Transcript
Animal Farm
Character List
Napoleon - The pig who emerges as the leader of Animal Farm
after the Rebellion. Based on Joseph Stalin, Napoleon uses
military force (his nine loyal attack dogs) to intimidate the other
animals and consolidate his power. In his supreme craftiness,
Napoleon proves more treacherous than his counterpart,
Snowball.
Snowball - The pig who challenges Napoleon for control of
Animal Farm after the Rebellion. Based on Leon Trotsky,
Snowball is intelligent, passionate, eloquent, and less subtle and
devious than his counterpart, Napoleon. Snowball seems to win
the loyalty of the other animals and cement his power.
Boxer - The cart-horse whose incredible strength, dedication,
and loyalty play a key role in the early prosperity of Animal Farm
and the later completion of the windmill. Quick to help but rather
slow-witted, Boxer shows much devotion to Animal Farm’s ideals
but little ability to think about them independently. He naïvely
trusts the pigs to make all his decisions for him. His two mottoes
are ―I will work harder‖ and ―Napoleon is always right.‖
Squealer - The pig who spreads Napoleon’s propaganda among
the other animals. Squealer justifies the pigs’ monopolization of
resources and spreads false statistics pointing to the farm’s
success. Orwell uses Squealer to explore the ways in which
those in power often use rhetoric and language to twist the truth
and gain and maintain social and political control.
Old Major - The prize-winning boar whose vision of a socialist
utopia serves as the inspiration for the Rebellion. Three days
after describing the vision and teaching the animals the song
―Beasts of England,‖ Major dies, leaving Snowball and Napoleon
to struggle for control of his legacy. Orwell based Major on both
the German political economist Karl Marx and the Russian
revolutionary leader Vladimir Ilych Lenin.
Clover - A good-hearted female cart-horse and Boxer’s close
friend. Clover often suspects the pigs of violating one or another
of the Seven Commandments, but she repeatedly blames herself
for misremembering the commandments.
Moses - The tame raven who spreads stories of Sugarcandy
Mountain, the paradise to which animals supposedly go when
they die. Moses plays only a small role in Animal Farm,but Orwell
uses him to explore how communism exploits religion as
something with which to pacify the oppressed.
Mollie - The vain, flighty mare who pulls Mr. Jones’s carriage.
Mollie craves the attention of human beings and loves being
groomed and pampered. She has a difficult time with her new life
on Animal Farm, as she misses wearing ribbons in her mane and
eating sugar cubes. She represents the petit bourgeoisie that fled
from Russia a few years after the Russian Revolution.
Benjamin - The long-lived donkey who refuses to feel inspired
by the Rebellion. Benjamin firmly believes that life will remain
unpleasant no matter who is in charge. Of all of the animals on
the farm, he alone comprehends the changes that take place, but
he seems either unwilling or unable to oppose the pigs.
Muriel - The white goat who reads the Seven Commandments to
Clover whenever Clover suspects the pigs of violating their
prohibitions.
Mr. Jones - The often drunk farmer who runs the Manor Farm
before the animals stage their Rebellion and establish Animal
Farm. Mr. Jones is an unkind master who indulges himself while
his animals lack food; he thus represents Tsar Nicholas II, whom
the Russian Revolution ousted.
Mr. Frederick - The tough, shrewd operator of Pinchfield, a
neighboring farm. Based on Adolf Hitler, the ruler of Nazi
Germany in the 1930s and1940s, Mr. Frederick proves an
untrustworthy neighbor.
Mr. Pilkington - The easygoing gentleman farmer who runs
Foxwood, a neighboring farm. Mr. Frederick’s bitter enemy, Mr.
Pilkington represents the capitalist governments of England and
the United States.
Mr. Whymper - The human solicitor whom Napoleon hires to
represent Animal Farm in human society. Mr. Whymper’s entry
into the Animal Farm community initiates contact between Animal
Farm and human society, alarming the common animals.
Jessie and Bluebell - Two dogs, each of whom gives birth early
in the novel. Napoleon takes the puppies in order to ―educate‖
them.
Minimus - The poet pig who writes verse about Napoleon and
pens the banal patriotic song ―Animal Farm, Animal Farm‖ to
replace the earlier idealistic hymn ―Beasts of England,‖ which Old
Major passes on to the others.
