Animal Farm
Chapter 1 (31-10)
Mr Jones is the owner of the Manor Farm. He locked the henhouses for the night,
but was too drunk to remember to shut the potholes. He went home afterwards
and made his way up to bed, where Mrs. Jones was already sleeping. As soon as
the light in the bedroom went out, all the farm animals started moving. Word had
gone out during the day that old Major, a middle white boar, had a strange dream
on the previous night and wished to share it to the other animals. They agreed to
meet at the big barn as soon as Mr. Jones was away. Old Major is so highly
regarded that the animals are willing to lose an hour’s sleep just to hear what he
had to say. At one end of the big barn, Major was standing on a sort of raised
platform. Soon the barn started to fill with the other animals. The first to arrive
were the three dogs: Bluebell, Jessie, and Puncher. Pigs who settled themselves
down in straw, hens who perched themselves on the windowsill. After them came
two cart horses, Boxer and Clover, and a white goat, Muriel. Then came Benjamin,
the oldest animal on the farm, and the worst tempered.
Old Major started with saying that the lives of his fellow animals are “miserable,
laborious and short.” That they’re born into this world as slaves. He says that we,
animals, must stay united as friends and that man is the enemy. Man, feds them
just enough so they don’t die, takes away all their children and kills them off
when he has no need of them. Then Old Major proceeds to talk about his dream
that he had the previous night, about a world in which animals were free, happy,
well fed, and treated with dignity. A world where animals live together without
humans to oppress them. To achieve such a world, they must first achieve perfect
comradeship. Major says that creatures that walk on 2 legs are enemies and
creatures that walk on 4 are comrades. He then goes on to say that the ways of
men are corrupt and after they defeat them, they must never adapt any of their
habits. He then teaches the animals a song called “Beasts of England”. The
animals try to sing it along, then Mr. Jones wakes up, thinking that the sounds are
of the entry of a fox into the yard, fires a shot into the side of the barn. Manor
Farm is silent.
Chapter 2 (1-11)
Three nights later, Old Major dies in his sleep. Napoleon and Snowball formulate
old Major principles into a philosophy called Animalism, together with another pig
named Squealer. For the following three months the animals make secret
preparations to carry out old Major’s dying wish of freedom. Then one night the
animals manage to defeat Mr. Jones in a battle, which causes him to run away,
leaving the land in the hands of the animals. Manor Farm gets renamed to Animal
Farm. The work of teaching and organizing the others fell upon the pigs, who
were generally recognized as being the cleverest of the animals, especially the
two pigs named Napoleon and Snowball. Boxer promises to work as hard as
possible and says, “I will work harder.”
Chapter 3 (1-11)
The animals spend their summertime harvesting in the fields, but it is hard work,
so the pigs think of ways to ease the work. As ways to use human tools. If every
animal helps, they can make it work. That day the harvest exceeded higher than
the farm had ever known. Boxer does most of the heavy labor and other animals
admire his dedication and strength. Mollie and the cat avoided working. On
sundays the animals raise a flag, with a green background. Every morning the
animals hold a democratic meeting, where the animal’s debate and establish new
policies for the collective good. Snowball and Napoleon always have the loudest
opinions, and they never agree with each other.
Chapter 4 (1-11)
At the end of summer, news of Animal farm has spread across half the country.
Mr. Jones is drinking and complaining. The two farms next to Animal Farm, fear
that their own animals will rebel and take control of the farm. There is a rivalry
between them which prevents them from working together against Animal Farm.
The owners of the adjoining farms are Mr. Pilkington and Mr. Frederick. In the
meanwhile, more and more animals learn of the “Beasts of England” song and
start singing it, and they begin to behave rebelliously. They learned it through
pigeons which were sent by Snowball. In October, pigeons inform Animal Farm
that Mr. Jones is coming back with some of Pilkington’s and Frederick’s men.
