George Orwell
ANIMAL FARM
MEET GEORGE ORWELL
In the years since the publication of Animal Farm
and 1984, both of which conjure visions of
modern government’s dangerous power, critics
have studied and analyzed George Orwell’s
personal life
 Orwell was a man who had a reputation for
standing apart and even making a virtue of his
detachment
 This “outsider” position often led him to oppose
the crowd
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GEORGE ORWELL
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Orwell began life as Eric Arthur Blair (George Orwell was a
pen name he adopted later for its “manly, English, countrysounding ring.”)
He spent his early years in India as a lonely boy who liked to
make up stories and talk with imaginary companions
He began to “write” before he even knew how, dictating
poems to his mother, and perhaps saw this outlet as an
alternative to the human relationships he found so difficult
Refuge in words and ideas became increasingly important
when Orwell’s parents sent him, at age eight, to boarding
school in England
GEORGE ORWELL
Later, instead of going on to university, he
decided to take a job in Burma with the Indian
Imperial Police. Orwell wrote about this experience in Burmese Days (1934) and in the essay
“Shooting an Elephant.”
 At odds with British colonial rule, Orwell said he
“theoretically—and secretly, of course . . . was
all for the Burmese and all against their
oppressors, the British.”
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GEORGE ORWELL
Returning to England to recover from a bout of
the chronic lung illness that plagued him all his
life, Orwell began his writing career in earnest
 Over the next two decades, he wrote
newspaper columns, novels, essays, and radio
broadcasts, most of which grew out of his own
personal experience
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GEORGE ORWELL
Orwell’s beliefs about politics were affected by
his experiences fighting in the Spanish Civil
War
 He viewed socialists, communists, and fascists
as repressive and self-serving
 Orwell patriotically supported England during
World War II, but remained skeptical of
governments and their willingness to forsake
ideals in favor of power
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GEORGE ORWELL
With each book or essay, Orwell solidified his role
as the outsider willing to question any group’s
ideology
 Orwell spoke his mind with Animal Farm, in which
he criticized the Soviet Union despite its role as a
World War II ally of Great Britain
 At first, no one would publish the novel, but when
Animal Farm finally appeared in 1945 it was a
success
 It was later adapted both as an animated film and
as a play
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GEORGE ORWELL
In explaining how he came to write Animal
Farm, Orwell says he once saw a little boy whipping a horse:
It struck me that if only such animals became
aware of their strength we should have no power
over them, and that men exploit animals in much
the same way as the rich exploit the [worker].
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GEORGE ORWELL
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Orwell said it was the first book in which he consciously
tried to blend artistic and political goals
Orwell’s final novel, 1984, continued that effort with a
grim portrayal of a world totally under government
control
Orwell pursued his writing career faithfully, although it
was not always easy
In his final days he made the statement, “Writing . . . is a
horrible, exhausting struggle . . . One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven . . .”
LITERARY TERMS
Satire: the writer attacks a serious issue by
presenting it in a ridiculous light or otherwise
poking fun at it
 Allegory: a narrative that can be read on more
than one level (Animal Farm is an allegory for the
Russian Revolution)
 Fable: a narration intended to enforce a useful
truth; fables have two important characteristics:
1. they teach a moral or lesson
2. the characters are most frequently animals
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BACKGROUND INFO
On the publication of Animal Farm in 1945,
George Orwell discovered with horror that booksellers were placing his novel on children’s shelves
 According to his housekeeper, he began traveling
from bookstore to bookstore requesting that the
book be shelved with adult works
 This dual identity—as children’s story and adult
satire—has stayed with Orwell’s novel for more
than fifty years
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BACKGROUND INFO
Animal Farm tells the story of Farmer Jones’s
animals who rise up in rebellion and take over
the farm
 Tired of being exploited solely for human gain,
the animals—who have human characteristics
such as the power of speech—vow to create a
new and more just society
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BACKGROUND INFO
Though the novel reads like a fairy story, and
Orwell subtitles it as just that, it is also a satire
containing a message about world politics and
especially the former Soviet Union in particular
 Since the Bolshevik revolutions of the early 1900s,
the former Soviet Union had captured the
attention of the world with its socialist experiment
 Stalin’s form of government had some supporters