Analysis of Major Characters
Napoleon
From the very beginning of the novella, Napoleon emerges as an
utterly corrupt opportunist. Though always present at the early
meetings of the new state, Napoleon never makes a single
contribution to the revolution—not to the formulation of its ideology,
not to the bloody struggle that it necessitates, not to the new
society’s initial attempts to establish itself. He never shows interest in
the strength of Animal Farm itself, only in the strength of his power
over it. Thus, the only project he undertakes with enthusiasm is the
training of a litter of puppies. He doesn’t educate them for their own
good or for the good of all, however, but rather for his own good:
they become his own private army or secret police, a violent means
by which he imposes his will on others.
Although he is most directly modeled on the Soviet dictator Joseph
Stalin, Napoleon represents, in a more general sense, the political
tyrants that have emerged throughout human history and with
particular frequency during the twentieth century. His namesake is
not any communist leader but the early-eighteenth-century French
general Napoleon, who betrayed the democratic principles on which
he rode to power, arguably becoming as great a despot as the
aristocrats whom he supplanted. It is a testament to Orwell’s acute
political intelligence and to the universality of his fable that Napoleon
can easily stand for any of the great dictators and political schemers
in world history, even those who arose after Animal Farm was
written. In the behavior of Napoleon and his henchmen, one can
detect the lying and bullying tactics of totalitarian leaders such as
Josip Tito, Mao Tse-tung, Pol Pot, Augusto Pinochet, and Slobodan
Milosevic treated in sharply critical terms.
Snowball
Orwell’s stint in a Trotskyist battalion in the Spanish Civil War—
during which he first began plans for a critique of totalitarian
communism—influenced his relatively positive portrayal of Snowball.
As a parallel for Leon Trotsky, Snowball emerges as a fervent
ideologue who throws himself heart and soul into the attempt to
spread Animalism worldwide and to improve Animal Farm’s
infrastructure. His idealism, however, leads to his downfall. Relying
only on the force of his own logic and rhetorical skill to gain his
influence, he proves no match for Napoleon’s show of brute force.
Although Orwell depicts Snowball in a relatively appealing light, he
refrains from idealizing his character, making sure to endow him with
certain moral flaws. For example, Snowball basically accepts the
superiority of the pigs over the rest of the animals. Moreover, his
fervent, single-minded enthusiasm for grand projects such as the
windmill might have erupted into full-blown megalomaniac despotism
had he not been chased from Animal Farm. Indeed, Orwell suggests
that we cannot eliminate government corruption by electing
principled individuals to roles of power; he reminds us throughout the
novella that it is power itself that corrupts.
Boxer
The most sympathetically drawn character in the novel, Boxer
epitomizes all of the best qualities of the exploited working classes:
dedication, loyalty, and a huge capacity for labor. He also, however,
suffers from what Orwell saw as the working class’s major
weaknesses: a naïve trust in the good intentions of the intelligentsia
and an inability to recognize even the most blatant forms of political
corruption. Exploited by the pigs as much or more than he had been
by Mr. Jones, Boxer represents all of the invisible labor that
undergirds the political drama being carried out by the elites. Boxer’s
pitiful death at a glue factory dramatically illustrates the extent of the
pigs’ betrayal. It may also, however, speak to the specific
significance of Boxer himself: before being carted off, he serves as
the force that holds Animal Farm together.
Squealer
Throughout his career, Orwell explored how politicians manipulate
language in an age of mass media. In Animal Farm, the silver-
tongued pig Squealer abuses language to justify Napoleon’s actions
and policies to the proletariat by whatever means seem necessary.
By radically simplifying language—as when he teaches the sheep to
bleat ―Four legs good, two legs better!‖—he limits the terms of
debate. By complicating language unnecessarily, he confuses and
intimidates the uneducated, as when he explains that pigs, who are
the ―brainworkers‖ of the farm, consume milk and apples not for
pleasure, but for the good of their comrades. In this latter strategy,
he also employs jargon (―tactics, tactics‖) as well as a baffling
vocabulary of false and impenetrable statistics, engendering in the
other animals both self-doubt and a sense of hopelessness about
ever accessing the truth without the pigs’ mediation. Squealer’s lack
of conscience and unwavering loyalty to his leader, alongside his
rhetorical skills, make him the perfect propagandist for any tyranny.
Squealer’s name also fits him well: squealing, of course, refers to a
pig’s typical form of vocalization, and Squealer’s speech defines him.
At the same time, to squeal also means to betray, aptly evoking
Squealer’s behavior with regard to his fellow animals.
Old Major
As a democratic socialist, Orwell had a great deal of respect for Karl
Marx, the German political economist, and even for Vladimir Ilych
Lenin, the Russian revolutionary leader. His critique of Animal Farm
has little to do with the Marxist ideology underlying the Rebellion but
rather with the perversion of that ideology by later leaders. Major,
who represents both Marx and Lenin, serves as the source of the
ideals that the animals continue to uphold even after their pig leaders
have betrayed them.