Upon receiving that information, Snowball plans how to defeat them. He uses
knowledge out of books about war and uses some tactics from the Roman general
Julius Caesar. The animals ambush Mr. Jones and his men and win. The losses
were one sheep and a stable boy. Boxer regrets taking a life, even though it is a
human one. Snowball tells him that he shouldn’t feel guilty and that “the only
good human being is a dead one.” Mollie didn’t take part in the battle, as you
could expect. Snowball and Boxer receive medals for the battle. The fight is
named: “The battle of the Cowshed.” The animals find Mr. Jones’s dropped gun
and agree to fire it twice a year. Once on October 12th, the anniversary of the
Battle of the Cowshed and on Midsummer’s Day, the anniversary of the rebellion.
Chapter 5 (1-11)
Mollie leaves the farm to go pull a man’s carriage and he feeds her sugar and
strokes her coat as reward. The animals agree to never talk about her again.
Snowball and Napoleon constantly disagree with each other in the meetings.
Snowball wants to build a windmill, with which they can generate electricity and
automate many farming tasks. This way the animals would have to do less work,
but building the windmill itself entails much hard work and difficulty. Napoleon
disagrees with the plan of building a windmill and says that the animals should
work on their current needs rather than the future. Napoleon showed his disgust
and anger with the windmill by urinating on Snowball’s building plans. When
Snowball plans are finally complete, the animals all assemble for a meeting about
it, to build the windmill or not. Snowball gives a speech about why the windmill is
a good idea, and that it will bring comfort to the animals when it’s done, to which
Napoleon responds with by bringing nine enormous dogs with him to attack
Snowball. Snowball runs as fast as he can, and he manages to escape the farm.
Napoleon scraps meetings and states that all important decision will be taken by
the pigs alone. The animals are confused, but Squealer explains to them that
Napoleon is a great leader and the cleverest animal. Then he goes on to explain
that Snowball was a traitor and a criminal. The animals start to accept the new
leader and the expelling of the old one. A few weeks later Napoleon does support
the windmill project and wants to work on it. Squealer explains to the animals
that Napoleon always wanted to build a windmill, but he just pretended that he
didn’t so he could expel Snowball. After hearing Squealer explanation and the
growling of the dogs beside him, they accepted the explanation.
Chapter 6 (4-11)
The animals work even harder than before, because now beside the normal farm
work, they also must build a windmill. Napoleon also states that working on
Sunday isn’t mandatory, but if you don’t work on Sunday, your rations will be cut
by half. The farm needs some materials that they can’t acquire on their own, so
Napoleon hired a man called Mr. Whymper, to help them trade, so they can get
the items they need to build the windmill. It is one of the seven principles of
Animalism to not participate in trade, but Squealer says that there is not such a
law, and that it is just a lie made up by the traitor Snowball. Mr. Whymper gets
the necessary items for Animal Farm. The pigs started living in the farmhouse, and
word is that they have even sleep in beds now, which is once again a violation of
the laws of Animalism, the Seven Commandments. Clover finds this odd and
remembers a law that it’s prohibited, but when she asks Muriel to read her the
commandment, they found out that it has been changed to “No animal shall sleep
in a bed with sheets.” Squealer says that they have just forgotten the last part of
the law, the ‘with sheets’ part. There is a strong storm that causes the windmill to
collapse, but Napoleon says that it was Snowball who destroyed it and gives a
speech in which he convinces the animals that they should rebuild the windmill.
Chapter 7 (4-11)
The animals work hard in the cold winter to rebuild the windmill. This time the
animals are going to build the windmill twice as thick before. There is a food
shortage and Napoleon contracts to sell four hundred eggs a week, which causes
the hens to rebel. Napoleon cuts the hens their entire rations for a week, causing
nine hens to die. Whenever something goes wrong on the farm Napoleon
immediately blames Snowball for it. Squealer announces that Snowball been a
traitor since the start, but the animals don’t buy it, they remember Snowball
fighting heroically at the Battle of the Cowshed. Squealer goes on to convince
them that it was all a part of his treacherous plan and then works on to convince
them that Napoleon was the real hero of the battle. A couple days later,
Napoleon gathers all the animals and questions them. He forces some animals to
confess of their collaboration with Snowball and then has the dogs kill them. The
dogs get wild and even attack Boxer, who knocks them away. That day numerous
animals meet their deaths. The song ‘Beast of England” is forbidden, and Squealer
gives them a new song.