in Britain and the United States, but Orwell was
against this system
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BACKGROUND INFO
Orwell uses satire to expose what he saw as the
myth of Soviet socialism
 Thus, the novel tells a story that people of all ages
can understand, but it also tells us a second
story— that of the real-life Revolution
 Many critics have matched in great detail the
story’s characters to historical persons––for
example, linking the power struggle between
Napoleon and Snowball to the historical feuding
between Joseph Stalin and Leon Trostky for control
of the Soviet Union
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BACKGROUND INFO
 Critics often consider Animal Farm to be an allegory of
the Russian Revolution. In the early 1900s, Russia’s Czar
Nicholas II faced an increasingly discontented populace
 Freed from feudal serfdom in 1861, many Russian
peasants were struggling to survive under an oppressive
government
 By 1917, amidst the tremendous suffering of World War
I, a revolution began
 In two major battles, the Czar’s government was
overthrown and replaced by the Bolshevik leadership of
Vladmir Lenin
BACKGROUND INFO
Lenin died in 1924, his former colleagues Leon
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Trotsky, hero of the early Revolution, and Joseph Stalin,
head of the Communist Party, struggled for power
won the battle, and he deported Trotsky into
 Stalin
permanent exile
Once in power, Stalin began, with despotic urgency
and exalted nationalism, to move the Soviet Union
into the modern industrial age
 His government seized land in order to create
collective farms. Stalin’s Five Year Plan was an
attempt to modernize Soviet industry
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BACKGROUND INFO
To counter resistance (many peasants refused
to give up their land), Stalin used vicious
military tactics
 Rigged trials led to executions of an estimated
20 million government officials and ordinary
citizens
 The government controlled the flow and
content of information to the people, and all
but outlawed churches
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KARL MARX
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Many of the ideals behind the Soviet revolution were
based on the writings/teachings of Karl Marx
A German intellect who lived in the mid-1800s, Marx
believed that societies are divided into two segments –
a working class and an owner class
The working class creates all the products, while the
owner class enjoys all the benefits of these products
This class division leads to an inequality and oppression
of the working class
Marx’s objective was to create a classless society in
which the work is shared by all for the benefit of all, and
he believed revolution was the way to achieve this goal
VOCABULARY – CHAPTERS 1-4
cannibalism: practice of eating one’s own kind
cryptic: intended to be mysterious or obscure
parasitical: like a parasite; gaining benefits from
a host it injures
CHAPTER 1 SUMMARY + ANALYSIS
New characters
 Mr. Jones: the owner and operator of Manor Farm
 Old Major: prize Middle White boar; founder of
Animalism
 Bluebell, Jessie, Pincher: farm dogs
 Boxer: horse; hardest worker on farm
 Clover: stout, motherly mare
 Muriel: white goat
 Benjamin: ill-tempered donkey
 Mollie: foolish white mare
 Moses: tame raven; Mr. Jones’s special pet/spy
Animal Farm is the story of talking
farm animals and their struggle
against a cruel master
 Old Major reveals his dream of
utopian society, a place where the
animals will be able to live out
their lives to their natural ends
and animals will be equal
 Old Major identifies man as the
cause of all problems for the
animals; Old Major’s dream is of a
world without man
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In addressing the animals, Major reveals ideas
for a better world after a revolution to overthrow
man
 He warns them not to become like man once
man is gone, nor to be corrupted by power
 The pigs later formulate these principles into a
theory called Animalism
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THEME – “THE DREAM BETRAYED”
There are already signs that the pigs are
different
 Animals are fighting about the status of the
wild creatures
 These are the first examples of foreshadowing
(a hint of what is to come in the novel)
 This is perhaps Orwell’s way of suggesting that
true equality will never exist
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ALLEGORICAL REFERENCES
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Old Major = Karl Marx
Jones = Czar Nicholas II
Napoleon (whose name suggests power/authority) =
Lenin/Stalin
Snowball = Leon Trotsky
Squealer = propaganda/Stalin’s government news agency
Clover/Boxer = peasants/workers
Moses = Russian Orthodox Church
Dogs = Stalin’s military police
Pilkington, Frederick = Great Britain, Germany
Mollie = old Russian aristocracy (which resists change)
CHAPTER 2 SUMMARY + ANALYSIS
New characters
 Napoleon: one of the pig leaders; not much of a
talker but has a reputation of getting his own
way
 Snowball: another pig leader, vivacious and
inventive
 Squealer: a fat pig who is a persuasive talker
THE SEVEN COMMANDMENTS
(the unalterable laws that are to
govern the animals)
1. Whatever goes upon two legs is
an enemy.