Though his portrayal of Old Major is largely positive, Orwell does
include a few small ironies that allow the reader to question the
venerable pig’s motives. For instance, in the midst of his long litany
of complaints about how the animals have been treated by human
beings, Old Major is forced to concede that his own life has been
long, full, and free from the terrors he has vividly sketched for his
rapt audience. He seems to have claimed a false brotherhood with
the other animals in order to garner their support for his vision.
Themes, Motifs & Symbols
Themes
Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a
literary work.
The Corruption of Socialist Ideals in the Soviet Union
Animal Farm is most famous in the West as a stinging critique of the
history and rhetoric of the Russian Revolution. Retelling the story of
the emergence and development of Soviet communism in the form of
an animal fable, Animal Farm allegorizes the rise to power of the
dictator Joseph Stalin. In the novella, the overthrow of the human
oppressor Mr. Jones by a democratic coalition of animals quickly
gives way to the consolidation of power among the pigs. Much like
the Soviet intelligentsia, the pigs establish themselves as the ruling
class in the new society.
The struggle for preeminence between Leon Trotsky and Stalin
emerges in the rivalry between the pigs Snowball and Napoleon. In
both the historical and fictional cases, the idealistic but politically less
powerful figure (Trotsky and Snowball) is expelled from the
revolutionary state by the malicious and violent usurper of power
(Stalin and Napoleon). The purges and show trials with which Stalin
eliminated his enemies and solidified his political base find
expression in Animal Farm as the false confessions and executions
of animals whom Napoleon distrusts following the collapse of the
windmill. Stalin’s tyrannical rule and eventual abandonment of the
founding principles of the Russian Revolution are represented by the
pigs’ turn to violent government and the adoption of human traits and
behaviors, the trappings of their original oppressors.
Although Orwell believed strongly in socialist ideals, he felt that the
Soviet Union realized these ideals in a terribly perverse form. His
novella creates its most powerful ironies in the moments in which
Orwell depicts the corruption of Animalist ideals by those in power.
For Animal Farm serves not so much to condemn tyranny or
despotism as to indict the horrifying hypocrisy of tyrannies that base
themselves on, and owe their initial power to, ideologies of liberation
and equality. The gradual disintegration and perversion of the Seven
Commandments illustrates this hypocrisy with vivid force, as do
Squealer’s elaborate philosophical justifications for the pigs’ blatantly
unprincipled actions. Thus, the novella critiques the violence of the
Stalinist regime against the human beings it ruled, and also points to
Soviet communism’s violence against human logic, language, and
ideals.
The Societal Tendency Toward Class Stratification
Animal Farm offers commentary on the development of class tyranny
and the human tendency to maintain and reestablish class structures
even in societies that allegedly stand for total equality. The novella
illustrates how classes that are initially unified in the face of a
common enemy, as the animals are against the humans, may
become internally divided when that enemy is eliminated. The
expulsion of Mr. Jones creates a power vacuum, and it is only so
long before the next oppressor assumes totalitarian control. The
natural division between intellectual and physical labor quickly
comes to express itself as a new set of class divisions, with the
―brainworkers‖ (as the pigs claim to be) using their superior
intelligence to manipulate society to their own benefit. Orwell never
clarifies in Animal Farm whether this negative state of affairs
constitutes an inherent aspect of society or merely an outcome
contingent on the integrity of a society’s intelligentsia. In either case,
the novella points to the force of this tendency toward class
stratification in many communities and the threat that it poses to
democracy and freedom.
The Danger of a Naïve Working Class
One of the novella’s most impressive accomplishments is its
portrayal not just of the figures in power but also of the oppressed
people themselves.Animal Farm is not told from the perspective of
any particular character, though occasionally it does slip into Clover’s
consciousness. Rather, the story is told from the perspective of the
common animals as a whole. Gullible, loyal, and hardworking, these
animals give Orwell a chance to sketch how situations of oppression
arise not only from the motives and tactics of the oppressors but also
from the naïveté of the oppressed, who are not necessarily in a
position to be better educated or informed. When presented with a
dilemma, Boxer prefers not to puzzle out the implications of various
possible actions but instead to repeat to himself, ―Napoleon is always
right.‖ Animal Farm demonstrates how the inability or unwillingness
to question authority condemns the working class to suffer the full
extent of the ruling class’s oppression.
