Animal Farm
George Orwell
‘All animals are equal –
but some animals are more equal than others.’
p.90, Chapter X
All quotations are from Animal Farm, George Orwell, Penguin Books
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Book Report - Animal Farm, George Orwell
George Orwell
“Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or
indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism, as I understand it.”
George Orwell, ‘Why I write’
This quotation shows the attitude of George Orwell, towards writing and politics as
well. Born in India as Eric Arthur Blair in 1903, and after having worked as a police man
from 1922-1927, he started to hate Imperialism and experienced oppression. During
his time at Eton college, from 1917 – 1921, he mingled with literature. Attracted by the
vision of a classless society he fought, from 1936 – 1938, during the Spanish Civil War
for the Socialist military party. For his marriage with Eileen Maud O’Shaughnessy he
couldn’t afford wedding rings because his first attempts to write weren’t successful.
Having published ‘Animal Farm’ in 1945 he became ‘famous overnight’. Due to the
sudden fame he moved to the island of Jura and died in London in 1950 after having
published ‘1984’.
How does Socialism work?
‘Remove Man from the scene, and the root cause of hunger and overwork is abolished
for ever.’
p.4 , Chapter I
The main idea of Socialism and Communism by Karl Marx is the contrast between the
proletariat, the powerless workers, and the bourgeoisie, the factory owners or landholders. This contrast will be abolished by a revolution, which will lead to a classless
society. In Communism the gained objects belong to all people, in Socialism they are
nationalized.
The socialistic economy is steered by the state to control and supervise the market,
to guarantee constant prizes and to reach a full employment of all inhabitants. This
economic concept works repressing towards development and profit, and long-dated
it isn’t affordable, due to the missing dynamic of the market which results out of the
large number of planning office. Another point why this concept leads to economic
stagnation is the missing competition of industries. As the state guarantees to buy the
produced goods, the workers don’t have to compete with each other and technological
advances aren’t required. A further disturbing point is the immense interference of the
state into personal matters. First of all no one is allowed to take personal belongings
and to nationalize them. Secondly for example, who wants to buy clothes produced
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Book Report - Animal Farm, George Orwell
by the state and not the ones he likes to wear? Thirdly, what happens when the state
decides that weapons are more needed than bread?
Summary and Analysis
‘The life of an animal is misery and slavery: that is the plain truth.’
p.3, Chapter I
Animal Farm by George Orwell is a novel about a revolution gone wrong. It is set on
an English farm, named Major Farm, owned by Mr Jones. The story is told from the
animals’ point of view.
At the beginning Mr Jones forgets to lock the animals’ barns, which results in an assembly. The reason for this assembly is a dream of Old Major, a highly respected pig.
In his dream he understood the life of animals better and as he is going to die soon he
wants to inform the other animals about his vision. He points his finger at the animals’
bad conditions of life and the unfair apportionment of profits. He further describes his
vision of a rich and peaceful life. There, all animals work together in peace and unity
and are the only consumers of their work. This situation can be reached by a rebellion
in which the animals take control over the farm. At the end of this assembly the song
of the revolution, ‘Beasts of England’ is sung.
The rebellion is reached faster than anyone expected. Three month later Jones forgets
to feed his animals and they break out of their barns, take the farm under their control and change the name ‘Major Farm’ into ‘Animal Farm’. The theory of Animalism
is developed by the pigs Snowball and Napoleon. Animalism bases on seven commandments: Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy, whatever goes upon four legs,
or has wings, is a friend, no animal shall wear clothes, sleep in a bed, drink alcohol, kill
any other animal and the most important one: all animals are equal.
The equality of all animals is the first commandment which is ¬¬¬broken by the pigs:
The milk of the cows is drunken only by the pigs, whereas the cat has to drink water.
Another noticeable point is that the pigs still use human utilities. The font is used to
write the commandments onto a wall, a ladder is used to reach the height. ‘All animals
are equal’ should better be named ‘All animals have the same rights’, as the animals
differ in their intelligence. Because of this different ability Animalism is generalised to a
single statement: ‘Four legs good, two legs bad.’, so that all animals are able to learn
the main statement by heart.
