Old
Major, a prize-winning boar, gathers the animals of the
Manor Farm for a meeting in the big barn. 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. When he dies only three nights after the
meeting, three younger pigs—Snowball, Napoleon, and Squealer—formulate
his main principles into a philosophy called Animalism. 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. As time passes, however,
Napoleon and Snowball increasingly quibble over the future
of the farm, and they begin to struggle with each other for
power and influence among the other animals. Snowball
concocts a scheme to build an electricity-generating
windmill, but Napoleon solidly opposes the plan. At the
meeting to vote on whether to take up the project, Snowball
gives a passionate speech. Although Napoleon gives only a
brief retort, he then makes a strange noise, and nine attack
dogs—the puppies that Napoleon had confiscated in order to
“educate”—burst into the barn and chase Snowball from the
farm. Napoleon assumes leadership of Animal Farm and
declares that there will be no more meetings. From that
point on, he asserts, the pigs alone will make all of the
decisions—for the good of every animal.
Napoleon now quickly changes
his mind about the windmill, and the animals, especially
Boxer, devote their efforts to completing it. One day, after
a storm, the animals find the windmill toppled. The human
farmers in the area declare smugly that the animals made the
walls too thin, but Napoleon claims that Snowball returned
to the farm to sabotage the windmill. He stages a great
purge, during which various animals who have allegedly
participated in Snowball’s great conspiracy—meaning any
animal who opposes Napoleon’s uncontested leadership—meet
instant death at the teeth of the attack dogs. With his
leadership unquestioned (Boxer has taken up a second maxim,
“Napoleon is always right”), Napoleon begins expanding his
powers, rewriting history to make Snowball a villain.
Napoleon also begins to act more and more like a human being—sleeping
in a bed, drinking whisky, and engaging in trade with
neighboring farmers. The original Animalist principles
strictly forbade such activities, but Squealer, Napoleon’s
propagandist, justifies every action to the other animals,
convincing them that Napoleon is a great leader and is
making things better for everyone—despite the fact that the
common animals are cold, hungry, and overworked.
Mr. Frederick, a neighboring
farmer, cheats Napoleon in the purchase of some timber and
then attacks the farm and dynamites the windmill, which had
been rebuilt at great expense. After the demolition of the
windmill, a pitched battle ensues, during which Boxer
receives major wounds. The animals rout the farmers, but
Boxer’s injuries weaken him. When he later falls while
working on the windmill, he senses that his time has nearly
come. One day, Boxer is nowhere to be found. According to
Squealer, Boxer has died in peace after having been taken to
the hospital, praising the Rebellion with his last breath.
In actuality, Napoleon has sold his most loyal and long-suffering
worker to a glue maker in order to get money for whisky.
Years pass on Animal Farm,
and the pigs become more and more like human beings—walking
upright, carrying whips, and wearing clothes. Eventually,
the seven principles of Animalism, known as the Seven
Commandments and inscribed on the side of the barn, become
reduced to a single principle reading “all animals are equal,
but some animals are more equal than others.” Napoleon
entertains a human farmer named Mr. Pilkington at a dinner
and declares his intent to ally himself with the human
farmers against the laboring classes of both the human and
animal communities. He also changes the name of Animal Farm
back to the Manor Farm, claiming that this title is the
“correct” one. Looking in at the party of elites through the
farmhouse window, the common animals can no longer tell
which are the pigs and which are the human beings.