The Abuse of Language as Instrumental to the Abuse of
Power
One of Orwell’s central concerns, both in Animal Farm and
in 1984, is the way in which language can be manipulated as an
instrument of control. InAnimal Farm, the pigs gradually twist and
distort a rhetoric of socialist revolution to justify their behavior and to
keep the other animals in the dark. The animals heartily embrace
Major’s visionary ideal of socialism, but after Major dies, the pigs
gradually twist the meaning of his words. As a result, the other
animals seem unable to oppose the pigs without also opposing the
ideals of the Rebellion. By the end of the novella, after Squealer’s
repeated reconfigurations of the Seven Commandments in order to
decriminalize the pigs’ treacheries, the main principle of the farm can
be openly stated as ―all animals are equal, but some animals are
more equal than others.‖ This outrageous abuse of the word ―equal‖
and of the ideal of equality in general typifies the pigs’ method, which
becomes increasingly audacious as the novel progresses. Orwell’s
sophisticated exposure of this abuse of language remains one of the
most compelling and enduring features of Animal Farm, worthy of
close study even after we have decoded its allegorical characters
and events.
Motifs
Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, and literary devices that
can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.
Songs
Animal Farm is filled with songs, poems, and slogans, including
Major’s stirring ―Beasts of England,‖ Minimus’s ode to Napoleon, the
sheep’s chants, and Minimus’s revised anthem, ―Animal Farm,
Animal Farm.‖ All of these songs serve as propaganda, one of the
major conduits of social control. By making the working-class
animals speak the same words at the same time, the pigs evoke an
atmosphere of grandeur and nobility associated with the recited
text’s subject matter. The songs also erode the animals’ sense of
individuality and keep them focused on the tasks by which they will
purportedly achieve freedom.
State Ritual
As Animal Farm shifts gears from its early revolutionary fervor to a
phase of consolidation of power in the hands of the few, national
rituals become an ever more common part of the farm’s social life.
Military awards, large parades, and new songs all proliferate as the
state attempts to reinforce the loyalty of the animals. The increasing
frequency of the rituals bespeaks the extent to which the working
class in the novella becomes ever more reliant on the ruling class to
define their group identity and values.
Symbols
Symbols are objects, characters, figures, and colors used to
represent abstract ideas or concepts.
Animal Farm
Animal Farm, known at the beginning and the end of the novel as the
Manor Farm, symbolizes Russia and the Soviet Union under
Communist Party rule. But more generally, Animal Farm stands for
any human society, be it capitalist, socialist, fascist, or communist. It
possesses the internal structure of a nation, with a government (the
pigs), a police force or army (the dogs), a working class (the other
animals), and state holidays and rituals. Its location amid a number
of hostile neighboring farms supports its symbolism as a political
entity with diplomatic concerns.
The Barn
The barn at Animal Farm, on whose outside walls the pigs paint the
Seven Commandments and, later, their revisions, represents the
collective memory of a modern nation. The many scenes in which
the ruling-class pigs alter the principles of Animalism and in which
the working-class animals puzzle over but accept these changes
represent the way an institution in power can revise a community’s
concept of history to bolster its control. If the working class believes
history to lie on the side of their oppressors, they are less likely to
question oppressive practices. Moreover, the oppressors, by revising
their nation’s conception of its origins and development, gain control
of the nation’s very identity, and the oppressed soon come to depend
upon the authorities for their communal sense of self.
The Windmill
The great windmill symbolizes the pigs’ manipulation of the other
animals for their own gain. Despite the immediacy of the need for
food and warmth, the pigs exploit Boxer and the other common
animals by making them undertake backbreaking labor to build the
windmill, which will ultimately earn the pigs more money and thus
increase their power. The pigs’ declaration that Snowball is
responsible for the windmill’s first collapse constitutes psychological
manipulation, as it prevents the common animals from doubting the
pigs’ abilities and unites them against a supposed enemy. The
ultimate conversion of the windmill to commercial use is one more
sign of the pigs’ betrayal of their fellow animals. From an allegorical
point of view, the windmill represents the enormous modernization
projects undertaken in Soviet Russia after the Russian Revolution.
Important Quotations Explained
1. “Four legs good, two legs bad.”
