Animal Farm

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George Orwell wrote the novel Animal Farm in 1945 as political metaphor.

The animals on Manor Farm take over, vowing to forbid any contact with humans, whom they see as immoral slavers. But as the story progresses it is very obvious that the virtues that started the revolution have been perverted. The book is largely renowned as a satire of the Russian Revolution, with the central character of the pig Napoleon being the mirror image of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.

An another pig on the farm is Snowball, who is inspired by Leon Trotsky, another figure from the Russian revolution. He is driven out of the farm by Napoleons dogs and exiled, in contrast with Stalin's removal of Trotsky.

[edit] Summary

Animal Farm is a satirical allusion to Stalinism written by Eric Blair, under the pseudonym of George Orwell. The book is essentially about animals, which have fared unwell under the lead of their master, Mr. Jones, decided to have a revolution after one of the oldest animals, Old Major, prophesied the overthrow of the human race and freedom of animals. Weeks later, Mr. Jones repeatedly failed to feed the animals, the animals didn’t accept this any longer and so they broke in to the food shed and started to gorge themselves. Mr. Jones and his men, seeing what was going on, attempted to intervene, but found themselves in the midst of a herd of angry animals; the men were driven away from the farm. The animals then proceeded to destroy everything that reminded them of the humans, but the house was kept in the state it was, and it was decided that no animal should live in the house and it would be kept as a museum. Then the animals renamed the farm, Animal Farm (the original name was Manor Farm). A set of laws, called the Seven Commandments, were made the official laws of Animal Farm, in which all animals must live by.

1. Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy.
2. Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a “freind”.
3. No animal shall wear clothes.
4. No animal shall sleep in a bed.
5. No animal shall drink alcohol.
6. No animal shall kill any other animal.
7. All animals are equal.

Since most of the animals couldn’t remember much, Snowball summarized them as “Four legs good, two legs bad”. The pigs, being the most intelligent of the animals, automatically assumed leadership. There was a sort of power struggle between two pigs, Snowball and Napoleon, who seemed to reflect Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin. They could never seem to agree with anything. Snowball thought that in order for the animals’ ideology to thrive he figured it would be best to start revolutions on other farms; this seems to reflect the thinking of Leon Trotsky. Napoleon thought the animals of Animal Farm should learn to use firearms; this reflects Stalin’s idea of the strengthening the Soviet Union internally. Eventually, Mr. Jones and half a dozen other from Foxwood and Pinchfield came back to take back the farm, but Snowball proved to be an expert tactician and defeated the invasion. Several animals and one human were killed in the Battle of Cowshed, which was a reference to the Russian Civil War. After the unsuccessful invasion, the humans came to recognize Animal Farm. Meanwhile, Mr. Jones spent most his time at the Red Lion complaining to Mr. Frederick and Mr. Pilkington of Foxwood and Pinchfield farms. Snowball proposed the idea of making a windmill, he said, although it would take a lot of effort to make, it would generate electricity for the farm. Napoleon was opposed to this, so much so that he came to the spot where Snowball drew the plans, and Napoleon urinated on them. The animals were so much in disagreement that one night, all of the animals came to the farm to decide whether or not to build the windmill. Napoleon took advantage of this and sent out his secret troop of dogs to banish Snowball in front of all of the animals; he proclaimed that all of the Sunday debates were to end. Napoleon, like Stalin, started to corrupt the original ideals. He ordered for some suspicious animals to be executed, violating the sixth commandment, “No animal shall kill any other animal”, but Napoleon explained to the dumb animals that the rule was in fact, “No animal shall kill any other animal, without cause.” Some time later, Napoleon surprised everyone by announcing he was in support of windmill construction all along and Snowball actually stole the plans from him. The animals then began their laborious task of the construction. The work was hard, but soon the final product began to take shape. Then one night, the animals all dreamt of a gunshot in the distance; they woke up to find their windmill in ruins. Napoleon proclaimed that Snowball came in the night and destroyed the windmill. He ordered a death sentence upon him. The humans figured the windmill fell because the walls were too thin and a strong gale toppled it. The animals restarted constructions and made the walls three feet thick instead of 18 inches. Soon, Napoleon announced they would sell some lumber to Mr. Frederick in order to raise money. The transactions seemed to go on smoothly, but it was soon discovered Mr. Frederick was using counterfeit money to pay. Napoleon announced a death sentence on Mr. Frederick. Mr. Frederick and some men from Foxwood came to invade Animal Farm; the animals fought hard but couldn’t really keep the humans away. Napoleon sent a pigeon to request help from Mr. Pilkington, but in reply Pilkington simply said “Serves you right”. The Foxwood men came with explosives to blow up the windmill, and “all of the animals except Napoleon took cover”. Enraged at the destruction of the windmill, the animals attacked and Frederick’s men retreated, but they suffered many casualties. The event was named, The Battle of the Windmill; it seems to assimilate World War II or specifically the siege of Leningrad, which happened to be the deadliest urban conflict in modern history. Eventually, Boxer, who was the hardest of workers and one of the most loyal to Napoleon, became injured while working, Napoleon called for a truck to take him away and explained later that Boxer died after receiving much care, though in fact he was sent to the knackers and made into dog food and glue. Napoleon changed the saying of “Four legs good, two legs bad” to “Four legs good, two legs better”.

Years later, most of the animals that were around at the time of the revolution were dead, except for Napoleon, Clover, Benjamin, and a few others. In the last scene, Napoleon meets with Pilkington and others in the house (he had since violated all of the original Commandments). During a card game, Napoleon and Pilkington simultaneously played an ace of spades, and an argument erupted, this probably symbolized the future tensions between the west and the Soviet Union. The animals looked into the house and couldn’t tell pig and human apart. "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others".

[edit] Quotes

Famous quote from Chapter 10:

ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL

BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS.

[edit] Reference sites

• Wikifur's article on Animal Farm