Generally most animals are confident with the new situation. Even though the pigs do
not work physically. They are the ‘brain workers’ thus they are allowed to drink milk, to
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Book Report - Animal Farm, George Orwell
eat all the apples and later to live in the farm house. They legitimate their actions with
a single and always same sentence: ‘…otherwise Jones would come back.’ The fear of
Jones grows after his attempt to regain control of the farm. In this attack, the Battle of
Cowshed, Snowball and Boxer fight bravely and are given medals for their courage.
Mollie, a white mare, is discovered to be in contact with a human from Pinchfield Farm,
and flees the farm. Soon after this Snowball begins to develop plans for a windmill,
which should make work less hard and create a three-day week. Napoleon, always
having an opposing opinion to Snowball, is strongly against the windmill. But at Animal Farm decision are still taken democratically and most animals are in favour of the
windmill, except for Napoleon. To inhibit the build he forces Snowball to flee the farm
by letting him attack by dogs, which he drilled to follow his wishes.
Since that time democracy at animal farm is abolished. Decisions are taken by the
pigs, which are ‘naturally’ the most intelligent. It is quite peculiar that right from the beginning the pigs are ‘manifestly cleverer’ or that it is ‘natural that they should assume
the leadership, because of ‘their superior knowledge’. No animal protests against the
preferential treatment. Every decision is accepted because of the pig’s great abilities,
the fear of Jones possible return and Napoleon’s dogs. They also don’t protest as
Napoleon decides to build the windmill, which was ‘in truth’ his own creation and ‘he’
never opposed to build it.
During the year the animals work ‘like slaves’ – just ‘like’ slaves, not ‘as’ slaves- to
built the windmill. The extra work is strictly voluntarily, for this extra work the daily food
rations would persist in its extent, otherwise they would be reduced to the half. By the
winter food rations decrease and Napoleon decides to sell the hens’ eggs. They rebel
against the sale, their ‘contribution towards the building of the windmill’. As the sale of
eggs has been a reason for the revolution they revolt by destroying their eggs. But they
are in an inferior position… In the end Napoleon reaches his aim by letting the hens
starve and the eggs are sold.
The windmill, almost finished, breaks down after a year full of privation and hard work.
Napoleon, in the meantime the ‘heroic leader’ blames Snowball, the ‘spy of humans’,
the ‘traitor’ of Animal Farm to be responsible and decides that the windmill is going to
be rebuild. Boxer, a horse, who adopted the maxim: ‘I will work harder.’ works most.
Being injured after an attack from Pinchfield Farm, during this battle the windmill crashes a second time, he is promised to be brought to the hospital, but in reality he is
taken to the slaughterer.
Food rations continue to be reduced, except the ones of the pigs, who are allowed
to wear green ribbons on Sundays, drink beer daily, and actually seem to be gaining
weight. After many years most older animals died off, most commandments are changed for and by the pigs, when Napoleon starts to walk onto two legs, supported by
the cries of the sheep: ‘ Four legs good, two legs better!’. A single one replaces the
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Book Report - Animal Farm, George Orwell
Seven Commandments: ‘All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than
others.’ The neighbouring farmers are invited by the pigs to show them the great efficiency of Animal Farm. They congratulate the pigs, that there isn’t any other farm, where
the animals work so efficiently and require that less food. During the dinner animals
watch trough a window and realise, that they can no longer differ the pigs’ faces from
the human ones.
Animal Farm, an allegory of the Soviet Union?
‘No argument must lead you astray. ’
p.5, Chapter I
Right from the start the reader is given some obvious hints that the story of Animal
Farm deals with Communistic or Socialistic themes. The dream of Old Major is nearly
the same as the theory of Marx and Lenin that in one day a rebellion will be started. In
this rebellion the established form of government will be abolished. At Animal Farm it is
Jones, the farmer, who controls his farm with cruelty, drinks to much alcohol, and often
forgets to feed his animals. In Russia, greatest part of the future Soviet Union, Tsar Nicholas II ruled his country with the same cruelty as Jones does and due to many wars
and economic lapses the population lived in poverty and was starving.
