Animal Farm (Collins Classroom Classics)

This Collins Classroom Classics edition includes an introduction and glossary to support students, written by an experienced teacher.

£2.50

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Animal Farm George Orwell

‘No one believes more firmly than Comrade Napoleon that all animals are equal. He would be only too happy to let you make your decisions for yourselves.

But sometimes you might make the wrong decisions, comrades, and then where should we be?’

Animal Farm George Orwell 19/01/2021 09:13

Introduction By the time Animal Farm draws to its bleak conclusion, it is easy to forget the moments where Orwell describes a kind of Utopia. Not Moses’ promised ‘Sugarcandy Mountain’, where ‘lump sugar and linseed cake grew on the hedges’ (p.12), but the first summer when the newly liberated animals ‘toiled and sweated’ together to harvest what is now ‘truly their own food, produced by themselves and for themselves’. It is a Socialist paradise in which ‘everyone worked according to his capacity’ (pp.19–21).

Paradise cannot last, however: from the moment the pigs class themselves ‘brainworkers’ with special privileges (p.25), Orwell charts the gradual and total destruction of the Seven Commandments. In the ultimate failure of Old Major’s dream of equality, many readers see Animal Farm as a rebuttal of Socialism, but this is to misunderstand Orwell’s intentions. As a writer, he chose to criticise most fiercely his ‘own side’ – the political left – where he saw it fall short of its own ideals and values.1 Driven to write by ‘a sense of injustice’, Orwell is the opposite of cynical Benjamin, the donkey who refuses to act on his understanding until it is too late.2 The decision to write Animal Farm might even suggest that, like the animals, Orwell had not given up on the Republic of the Animals: ‘it might not be soon, it might not be within the lifetime of any animal now living, but still it was coming’ (p.96).

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Introduction

Themes in context Orwell: a political writer Orwell’s Socialist beliefs might seem surprising given his upbringing. Born Eric Blair into a comfortable middle-class family in 1903 and growing up in southern England, he was educated at Eton before joining the Imperial Police in Burma in 1922.3 After resigning in 1927, he spent the rest of his short life exposing the corruption and hypocrisies within the structures of political, social and colonial power as the writer ‘George Orwell’, an outsider with ‘inside knowledge’.4 Although he maintained that writing should be a ‘windowpane’,5 with the writer’s style invisible rather than intrusive, Orwell drew deeply upon his own life.

His first published work, Down and Out in Paris and London (1933), describes his experiences as a vagrant; The Road to Wigan Pier (1937) recounts the time he spent among poor mining communities in northern England. However, it was his participation in the Spanish Civil War of 1936–39 that arguably left the most lasting impression on his writing.6 Orwell fought on behalf of the left-wing Republican government against the right-wing Nationalist uprising, but was caught up in the complex struggle between different left-wing factions in Barcelona. POUM, the independent communist group that Orwell joined, was denounced by the Communist party as disloyal (and even ‘fascist’).

The experience, which Orwell described in Homage to Catalonia in 1938, gave him a searingly critical view of Communist propaganda under Soviet leader Josef Stalin and sowed the seeds of Animal Farm, first published in 1945.7

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Totalitarianism Today, people often group Hitler and Stalin together as dictators, but during the Second World War (1939–45) the Allies needed Stalin’s support, so Stalin was viewed as an ally of Western democracy rather than a threat to it – national alliances outweighed other concerns.

After the Second World War, the relationship between the Soviet Union and the Western allies deteriorated rapidly, triggering the start of the Cold War in 1947 and a period of prolonged hostility in US–Soviet relations.8 Orwell was frustrated with what he saw as a failure of liberal writers to grapple with political issues and to acknowledge Stalin’s human rights abuses, to call out his use of ‘ “liquidation”, “elimination”, or some other soothing phrase’ for what it was – murder – and to condemn ‘the terror, the hatred, the howling relatives, the post-mortems, the blood, the smells.’9 Read as a comment on European politics of the 1930s and 40s, Animal Farm’s references to the Russian Revolution and subsequent rise of a Communist dictatorship under Stalin are not subtle: after the exploited animals of Manor Farm rebel against Farmer Jones’s tyrannical rule (echoing the revolution against Tsar Nicholas II), ‘Animal Farm’ swiftly becomes a totalitarian state under Napoleon, who erodes the democratic rights of all animals, banning assemblies and repressing dissent (echoing the transformation of the Soviet Republic into a totalitarian state under Stalin). Developing such a historical reading, we can pair real figures and fictional characters: Farmer Jones and Tsar Nicholas II; Old Major and Lenin, the first head of the Communist state following the revolution; Snowball and Trotsky – a key political figure who was

