early days, the animals were actually quite content and energized. Things were great on the farm. They finally own the fruits of their own labor and most found a new sense of purpose. They were happier than they ever thought was possible.
Slowly, however, it was noted that the pigs, who took leadership role because of their superior intellect, had begun to prioritize resources for themselves.
We pigs are brainworkers. The whole management and organization of this farm depend on us. Day and night we are watching over your welfare. It is for your sake that we drink that milk and eat those apples. DO you know what would happen if we pigs failed in our duty? Mr. Jones would come back!
Chapter 4 - Battle of Cowshed
Mr. Jones and his associates attempted to retake the farm by force. However, their efforts were thwarted by the animals in a battle that soon became known as “The Battle of Cowshed”. Everyone, especially Snowball, heroically defended their farm.
Chapter 5 - Rise of Napoleon
Snowball proposes a grand project of building a windmill on the farm, which would provide them with electricity and improved efficiency. Although it will be difficult, it could potentially reduce their work day to 3 days a week. Napoleon was opposed to the effort. A debate ensues and the animals voted for who they most agree with: Napoleon or Snowball.
Suddenly a gang of intimating, brass-collared dogs that Napoleon had secretly been raising, appeared and chased Snowball out of the farm. He was never to be seen again.
With Snowball gone, Napoleon became the de facto ruler of Animal Farm. To quote Squealer, Napoleon’s loyal supporter:
“Comrades,” he said, “I trust that every animal here appreciates the sacrifice that comrade Napoleon has made in taking this extra labor upon himself. Do not imagine, comrades, that leadership is a pleasure! On the contrary, it is a deep and heavy responsibility.”
It soon became apparent that Napoleon actually never opposed the windmill construction plan, and the animals began work on the windmill.
Chapter 6 - Construction of Windmill
The animals worked like slaves in the construction of the wind mill; however, they bared no grudge as they are aware that everything they did was for their own benefit.
Building a wind mill proved to be a challenging exercise. Boxer, a courageous, strong, but naïve horse became the envy of everyone for his strength and dedication. He adopts the slogan:
“I will work harder. Napoleon is always right”
As the years went on, various food shortages began to show.
It was also during this time that the pigs moved into the main residence of Mr. and Mrs. Jones. They also started drinking alcohol and sleeping in beds. When the animals questions them and referenced the original seven commandments (#4), Squealer corrected them by saying that the original commandment stated:
“No animal shall sleep in bed with sheets”
Since no other animals can read, they acquiesced and blamed the misunderstanding as a lapse in their memory.
“The rule was against sheets, which are a human invention. We have removed the sheets from the farmhouse beds, and sleep between blankets. And very comfortable beds they are too! But not more comfortable than we need, I can tell you comrades, with all the brainwork we have to do nowadays. You would not rob us of our repose, would you comrades? YOu would not have us too tired to carry out our duties? Surely none of you wishes to see Jones back?”
After years of hard work, the construction of the wind mill was finally complete. However, it was brought down soon after by a terrible storm. The animals were aghast that all their hard work now lay on the ground, completely ruined.
Napoleon declared that Snowball was the one responsible for this tragedy, and that he had been a traitor all along.
Chapter 7 - Purge
Soon after the storm, they began to rebuild the wind mill. It was a long, bitter winter and everyone was worked to the bones. It soon became clear that life was not good.
Napoleon arranged to trade with neighboring farms and urged everyone to endure while raising the quota for the hens to lay more eggs to be sold. That caused an uproar and a protest by three hens that were quickly and ruthlessly squashed by Napoleon. He then ordered the stoppage to hen’s ration which resulted in the death of nine more hens.
Napoleon then declared that Snowball had been working with a neighboring farm to bring down Animal Farm. Many animals were stupefied, because they seem to recall Snowball being a hero during the Battle of Cowshed. Boxer’s said:
“But he was wounded, we all saw him running with blood!”