Explanation for Quotation 1 >>
This phrase, which occurs in Chapter III, constitutes Snowball’s
condensation of the Seven Commandments of Animalism, which
themselves serve as abridgments of Old Major’s stirring speech on
the need for animal unity in the face of human oppression. The
phrase instances one of the novel’s many moments of
propagandizing, which Orwell portrays as one example of how the
elite class abuses language to control the lower classes. Although
the slogan seems to help the animals achieve their goal at first,
enabling them to clarify in their minds the principles that they
support, it soon becomes a meaningless sound bleated by the sheep
(―two legs baa-d‖), serving no purpose other than to drown out
dissenting opinion. By the end of the novel, as the propagandistic
needs of the leadership change, the pigs alter the chant to the
similar-sounding but completely antithetical ―Four legs good, two legs
better.‖
2. Beasts of England, beasts of Ireland,
Beasts of every land and clime,
Hearken to my joyful tiding
Of the golden future time.
Explanation for Quotation 2 >>
These lines from Chapter I constitute the first verse of the song that
Old Major hears in his dream and which he teaches to the rest of the
animals during the fateful meeting in the barn. Like the communist
anthem ―Internationale,‖ on which it is based, ―Beasts of England‖
stirs the emotions of the animals and fires their revolutionary
idealism. As it spreads rapidly across the region, the song gives the
beasts both courage and solace on many occasions. The lofty
optimism of the words ―golden future time,‖ which appear in the last
verse as well, serves to keep the animals focused on the Rebellion’s
goals so that they will ignore the suffering along the way.
Later, however, once Napoleon has cemented his control over the
farm, the song’s revolutionary nature becomes a liability. Squealer
chastises the animals for singing it, noting that the song was the
song of the Rebellion. Now that the Rebellion is over and a new
regime has gained power, Squealer fears the power of such
idealistic, future-directed lyrics. Wanting to discourage the animals’
capacities for hope and vision, he orders Minimus to write a
replacement for ―Beasts of England‖ that praises Napoleon and
emphasizes loyalty to the state over the purity of Animalist ideology.
3. At this there was a terrible baying sound outside, and nine
enormous dogs wearing brass-studded collars came bounding into
the barn. They dashed straight for Snowball, who only sprang from
his place just in time to escape their snapping jaws.
Explanation for Quotation 3 >>
These words from Chapter V describe Napoleon’s violent expulsion
of Snowball from Animal Farm, which parallels the falling-out
between Joseph Stalin and Leon Trotsky. Napoleon, who is clearly
losing the contest for the hearts and minds of the lower animals to
his rival Snowball, turns to his private police force of dogs to enforce
his supremacy. As Stalin did, Napoleon prefers to work behind the
scenes to build his power by secrecy and deception, while Snowball,
as Trotsky did, devotes himself to winning popular support through
his ideas and his eloquence. Napoleon’s use of the attack dogs in
this passage provides a blatant example of his differences with
Snowball and points beyond the story to criticize real leaders for their
use of such authoritarian tactics.
More generally, this episode is the first of many in which the political
positioning of the Rebellion’s early days gives way to overt violence,
openly subverting the democratic principles of Animal Farm. It
signals the deterioration of Animal Farm from a society based on
equal rights to a society in which those who are powerful determine
who gets what rights.
4. All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than
others.
Explanation for Quotation 4 >>
The ultimate example of the pigs’ systematic abuse of logic and
language to control their underlings, this final reduction of the Seven
Commandments, which appears in Chapter X, clothes utterly
senseless content in a seemingly plausible linguistic form. Although
the first clause implies that all animals are equal to one another, it
does not state this claim overtly. Thus, it is possible to misread the
word ―equal‖ as a relative term rather than an absolute one, meaning
that there can be different degrees of ―equal‖-ness, just as there can
be different degrees of colorfulness, for example (more colorful, less
colorful). Once such a misreading has taken place, it becomes no
more absurd to say ―more equal‖ than to say ―more colorful.‖ By
small, almost imperceptible steps like these, the core ideals of
Animal Farm—and any human nation—gradually become corrupted.
The revision of the original phrase also points to the specific form of
corruption on Animal Farm. The initial, unmodified phrase makes
reference to all animals, its message extending to the entire world of
animals without distinction. Similarly, Old Major expresses ideals that
posit the dignity of all, the comradeship of all, the inclusion of all in
voting and decision-making, so that no one group or individual will
oppress another. The revised phrase, however, mentions an ―all,‖ but
only in order to differentiate a ―some‖ from that ―all,‖ to specify the
uniqueness, the elite nature, and the chosen status of that ―some.‖
The pigs clearly envision themselves as this privileged ―some‖; under
their totalitarian regime, the working animals exist only to serve the
larger glory of the leadership, to provide the rulers with food and
comfort, and to support their luxurious and exclusive lifestyle.