The rebellion is reached faster than anyone expected. Napoleon and Snowball become the main organisers of Animal Farm like Joseph Stalin and Leo Trotsky did in
the Soviet Union. Leo Trotsky is dispelled from the Communistic Party having conflicts
with Stalin. The parallel in Animal Farm is the flight of Snowball after a speech about
the windmill and the attack of Napoleon’s dogs. Napoleon becomes the ‘heroic leader’
of Animal Farm, as Stalin did in the Soviet Union. After a while Napoleon starts to sell
the hens’ eggs, what provokes them to destroy their eggs, the product of their work.
Also in the Soviet Union workers protested against the rule of Stalin by burning their
crops 1930.
During Stalin’s regime contradicting political opinions were forbidden. To avoid different political opinions in the population political opponents often were tortured and after
a while they admitted crimes they haven’t done and were killed afterwards.
At Animal Farm four pigs are being executed confessing that they collaborated with
Snowball. The reason why they confessed these crimes remains unclear. It might have
been the pressure of the audience, but it seems sure they didn’t commit the crimes
they were executed for.
Napoleon starts to trade with Frederick from Pinchfield farm. He rules his farm with
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Book Report - Animal Farm, George Orwell
brutality and discipline. Animal Farm is betrayed by him and later attacked . In this attack the windmill is destroyed, many animals are wounded and some even killed. The
parallel in the history might be the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact by Hitler and Stalin. In this
pact both sides agreed not to attack each other and to divide Poland justly. This contract is broken when Germany attacked and occupied Poland and when Hitler started
his war of extermination against the Soviet population. About 10 Million Soviet soldiers
died and most of the Soviet infrastructure was destroyed.
But not only the incidents at Animal Farm are like the historical ones, also the outer
structure coincides. The flag of the Soviet Union was plain red with a hammer crossed
with a sickle, analog the green flag of Animal Farm with the hoof and the horn. An even
more striking point is the form of government: Both based upon the ideals of Marx and
Lenin, abolished the former governing person, destroyed the evil things of oppression,
a leader was installed or installed himself. Furthermore the population was loyal to
their leaders and every form of revolution was scotched.
Seeing these parallels of history and the story of Animal Farm I can say, as a conclusion, that Animal Farm is an allegory of the Soviet Union during the time of Stalin’s
rule.
I personally liked the novel; it helped to understand the main themes of Communism
better and is, in my opinion an example for totalitarianism. Further it was a kind of learning-by-reading. Once you realized that George Orwell describes happenings in the
Soviet Union, you could imagine how it might have been to live in the Soviet Union and
you could reconstruct the incredibly inconsequent actions of the government.
During my research I read a text from a German student who said: ‘I liked this book,
because it demonstrates and proofs that every revolution doesn’t change anything.’ I
completely disagree to his statement and it doesn’t come to my mind how he made up
his opinion. The revolution of the animals didn’t go wrong because of false attitudes
or misinterpretation of theories, but of the fact that Communism is a theory and can’t
be lived. This revolution has changed something in the life of animals: They have experienced that equality of all can be reached neither by commandments written onto a
wall nor by an rebellion, but that equality, if it exists, has to grow and can’t be installed
overnight.
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Book Report - Animal Farm, George Orwell
Quotations
I think the following sentences show the loyalty of the animals from the Farm, the
faults of the pigs and attitudes towards the rebellion.
‘He intended to take the whole burden upon his own shoulders.’
p.43, Chapter VI
‘It must be due to some fault in ourselves. The solution, as I see it, is to work harder.’
p.57, Chapter VII
‘This work was strictly voluntary, but any animal who absented himself would have its
rations reduced by half.’
p.40, Chapter VI
‘The cat looked round, as usual, for the warmest place.’
p.3, Chapter I
‘The pigs did not actually work, but directed and supervised the others. With their
superior knowledge it was natural that they should assume the leadership.’
p.17, Chapter III
‘Donkeys live a long time. None of you has ever seen a dead donkey.’
p. 19, Chapter III
‘The advantage of only having to feed themselves, and not having to support five
extravagant human beings as well, was so great that it would have taken a lot of failures to outweigh it.’
p.42, Chapter VI
‘Do you know what would happen if we pigs failed in our duty? Jones would come
back! ’
p.23, Chapter III
‘Can you not understand that liberty is worth more than ribbons? ’
p.10, Chapter II
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