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CHAPTER 1

Mr. Jones, of the Manor Farm, had locked the hen-houses for the night, but was too drunk to remember to shut the pop-holes. With the ring of light from his lantern dancing from side to side, he lurched across the yard, kicked off his boots at the back door, drew himself a last glass of beer from the barrel in the scullery, and made his way up to bed, where Mrs. Jones was already snoring.

As soon as the light in the bedroom went out there was a stirring and a fluttering all through the farm buildings. Word had gone round during the day that old Major, the prize Middle White boar, had had a strange dream on the previous night and wished to communicate it to the other animals. It had been agreed that they should all meet in the big barn as soon as Mr. Jones was safely out of the way. Old Major (so he was always called, though the name under which he had been exhibited was Willingdon Beauty) was so highly regarded on the farm that everyone was quite ready to lose an hour’s sleep in order to hear what he had to say.

At one end of the big barn, on a sort of raised platform, Major was already ensconced on his bed of straw, under a lantern which hung from a beam.

He was twelve years old and had lately grown rather

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stout, but he was still a majestic-looking pig, with a wise and benevolent appearance in spite of the fact that his tushes had never been cut. Before long the other animals began to arrive and make themselves comfortable after their different fashions. First came the three dogs, Bluebell, Jessie, and Pincher, and then the pigs, who settled down in the straw immediately in front of the platform. The hens perched themselves on the window sills, the pigeons fluttered up to the rafters, the sheep and cows lay down behind the pigs and began to chew the cud. The two cart-horses, Boxer and Clover, came in together, walking very slowly and setting down their vast hairy hoofs with great care lest there should be some small animal concealed in the straw. Clover was a stout motherly mare approaching middle life, who had never quite got her figure back after her fourth foal. Boxer was an enormous beast, nearly eighteen hands high, and as strong as any two ordinary horses put together. A white stripe down his nose gave him a somewhat stupid appearance, and in fact he was not of first-rate intelligence, but he was universally respected for his steadiness of character and tremendous powers of work. After the horses came Muriel, the white goat, and Benjamin, the donkey.

Benjamin was the oldest animal on the farm, and the worst tempered. He seldom talked, and when he did, it was usually to make some cynical remark – for instance, he would say that God had given him a tail to keep the flies off, but that he would sooner have had no tail and no flies. Alone among the animals on the farm he never laughed. If asked why, he would say that he saw nothing to laugh at. Nevertheless, without openly admitting it, he was devoted to Boxer; the two of them usually spent their Sundays together in the small paddock beyond the orchard, grazing side by side and never speaking.

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Chapter 1

The two horses had just lain down when a brood of ducklings, which had lost their mother, filed into the barn, cheeping feebly and wandering from side to side to find some place where they would not be trodden on. Clover made a sort of wall round them with her great foreleg, and the ducklings nestled down inside it and promptly fell asleep. At the last moment Mollie, the foolish, pretty white mare who drew Mr. Jones’s trap, came mincing daintily in, chewing at a lump of sugar. She took a place near the front and began flirting her white mane, hoping to draw attention to the red ribbons it was plaited with. Last of all came the cat, who looked round, as usual, for the warmest place, and finally squeezed herself in between Boxer and Clover; there she purred contentedly throughout Major’s speech without listening to a word of what he was saying.

All the animals were now present except Moses, the tame raven, who slept on a perch behind the back door.

When Major saw that they had all made themselves comfortable and were waiting attentively, he cleared his throat and began: ‘Comrades, you have heard already about the strange dream that I had last night. But I will come to the dream later. I have something else to say first. I do not think, comrades, that I shall be with you for many months longer, and before I die, I feel it my duty to pass on to you such wisdom as I have acquired. I have had a long life, I have had much time for thought as I lay alone in my stall, and I think I may say that I understand the nature of life on this earth as well as any animal now living. It is about this that I wish to speak to you.