5. ―If you have your lower animals to contend with,‖ he said, ―we
have our lower classes!‖
Explanation for Quotation 5 >>
This quip, delivered by Mr. Pilkington to Napoleon and his cabinet
during their well-catered retreat inside the farmhouse in Chapter X,
makes fully explicit the process of ideological corruption that has
been taking place throughout the novella. Old Major’s notion of the
absolute division of interests between animals and humans here
gives way to a division between two classes, even cutting across
species lines. Pigs and farmers share a need to keep down their
laboring classes. Mr. Pilkington’s witticism lays bare the ugly but
common equation of laborers with animals.
Moreover, the quote serves to emphasize directly the significance
of Animal Farm as a social commentary, cementing the conceptual
link between the downtrodden animals and the working classes of
the world. Orwell explodes his ―fairy story,‖ as he termed it, by
bringing it into the realm of human consequence, thereby making its
terrors all the more frightening to his readership.
Key Facts
FULL TITLE · Animal Farm: A Fairy Story
AUTHOR · George Orwell (pseudonym of Eric Arthur Blair)
TYPE OF WORK · Novella
GENRE · Dystopian animal fable; satire; allegory; political roman à clef
(French for ―novel with a key‖—a thinly veiled exposé of factual
persons or events)
LANGUAGE · English
TIME AND PLACE WRITTEN · 1943–1944, in London
DATE OF FIRST PUBLICATION · 1946
PUBLISHER · Harcourt Brace & Company
NARRATOR · Animal Farm is the only work by Orwell in which the
author does not appear conspicuously as a narrator or major
character; it is the least overtly personal of all of his writings. The
anonymous narrator of the story is almost a nonentity, notable for no
individual idiosyncrasies or biases.
POINT OF VIEW · The story is told from the point of view of the
common animals of Animal Farm, though it refers to them in the third
person plural as ―they.‖
TONE · For the most part, the tone of the novel is objective, stating
external facts and rarely digressing into philosophical meditations.
The mixture of this tone with the outrageous trajectory of the plot,
however, steeps the story in an ever-mounting irony.
TENSE · Past
SETTING (TIME) · As is the case with most fables, Animal Farm is set
in an unspecified time period and is largely free from historical
references that would allow the reader to date the action precisely. It
is fair to assume, however, that Orwell means the fable to be
contemporaneous with the object of its satire, the Russian
Revolution (1917–1945). It is important to remember that this period
represented the recent past and present at the time of writing and
that Orwell understands the significance of the story’s action to be
immediate and ongoing rather than historical.
SETTING (PLACE) · An imaginary farm in England
PROTAGONIST · There is no clear central character in the novel, but
Napoleon, the dictatorial pig, is the figure who drives and ties
together most of the action.
MAJOR CONFLICT · There are a number of conflicts in Animal Farm—
the animals versus Mr. Jones, Snowball versus Napoleon, the
common animals versus the pigs, Animal Farm versus the
neighboring humans—but all of them are expressions of the
underlying tension between the exploited and exploiting classes and
between the lofty ideals and harsh realities of socialism.
RISING ACTION · The animals throw off their human oppressors and
establish a socialist state called Animal Farm; the pigs, being the
most intelligent animals in the group, take control of the planning and
government of the farm; Snowball and Napoleon engage in
ideological disputes and compete for power.
CLIMAX · In Chapter V, Napoleon runs Snowball off the farm with his
trained pack of dogs and declares that the power to make decisions
for the farm will be exercised solely by the pigs.
FALLING ACTION · Squealer emerges to justify Napoleon’s actions with
skillful but duplicitous reinterpretations of Animalist principles;
Napoleon continues to consolidate his power, eliminating his
enemies and reinforcing his status as supreme leader; the common
animals continue to obey the pigs, hoping for a better future.
THEMES · The corruption of socialist ideals in the Soviet Union; the
societal tendency toward class stratification; the danger of a naïve
working class; the abuse of language as instrumental to the abuse of
power
MOTIFS · Songs; state ritual
SYMBOLS · Animal Farm; the barn; the windmill
FORESHADOWING · The pigs’ eventual abuse of power is
foreshadowed at several points in the novel. At the end of Chapter II,
immediately after the establishment of the supposedly egalitarian
Animal Farm, the extra milk taken from the cows disappears, and the
text implies that Napoleon has drunk it himself. Similarly, the dogs’
attack on Boxer during Napoleon’s purges, in Chapter VII,
foreshadows the pigs’ eventual betrayal of the loyal cart-horse.
Study Questions
1. Compare and contrast Napoleon and Snowball. What techniques
do they use in their struggle for power? Does Snowball represent a
morally legitimate political alternative to the corrupt leadership of
Napoleon?