Squealer then replied:
“That was part of the arrangement!. Jones shot only grazed him. I could show you this in his own writing, if you were able to read it. The plot was for Snowball, at the critical moment, to give the signal for flight and leave the field to the enemy. And he very nearly succeeded. He would have succeeded if it had not been for our heroic leader, Comrade Napoleon.”
Despite the fact that Napoleon was nowhere to be seen during the Battle of Cowshed, he was all the sudden the hero of the battle despite his cowardly absence.
At the end of chapter 7, Napoleon gathered everyone at the farm, and forced confessions out of many of the animals. Pigs who were apparently in collusion with Snowball, hens that confessed to secreting some rations, sheep that urinated in the drinking pool (apparently told to do so by Snowball), and many others were ruthlessly slaughtered by the Napoleon’s dogs while everyone watched. The animals were all visibly shaken and miserable.
It became clear that the utopia they’ve envisioned was but a distant dream.
Chapter 8 - Trade Disagreement
After the terror died down, some animals seemed to recall something about not killing in the original seven commandments. However, the board that displayed the commandments now read:
“No animal shall kill other animal without cause”
In this chapter, Napoleon slowly consolidated his power and became a personality cult. It was also during this time that the wind mill was rebuilt and named “Napoleon Mill”.
Some apparent trade disagreement occurred with neighboring farms: Frederick and Pilkington. There were some back-and-forth reminiscent of Orwell’s 1984 and the war with East/West. One day Snowball would be allegedly colluding with Frederick, the next day with Pilkington.
The disagreement climaxed in Frederick’s men attacking the farm and blowing up the wind mill with gun powder. Before they could do more damage, the animals drove them away, but the wind mill was again destroyed. Nevertheless, Squealer declared victory:
“To celebrate our victory!” cried Squealer.
“What victory?” said Boxer. […]
“What victory, comrade? Have we not driven the enemy off our soil - the sacred soil of Animal Farm?”
“But they have destroyed the windmill. And we had worked on it for two years!”
“What matter? We will build another windmill. We will build six windmills if we feel like it. You do not appreciate comrade, the mighty things that we have done.”
Soon the pigs acquired a taste for alcohol, and the board with the commandments now read:
“No animal shall drink alcohol to excess”
Chapter 9 - Boxer's Death
The rebuilding of the wind mill was restarted for the second time. This time, Boxer the horse, who was now into his later years, over-exerted and injured himself. The animals quickly came to help in whatever way they can, given how much of an inspiration Boxer had been all these years.
After several days of recovery, it was clear that Boxer’s condition was getting worse. Napoleon promised to bring him to a doctor outside of the farm. A few days after, a van came to take away Boxer. On the side of the van read: “Alfred Simmonds, Horse Slaughterer and Glue Boiler, Willingdon. Dealer in Hides and Bone-Meal Kennels Supplied”.
Boxer was never seen again. Soon, word went around that the pigs were able to acquire money to buy themselves another case of whiskey.
Chapter 10 - All Animals Are Equal
Years passed. Not many remembered the old days before the rebellion. The farm is now more organized. The windmill had been rebuilt again. However, many of the luxuries dreamed by Snowball did not came to fruition. There was no stalls with electric light, hot and cold water, three-day work weeks. In fact, Napoleon had denounced such ideas as contrary to the spirit of Animalism. True happiness was to be acquired in working hard and living frugally.
The pigs started walking on two legs and carried whips in their trotter. The sheep were re-indoctrinated to shout “four leg good, two leg better”.
The board that originally had the seven commandments of Animalism now simply read:
“All animals are equal. But some animals are more equal than others”
One night, the neighboring farmers came to the farm house to celebrate and party. Mr. Pilkington, now friendly with Napoleon, commanded the efficiency and discipline of the workers at his farm, and that it should be an example of all farms in England. They toast to the prosperity of Animal Farm.
The animals watched through the windows. They looked at the pigs, then at the men, then at the pigs again. There were no difference.