Animal Farm Animal Farm Animal Farm book cover
Animal Farm is a satirical novel which can also be understood as a modern fable or allegory by George Orwell ostensibly about a group of animals who oust the humans from the farm they live on and run it themselves only to have it corrupted into a brutal tyranny on its own It was written during World War II and published in although it was not widely recognized until the late.
Animal Farm is a thinly veiled critique and satire of Communist totalitarianism Many events in the book are based on ones from the Soviet Union during the Stalin era For example the character Snowball who is expelled from the Farm by Napoleon is clearly modeled on Trotsky George Orwell though a left winger he was for many years a member of the Independent Labour Party was a critic of Stalin and suspicious of Moscow directed communism after his experiences in the Spanish Civil War.
 Plot. Spoiler warning Plot and or ending details follow.
The local prize winning pig Old Major calls a meeting of all the animals of Manor Farm He tells them that he has had a dream where mankind is gone and animals are free to live in peace and harmony He then proceeds to teach them a revolutionary song Beasts of England The other animals begin to hope and dream for the revolution of such a day When Old Major dies a mere three days later three pigs Snowball who teaches the animals to read though how he learned to read is not clear Napoleon and Squealer assume command and turn his dream into a full fledged philosophy The philosophy of Animalism has Seven Commandments the first of which is that all animals are equal and which are written on the wall of a barn for all to see One night the starved animals suddenly revolt and drive Mr Jones his wife and his pet raven off the farm and take control The farm is renamed Animal Farm as the animals work towards a future utopia to which the workhorse Boxer does more than his fair share and adopts a maxim of his own I will work harder.
It seems at first that Animal Farm is off to a great start Snowball was teaching all of the animals to read and write food was plentiful due to a good harvest and the entire Farm was organized and running smoothly Even when Mr Jones tries his last ditch effort to retake control of the farm the animals are easily able to defeat him at the later called the Battle of the Cowshed Soon however things begin to unravel as Napoleon and Snowball begin an epic power struggle over the farm When Snowball announces his idea for a windmill Napoleon quickly opposes it A meeting is held and when Snowball makes his passionate and articulate speech in favour of the windmill Napoleon only makes a brief retort and then a strange noise like a whistle This noise signals the arrival of the nine puppies Napoleon had educated who had grown into vicious attack dogs They burst in and chase Snowball off of the farm In his absence Napoleon declares himself the leader of the farm and makes instant changes He announces that meetings will no longer be held as before and a committee of pigs alone would decide what happened with the farm.
Napoleon changes his mind about the windmill claiming through Squealer that Snowball had stolen the idea and the animals begin to work After a violent storm the animals wake to find the fruit of their labour utterly annihilated Though neighbouring farmers scoff at the thin walls Napoleon and Squealer convince everyone that Snowball destroyed it Napoleon begins to purge the farm killing many animals accused of consorting with Snowball In the meantime Boxer has taken a second mantra Napoleon is always right.
Napoleon begins to abuse his powers even more and life on the farm becomes harder and harder for the rest of the animals The pigs impose more and more controls on them while reserving privileges for themselves History is rewritten to villainise Snowball and glorify Napoleon even further Each step of this development is justified by the pig Squealer who on se