ANIMAL FARM
George Orwell
Retold by Bill Bowler
graded readers
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Acknowledgments
Lidiani Minoda, Luana Alencar
Francisco Augusto da Costa Filho
Pedro Correa
Janaina Simplicio
Silvia Regina E. Almeida
Marcelo Henrique Ferreira Fontes
Reginaldo Soares Damasceno
Special thanks to: Nathalia Xavier (assistant editor), Edgar G. Godoi (proofreader), Erika Cipriani (production assistant), Guilherme Henrique Alonso (digital image processing technician)
Dados Internacionais de Catalogação na Publicação (CIP) (Câmara Brasileira do Livro, SP, Brasil)
Orwell, George, 1903–1950
Animal farm / George Orwell ; adaptação Bill Bowler ; ilustração Pedro Correa. -- 1. ed. -- São Paulo : Editora FTD, 2023. -(Coleção standfor graded readers)
ISBN 978-85-96-04000-6 (Aluno)
ISBN 978-85-96-04001-3 (Professor)
1. Atividades e exercícios 2. Ficção inglesa 3. Literatura infantojuvenil em inglês I. Bowler, Bill. II. Correa, Pedro. III. Título. IV. Série.
23–142949
CDD-028.5
Índices para catálogo sistemático:
1. Literatura infantojuvenil em inglês 028.5
Henrique Ribeiro Soares – Bibliotecário – CRB–8/9314
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ANIMAL FARM
George Orwell was the pen name of Eric Arthur Blair. He was born in 1903, in India, and was taken to England aged one. He studied at Eton, which he enjoyed. His parents could not afford to send him to university, so in 1922 he traveled to Myanmar, then called Burma and under British rule, to work as a police officer. In July 1927, he became sick with a fever and returned to England. He visited his family there and rented a house for himself in London. In March 1928, he left the police force in Burma and began to work as a writer. He moved to Paris, where he wrote and published articles for newspapers and magazines, and began writing novels.
Two years later, he returned to England. During this time, Orwell chose to live as a poor person, sleeping on the streets, and taking badly-paid work. He wrote about this in Down and Out in Paris and London, published in 1933, inspired by his personal experience. In 1936, Blair went to fight in the Spanish Civil War on the left-wing Republican side and against the right-wing Nationalists led by General Franco. He became disappointed by the disagreements between Republican groups (some of them supported by Soviet Russia) and returned to England in 1937. In the UK, he worked as a journalist, writing articles and book reviews, and making radio broadcasts. His story Animal Farm was published in 1945. He died in 1950 of tuberculosis, aged 46.
1
BEFORE READING
Look at the picture on the front cover and read the back cover. Check the correct answers.
1. The story is about…
a. a war between pigs and other animals.
b. a revolution of farm animals against humans. ü
c. people allowing farm animals to live outside farms.
d. animals treating humans badly.
2. The animals in the story…
a. have two leaders, who are both pigs. ü
b. can’t manage the farm themselves.
c. have no leaders to follow.
d. are all happy with Mr. Jones because he treat s them well.
3. Snowball and Napoleon…
a. always agree on everything.
b. change the name “Animal Farm” to “Mr. Jones’s Farm.”
c. decide not to have any laws on their farm.
d. write new laws for the farm. ü
4. The Animal Farm story is an allegory…
a. about family.
b. about life and death.
c. about politics. ü
2
Check the things that you think are in the story. Personal answers.
cows ü
apples ü television
horses ü a song ü a cat ü
soccer
sheep ü
chickens ü a prison dogs ü milk ü
It Began with a Dream 1 Chapter
Mr. Jones, of Manor Farm, quickly locked the chicken-houses for the night. He’d had a lot to drink and, a lamp in his hand, he walked with uneven steps to the back door of the farmhouse. Once inside, he kicked off his boots and drank another glass of beer in the kitchen. Then he went up to bed, where Mrs. Jones was already asleep.