2. Whatever goes upon four legs, or
has wings, is a friend.
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.
The animals destroy all of the symbols of
Jones’s control over them (Mollie’s ribbons, etc)
 The milk disappearing is the first in a series of
events to establish the inequality that is
developing between the pigs and the other
animals
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Orwell uses the voice of a detached observer to
narrate his story; he doesn’t judge, but
presents events without commentary and
allows his readers to come to their own
conclusions
CHAPTER 3 SUMMARY + ANALYSIS
New characters
 Sheep: unintelligent animals who follow the
leader
The days after the Rebellion are good for the
animals; all of the animals work hard except
the pigs, who direct and supervise
 It appears that Old Major’s dream will come
true, but there are some indications of
problems
 The pigs, the new leaders on the farm, do no
labor
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The milk and apples are reserved exclusively
for the pigs
 Squealer explains the necessity for this –
because the pigs are the brain workers, the
whole management and organization of the
farm depends on them; they are the new upper
class in a theoretically classless society
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CONFLICT BETWEEN NAPOLEON AND SNOWBALL
The coming rift between Napoleon and
Snowball (suggestive of the conflict between
Stalin and Trotsky) begins to surface in this
chapter
 Their conflict stems from a difference in
ideology as they try to build their personal
power bases on the farm
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CONFLICT BETWEEN NAPOLEON AND SNOWBALL
Snowball works to organize the animal
committees and teach them how to read
 Napoleon calls for the education of the youth,
and takes the nine puppies to be raised for his
own purposes
 The pigs are called the “brain workers” by
Squealer
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This chapter also shows the importance of
propaganda and the use of managed, slanted
information to attain a political end
 Squealer is able to head off any complaints by
making them believe that the unselfish pigs are
acting in the best interest of the farm by eating
the apples and drinking the milk
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He also relies on the animals’ fear by linking
the pigs’ actions to the return of Jones
 The other animals are so naïve because they
are misinformed, ignorant, afraid, but most
importantly because they are trusting
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CHAPTER 4 SUMMARY + ANALYSIS
Mr. Pilkington: neighbor of Animal Farm; owner of
Foxwood Farm
Mr. Frederick: neighbor of Animal Farm; owner of
Pinchfield Farm
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Pilkington and Frederick join forces with Mr.
Jones in an attempt to help him retake Manor
Farm
THE BATTLE OF THE COWSHED
The pigeons bring word
of the humans’
imminent attack
 Snowball, who has
studied an old book of
Julius Caesar’s military
campaigns, is in charge
of the defenses of
Animal Farm and puts
his strategy into action
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THE BATTLE OF THE COWSHED
The humans, tricked into believing that the
animals are in retreat, rush into battle
 Quickly they are surrounded and defeated by
the well-disciplined and well-organized animal
forces
 The two heroes are Snowball, who is wounded,
and Boxer
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SNOWBALL AS THE HERO
Leon Trotsy was a military genius who built the
Soviet Army and planned the military
campaigns that gave victory to the Communists
in the civil war that followed the Russian
Revolution
 He is personified by Snowball, the first-class
hero of the Battle of the Cowshed, whose
planning and actions make him the hero
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CHAPTER 5 SUMMARY + ANALYSIS
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This chapter begins with the hope of a better
future for the animals, but it ends with
hopelessness, the termination of the Sunday
morning meetings, strict control by a select
committee of pigs, and with Napoleon
becoming a total dictator
Mollie, dissatisfied with the events, cannot
accept the new order and the loss of the
privileges that she had enjoyed under Jones
 She was never really committed to the cause of
the Rebellion, and at the first opportunity she
escapes, choosing to pull a cart for a human in
exchange for ribbons and lump sugar
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Historically, Mollie represents the thousands of
Russians who fled their country after the
Revolution
Although Napoleon and Snowball disagree on
everything, it is the windmill, the modernization
and industrialization of Animal Farm, that
brings their conflict to a head
 For Snowball, the windmill is a promise of
leisure time for everyone, provided by electrical
power that will run the machines and do the
hard work presently done by the animals
 Napoleon advises the animals to vote against it
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Windmill = the early attempts after the
Revolution to bring Russia into the 20th century
through a series of Five Year Plans
 These plans were aimed at building roads,
dams, hydroelectric plants and factories, and
increasing farm production
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CHAPTER 6 SUMMARY + ANALYSIS
New character:
Whymper = human solicitor (lawyer) who acts
as intermediary between Animal Farm and the
outside world; represents opportunists who
made the most of the hardships and famine in
Russia in 1921-22 and 1932-33
Squealer heads off any animal protest by
rewriting history (rewriting Commandments);
the Fourth Commandment is aimed at sheets,
not beds
 As with the milk and apples, the animals are
told that the pigs sleeping in beds is a way to
keep Jones off the farm
 Squealer represents propaganda. In the Soviet
Union, it was used to influence public opinion
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Napoleon makes Snowball the “scapegoat”
(person that is blamed for whatever goes wrong in
a society; finding a scapegoat focuses the
attention away from the real problem, and unifies
the energies of a society against a common
enemy)
 By shifting the guilt and making Snowball the
villain, Napoleon appears blameless
 Snowball becomes a traitor and enemy of Animal
Farm
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CHAPTER 7 SUMMARY + ANALYSIS
Napoleon’s brutality is the major focus of this
chapter
 The hens refuse to turn over their eggs for sale
because it is the equivalent of murdering their
unborn clutches
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Historically, the Mutiny of the Hens represents
the reaction of large numbers of Russian
peasants who rebelled against Stalin’s Five
Year Plan
 They chose to burn their crops and slaughter
their livestock in a time of famine, rather than
turn them over for sale to foreign countries
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POINT OF VIEW
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In this chapter, Orwell deviates from his impersonal
third-person point of view, which relates events without
commentary or emotion
For the first time, he takes the reader into the minds of
one of the characters. The reader is given insight into
Clover’s feeling
Clover is confused and afraid but lacks the ability to
convey her feelings to the others because of ignorance
and fear
This best explains why the other animals on Animal
Farm do not resist, and may also explain why the
Russian people never rebelled against Stalin
CHAPTER 8 SUMMARY + ANALYSIS
Historically, the chapter deals with Hitler’s rise
to power in Nazi Germany in the 1930s and the
early years leading up to the beginning of World
War II
 The agreement between Napoleon and
Frederick for the sale of the woodpile suggests
the Stalin-Hitler Pact signed in 1939
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The chapter focuses on the changes that
continue to occur on the farm
 The animals have come to regard Napoleon,
their new “master,” much in the same way they
once regarded Jones; he never associates with
the “lower” animals
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When the pigs discover alcohol, another step
is taken in the journey to become more and
more like man; Napoleon’s attentions turn
towards producing his own alcohol
 The field, once intended as a grazing ground
for retired animals, is to be sown with barley
for the pigs’ beer (another one of the
“unalterable” commandments has been
changed to suit Napoleon)
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CHAPTER 9 SUMMARY + ANALYSIS
This is the climactic chapter in the novel
 It is here, more than any other place, that Old
Major’s dream of the revolution is betrayed;
Napoleon and the pigs have established
themselves as the new aristocracy; pigs are the
new masters
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Even the memory of Snowball, the hero of the
Battle of the Cowshed, is gone, replaced by the
image of a coward and a traitor, who fought
against the animals and was stopped only by
Napoleon’s bravery
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Boxer, Napoleon’s greatest supporter, the
farm’s hardest and most faithful worker, the
hero of the Battle of the Cowshed, and the
main force in the building and rebuilding of the
windmill, is sold for enough money to buy the
pigs a case of whiskey
CHAPTER 10 SUMMARY + ANALYSIS
With the passage of time, many of those who
fought in the Rebellion are dead and forgotten; the
new animals have only a dim tradition passed on
by word of mouth; the memories of the older
animals have been so altered by Squealer’s
revisions of history that it is impossible to know
what’s real
 The sheep’s new slogan convinces the other
animals that walking on two legs has always been
preferable to walking on four
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The final example of Squealer’s “double speak”
can be seen when the Seven Commandments
are changed into one: All animals are equal,
but the pigs are more equal than the others;
they are the new masters who carry the whips
and live in the house and wear clothes
IRONY
Orwell’s final irony is witnessed when the
humans come to visit the farm. They openly
refer to the farm animals as “lower animals”
and they observe them working harder and
longer for less food than any other animals in
the county
 There is now little difference between pig and
man
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The animals looking through the window of the
farmhouse cannot tell the difference between
the men and the pigs
 The animals no longer need to fear that Jones
will come back to make their difficult lives
miserable; he has already come back in the
form of Napoleon and the pigs
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THE END!