Chapter 8 (4-11)
The commandments once again have been changed, this time the “No animal
shall kill any other animal” was changed, now it read “No animal shall kill any
other animal without cause.” The animals have it hard, they suffer from hunger
and the cold. Napoleon was now called “Leader”. Napoleon trades with both
neighboring farm owners. Whoever favors Napoleon in trades, Napoleon teaches
the animals to hate the other and whichever farm is currently not in favor with
Napoleon, is said to be hiding Snowball. The windmill is finally built, but then
Napoleon notices that the money he has received from Mr. Frederick is fake. He
prepares the farm for whatever is to come and soon Mr. Frederick attacked
Animal Farm with a lot of armed men. They plant dynamite at the windmill and
blow it up. The animals furious, attack the men and drive them away. In the battle
multiple animals are killed and Boxer sustains a serious injury. The pigs discover
some whisky in the farmhouse basement and get drunk. The next morning there
is word that Napoleon may be dying, but a couple hours later he has recovered. In
the night Squealer is found from fallen from a ladder with a paintbrush in his
hand. He was changing the Seven Commandments painted on the barn. But the
animals are so dumb, that they choose to ignore it. The commandment “No
animal shall drink alcohol” was changed to “No animal shall drink alcohol to
excess”
Chapter 9 (5-11)
The animals once again start rebuilding the windmill. Boxer helps even though he
is injured. He never fully recovers, and there are signs that he is simply getting too
old. He wants to help as much as he can before he retires, the retirement age for
horses is 12 years. The rations for the animals get smaller and smaller, except for
the pigs and the dogs. Animal Farm becomes a republic and Napoleon becomes
president. Moses a raven who left the farm a long time ago, returns and begins
spreading stories about Sugarcandy Mountain, where all animals go to after their
death. Boxer collapses while working and the animals rush to help him. Benjamin
and Clover stay by Boxer’s side while the other animals go to tell Squealer that
Boxer collapsed. Napoleon arranged for Boxer to be brought to a human hospital,
but when the car arrived. Benjamin reads on the side of the car that he is being
sent to be slaughtered. Everyone panics and start screaming to Boxer that he
needs to escape. Boxer tries to break open the door, but he has no strength left in
his old body and is unable to get out. Later Squealer announced that the doctors
couldn’t help Boxer and he had died. He also claims that he was by his side as he
died. Then he goes debunk that Boxer was taken to a glue factory to get
slaughtered. Saying that the hospital had bought the car but hadn’t removed the
text on the side of the car yet. The animals get relieved upon hearing this news. A
couple hours later the farmhouse received a delivery, and you can hear the pigs
partying. The pigs have bought another crate of alcohol, but no one knows where
they got the money from.
Chapter 10 (5-11)
Time has passed and most animals that were present at the Rebellion are dead
now. Once again, a windmill has been built, but instead of using it to automate
farm tasks and generate electricity, they milling corn to sell it. The farm has grown
richer, but they live poorer than before, except for the pigs and the dogs. The
animals hear a scream and go to check what is was, that is when they see
Squealer walking on his two hind legs, walking upright, like a human being. Soon
Napoleon appeared also walking upright, carrying a whip. Clover asks Benjamin to
read the writing on the barn where the Seven Commandments are written. All but
one commandment is left on the wall, “all animals are equal.”, however it has a
new part added to it “but some animals are more equal than others.” The pigs
begin to behave more and more like humans, smoking a pipe, and subscribing to
human magazines, listening to the radio, and even using a phone. Some also start
wearing human clothes.
The pigs invite the neighboring human farmers over for a toast. The other animals
see Mr. Pilkington and Napoleon talking and laughing and toasting each other.
Mr. Pilkington is happy that the pigs are making the animals work harder and, on
less food, than any other group of animals in the county. Napoleon tells Mr.
Pilkington that Animal Farm will change its name back to the Manor Farm.
Napoleon and Pilkington start playing cards and accuse each other of cheating.
The animals still watching through the window, realize that they can’t distinguish
which of the cardplayers are pigs and which are humans.