Answer for Study Question 1 >>
As Joseph Stalin did, Napoleon prefers to work behind the scenes to
build his power through manipulation and deal-making, while
Snowball devotes himself, as Leon Trotsky did, to winning popular
support through his ideas, passionate speeches, and success in
debates with his opponent. Snowball seems to work within the
political system, while Napoleon willingly circumvents it. Napoleon,
for instance, understands the role of force in political control, as is
made clear by his use of the attack dogs to expel Snowball from the
farm.
Despite Napoleon’s clearly bullying tactics, Orwell’s text doesn’t
allow us to perceive Snowball as a preferable alternative. Snowball
does nothing to prevent the consolidation of power in the hands of
the pigs, nor does he stop the unequal distribution of goods in the
pigs’ favor—he may even, in fact, be complicit in it early on.
Furthermore, the ideals of Animal Farm—like Orwell’s ideal version
of socialism—are rooted in democracy, with all of the animals
deciding how their collective action should be undertaken. For any
one animal to rise to greater power than any other would violate that
ideal and essentially render Animal Farm indistinguishable from a
human farm—an unavoidable eventuality by the end of the novella.
Though their motives for power may be quite different—Napoleon
seems to have a powerful, egocentric lust for control, while Snowball
seems to think himself a genius who should be the one to guide the
farm toward success—each represents a potential dictator. Neither
pig has the other animals’ interests at heart, and thus neither
represents the socialist ideals of Animal Farm.
2. Why do you think Orwell chose to use a fable in his condemnation
of Soviet communism and totalitarianism? Fiction would seem a
rather indirect method of political commentary; if Orwell had written
an academic essay, he could have named names, pointed to details,
and proven his case more systematically. What different
opportunities of expression does a fable offer its author?
Answer for Study Question 2 >>
Historically, fables or parables have allowed writers to criticize
individuals or institutions without endangering themselves: an author
could always claim that he or she had aimed simply to write a fairy
tale—a hypothetical, meaningless children’s story. Even now, when
many nations protect freedom of speech, fables still come across as
less accusatory, less threatening. Orwell never condemns Stalin
outright, a move that might have alienated certain readers, since
Stalin proved an ally against Adolf Hitler’s Nazi forces. Moreover, the
language of a fable comes across as gentle, inviting, and
unassuming: the reader feels drawn into the story and can follow the
plot easily, rather than having to wade through a self-righteous
polemic. In writing a fable, Orwell expands his potential audience
and warms it to his argument before he even begins.
Because fables allow for the development of various characters,
Orwell can use characterization to add an element of sympathy to his
arguments. Especially by telling the story from the point of view of
the animals, Orwell draws us in and allows us to identify with the
working class that he portrays. Thus, a fable allows him to appeal
more intensely to emotion than a political essay might enable him to
do.
Additionally, in the case of Animal Farm, the lighthearted, pastoral,
innocent atmosphere of the story stands in stark contrast to the dark,
corrupt, malignant tendencies that it attempts to expose. This
contrast adds to the story’s force of irony: just as the idyllic setting
and presentation of the story belies its wretched subject matter, so
too do we see the utopian ideals of socialism give way to a
totalitarian regime in which the lower classes suffer.
Finally, by writing in the form of a fable, Orwell universalizes his
message. Although the specific animals and events that he portrays
clearly evoke particular parallels in the real world, their status as
symbols allows them to signify beyond specific times and places.
Orwell himself encourages this breadth of interpretation: while the
character of Napoleon, for example, refers most directly to Stalin in
deed and circumstance, his name evokes his resemblance to the
French general-turned-autocrat Napoleon.
. From whose perspective isAnimal Farmtold? Why would Orwell
have chosen such a perspective?
Answer for Study Question 3 >>
Animal Farm is not told from any particular animal’s perspective;
properly speaking, it doesn’t have a protagonist. Rather, it is told
from the perspective of the common animals as a group: we read, for
example, that ―[t]he animals were stupefied. . . . It was some minutes
before they could take it all in.‖ This technique enables Orwell to
paint a large portrait of the average people who suffer under
communism. Through this choice of narrative perspective, he shows
the loyalty, naïveté, gullibility, and work ethic of the whole class of
common animals. In this way, he can effectively explore the question
of why large numbers of people would continue to accept and
support the Russian communist government, for example, even
while it kept them hungry and afraid and even after its stated goals
had clearly and decisively failed.
