Animal Farm

How would you handle being underfed, overworked, naive, unequal and absolutely controlled? Would you feel like all your work was being done for the good of someone else? What if you became trapped by an absolute and supreme leader? The animals of Manor Farm know all these feelings. They want a community for the animals, by the animals, where all are equal and work is done for the good of the animals.

Old Major, a wise old pig, holds this view of the perfect society for animals, free from human oppression. He gathers the animals of the Manor Farm for a meeting in the big barn. He and tells the others about his dream for a better life for all, and says it cannot be reached until Mr. Jones, the owner of Manor Farm, is overthrown, ending his era of cruelty, slavery and mistreatment. He tells them of a dream he has had in which all animals live together with no human beings to oppress or control them. He tells the animals that they must work toward such a paradise and teaches them a song called “Beasts of England,” in which his dream vision is lyrically described. The animals greet Major’s vision with great enthusiasm. But before this utopia can be created, Old Major dies.

Three younger pigs—Snowball, Napoleon, and Squealer—formulate his main principles into a philosophy called Animalism. These fairly civilized beasts devise a political system to fight their oppression and have the intent to overthrow the human rule in society.

Late one night, the animals manage to defeat the farmer Mr. Jones in a battle, running him off the land. They rename the property Animal Farm and dedicate themselves to achieving Major’s dream. The cart-horse Boxer devotes himself to the cause with particular zeal, committing his great strength to the prosperity of the farm and adopting as a personal maxim the affirmation “I will work harder.” At first, Animal Farm prospers. Snowball works at teaching the animals to read, and Napoleon takes a group of young puppies to educate them in the principles of Animalism. When Mr. Jones reappears to take back his farm, the animals defeat him again, in what comes to be known as the Battle of the Cowshed, and take the farmer’s abandoned gun as a token of their victory.

With leaders, workers, and knowledge of the most efficient way to run the farm, the animals set in motion their plan to rule the humans. What begins, however, as a plan to benefit the animals unfolds into a mixture of force, deceit, and propaganda—all the necessary ingredients for dictatorial rule. Almost without notice, one of the pigs of the farm, Napoleon, forcefully exiles his competitor from Manor Farm. After successfully raising an army of sheep dogs and assembling a team of pigs to carryout his wishes, he gains support and begins to teach a new doctrine of Animalism with which the animals are not familiar. In the mix of oppression, propaganda, and powerlessness, the animals soon learn that trying to fight the system has become impossible and all that is left to do is accept the corruption that has overcome their dream of an animal-run utopia.

Only a select few of the animals are educated enough to read their own laws and principles of Animalism in the form of Seven Commandments printed on the side of the barn, which are artfully modified in instances when it is most convenient for Napoleon to adapt them to his personal lusts and political indiscretions. Ultimately, when Napoleon and his cronies have become utterly scrofulous and achieved unchallenged