‘Now, comrades, what is the nature of this life of ours? Let us face it: our lives are miserable, laborious,

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Glossary Chapter 1 1 pop-holes: holes in a fence through which animals can pass to allow access to the outside 1 scullery: small kitchen at the back of the house for washing‑up and dirty household tasks 1

the prize Middle White boar: Middle White is a breed of domestic pig, and Old Major has won prizes (for example, for weight) in competition.

1

the name under which he had been exhibited: i.e. in competition

1

twelve years old: an old age for a pig (when the animals decide the age of retiring among themselves, twelve is fixed for pigs and horses)

2

his tushes had never been cut: tushes are long, protruding canine teeth

2

chew the cud: literally, cud is partially digested food that an animal brings back up to continue chewing; the phrase also means, figuratively, to chat

2 cart-horses: heavily built working horses, bred to pull weights, as opposed to racing or hunting horses 2

nearly eighteen hands high: A ‘hand’ is the standard unit of measurement for horses, equivalent to 4 inches (around 10 cm); the average horse is fifteen hands high.

2 paddock: small enclosed field for horses 3 foreleg: front leg 3 trap: a light carriage, usually two-wheeled 3 mincing: moving daintily (with derogatory overtones) 3

began flirting her white mane: i.e. swinging it about in order to attract attention

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3

Moses, the tame raven: Ravens are not traditionally ‘tame’, but Moses is Jones’s ‘pet’. Moses here represents the Russian Orthodox Church, and his name is a reference to the Old Testament figure who gave the Israelites the Ten Commandments.

3 Comrades: The term literally means ‘colleague’ or ‘fellow’ but was adopted by 19th-century revolutionaries as an egalitarian form of address; it is widely associated with Socialism and Communism.

3 stall: individual, partitioned area for each animal in a barn or stable 4

the order of Nature: i.e. a kind of Natural law

4

too weak to pull the plough: Old Major highlights man’s reliance on animals for producing food.

4 tills: breaking up and turning over soil in the field, to prepare it for sowing new crops 5

confinements: final period of pregnancy with labour and subsequent recovery

5 porkers: young pigs raised and fattened for food 5

at the block: i.e. the butcher’s block (to be slaughtered)

5

the knacker: person who collects and disposes of animal carcasses and boils them down for fat, etc.

5

boil you down for the foxhounds: Horsemeat was often given to hunting dogs (foxhounds).

6

have a common interest: share the same motives

6 hindquarters: back legs 6 trotter: pig’s foot 7 dissentients: dissenters, those who opposed the majority 7

your duty of enmity: Old Major means the animals have a ‘duty’ (i.e. of loyalty to each other) to always be against man, the enemy.

7

All animals are equal: Egalitarianism (the belief that all humans are equal) as a revolutionary ideal was developed during the European ‘Enlightenment’ period (c.1688–1815) and is reflected in the American Declaration of Independence of 1776.

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Glossary

7

“Beasts of England”: ‘beast’ here refers to ‘animals’, rather than ‘monsters’

8

something between ‘Clementine’ and ‘La Cucaracha’: these are popular folk songs (from the USA and Spain respectively)

8 clime: region 8

Hearken to my joyful tidings: ‘listen to my good news’

8

Rings shall vanish from our noses: Farm animals often had nose-rings, to control them but also to discourage young animals from feeding from their mothers.

8

harness…Bit and spur: all instruments used to control horses: the harness to direct, the bit – held in the mouth – to hold back, the spur to make faster

8 mangel-wurzels: root vegetable (related to beets) usually used as cattle-feed 9 lowed: i.e. mooed (deep sound made by cattle) 9 whinnied: neighed (i.e. the sound horses make) 9

making sure that: i.e. believing/assuming that

9

a charge of number 6 shot: shot are small pellets fired from a shotgun; ‘number 6’ refers to the diameter of the shot

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at the foot of the orchard: at the end of the field of fruit trees (in England, typically apple trees)

10

generally recognised as being the cleverest of the animals: this is a popular view of pigs that is supported by scientific research

10

Berkshire boar: a breed of pig (a boar is male)

10

not considered to have the same depth of character: a (perhaps deliberately) vague character description, suggesting a lack of qualities beneath the surface

11

turn black into white: idiom meaning ‘to make something appear to be its opposite’, e.g. turn a negative into a positive. The image is apt given that the pigs write up the commandments in white paint on the black wall.

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