1. Which animal hides during the Battle of the Cowshed?
(A) Boxer
(B) Clover
(C) Jessie
(D) Mollie
2. To whom does Napoleon sell the farm’s pile of timber?
(A) Mr. Pilkington
(B) Mr. Frederick
(C) Mr. Jones
(D) Snowball
3. How does Napoleon express his contempt for Snowball’s windmill
plans?
(A) By spitting on them
(B) By giving a scathing speech
(C) By urinating on them
(D) By writing Snowball a letter
4. Who reduces the ideals of Animalism to the phrase ―Four legs
good, two legs bad‖?
(A) Snowball
(B) Napoleon
(C) Squealer
(D) Boxer
5. Who teaches the sheep to chant ―Four legs good, two legs
better‖?
(A) Napoleon
(B) Moses
(C) Clover
(D) Squealer
6. What is Sugarcandy Mountain?
(A) The name of the lullaby that Napoleon forces the pigeons to
sing to his thirty-one piglets
(B) The idea of animal heaven propagated by Moses the raven
(C) The setting for the story that Mollie tells to the lambs
(D) The mountain visible on Animal Farm’s horizon
7. How many letters is Boxer able to learn?
(A) Four—A through D
(B) Zero
(C) Six—the number of different letters in Napoleon’s name
(D) All twenty-six, plus certain letters in the Russian Cyrillic
alphabet
8. Which of the pigs proves the best writer?
(A) Napoleon
(B) Squealer
(C) Snowball
(D) Curly
9. Which pig writes the poem lauding Napoleon?
(A) Squealer
(B) Snowball
(C) Minimus
(D) Napoleon himself
10. What does Napoleon rename Animal Farm in his toast at the end
of the novel?
(A) Napoleon Farm
(B) Pig Farm
(C) Freedonia
(D) The Manor Farm
11. Why does Napoleon believe that he is dying the morning after he
drinks the whisky?
(A) Because he feels a bizarre desire to leave Animal Farm
(B) Because he has a miserable hangover
(C) Because he was visited by the vengeful ghost of Snowball
during a drunken trance
(D) Because he was visited by the vengeful ghost of Old Major
during a drunken trance
12. With whom does Napoleon play cards at the end of the novel?
(A) Mr. Frederick
(B) Mr. Jones
(C) Mr. Wiltshire
(D) Mr. Pilkington
13. What is the name of the quasi-Marxist socialist philosophy
advocated by Napoleon and Snowball?
(A) Porcinism
(B) Animalism
(C) Communalism
(D) Fourleggism
14. What are Boxer’s maxims?
(A) Snowball is always right‖ and ―For the glory of Animal Farm‖
(B) ―I will work harder‖ and ―For the glory of Animal Farm‖
(C) ―I will work harder‖ and ―Napoleon is always right‖
(D) ―Snowball is always right‖ and ―I will work harder‖
15. Which animal voluntarily leaves the farm?
(A) Mollie
(B) Boxer
(C) Squealer
(D) Napoleon
16. What is Boxer’s ultimate fate?
(A) He dies of old age.
(B) The windmill falls on him.
(C) Napoleon sells him to a glue factory.
(D) Mr. Whymper shoots him.
17. What is Mr. Jones’s main vice?
(A) Lust
(B) Alcohol
(C) Gambling
(D) Cigars
18. Which of the following pigs composes the song that replaces
―Beasts of England‖?
(A) Maximus
(B) Minimus
(C) Snowball
(D) Napoleon
19. What title does Napoleon eventually assume for himself?
(A) King of the Animals
(B) Lord of Manor Farm
(C) President of the Republic
(D) God of Beasts
20. Which animal refuses to become excited about the windmill?
(A) Old Major
(B) Old Benjamin
(C) Boxer
(D) Clover
21. What is the reason for the windmill’s initial collapse?
(A) Snowball sabotages it.
(B) The farmers blow it up with dynamite.
(C) It falls in a storm.
(D) Napoleon sabotages it and frames Snowball
22. Which animal discovers the truth about Boxer’s destination when
the pigs load him into a cart claiming that he is being taken to a
doctor?
(A) Mollie
(B) Muriel
(C) Clover
(D) Benjamin
23. Which Russian leader does Snowball most resemble?
(A) Lenin
(B) Trotsky
(C) Stalin
(D) Gorbachev
24. Which Russian leader does Napoleon most resemble?
(A) Stalin
(B) Trotsky
(C) Tsar Nicholas
(D) Khrushchev
25. What Russian institution does the raven Moses evoke?
(A) The Secret Police
(B) The Congress
(C) The Russian Orthodox Church
(D) The education system