As soon as the light in the bedroom went out, there was a movement of animals’ feet and birds’ wings all over the farm. The news had gone round during the day that old Major, the prize-winning white pig, had had a strange dream the night before and wanted to tell the other animals all about it. They had agreed to meet in the big barn, once Mr. Jones was in bed, to hear what he had to say.
At one end of the big barn, under a lamp in the roof, Major sat on a high bed of straw. He was twelve years old and quite fat, but he was still a fine-looking pig, with a wise face. Before long, the other animals arrived and made themselves comfortable. The three dogs, Bluebell, Jessie, and Pincher, came first, and after them, the pigs, who sat on the floor which was covered in straw, just in front of Major. The chickens sat by the windows. The sheep and cows lay down behind the pigs.
Two huge horses, Clover and Boxer, who usually pulled the large farm carts, came in together. They walked slowly and
Farm
put down their big, hairy feet carefully in case there were any small animals in the straw. Clover was a motherly horse. She had never managed to lose weight after her fourth child was born. Boxer was a huge animal, over 1.8 meters tall, and as strong as two normal horses. He was not the most intelligent of animals, but everybody on the farm knew that he was a reliable character and a very hard worker. Benjamin, the donkey, arrived soon afterwards. Benjamin was the oldest animal on the farm, and the unhappiest. He rarely talked, and when he spoke, it was usually to say something negative—for example, he used to say that God had given him a tail to keep off insects, but that he preferred to have no tail and no insects. He was the only animal on the farm who never laughed—because he saw nothing to laugh at. Nevertheless, although he never said so, Benjamin loved Boxer; the two of them usually spent their Sundays together in the field behind the apple trees, eating grass side by side without speaking.
After the two big carthorses lay down on the ground, some baby ducks arrived without their mother. They were looking for a safe place to sit. They didn’t want the bigger animals to step on them. Clover put her right leg out in front of her and made a wall around them, and the young ducks sat down inside it and quickly fell asleep. At the last moment, Mollie, a pretty little white horse, hurried in, with a piece of white sugar in her mouth. She took a place near the front. She wanted the other animals to notice her. Last of all, the cat arrived. She looked round for the warmest place and pushed herself in between Boxer and Clover. She sat there all through Major’s talk but didn’t listen to any of it!
When Major saw that everybody was comfortable, he began:
“Comrades, you have already heard that I had a strange dream last night. I’ll speak about that later. I have something else to say first. Comrades, I don’t think that I’ll be with you for very long now, and before I die, I want to share some ideas with you. I’ve had a long life, with a lot of
It Began with a Dream | Chapter 1
time to think, and I believe that I understand the ways of the world as well as any animal now alive. I want to speak to you about that.
“Now, comrades, let’s be honest: our lives are poor, hard, and short. We’re born, we’re given little food, and we’re made to work. Once we’re no longer useful, we’re killed in a heartless way. No animal in England knows what happiness is or what free time means. We’re poor and we work for others: that’s the simple truth.
“But why is this? Is it because our country cannot offer a good life to those animals who live here? No, comrades! The land in England is rich, its weather is good, it can offer food to many more animals than now live here. We could all live a very comfortable life. So why do we continue in this terrible way? Because humans steal everything that we produce! That, comrades, is the reason. Take humans out of the picture, and our problems disappear.
“Humans are the only animals that consume but don’t produce anything. They also think that they are better than us. They make us work hard, give us the smallest possible amount of food to keep us alive, and take the rest for themselves. Our work makes the land rich, and yet not one of us owns more than the skin on his or her back. You cows in front of me, how many liters of milk have you produced this year? And what has happened to that milk which should make your children strong? Our enemies drank it. And you chickens, how many eggs have you produced this year, and how many of those eggs became young birds? Not many. The rest were sold to bring in money for Jones and his men. And you, Clover, where are those four young children you had, your sons and daughters who should be here to make you happy in your old age? Each one of them was sold when they were a year old. You’ll never see them again. And to pay you for those four children and all your hard work, you’ve had nothing but a small amount of food and a poor place to sleep at night!
“What’s more, the lives that we have are not long. I’m not speaking for myself because I’m twelve years old and I’ve had over four hundred children. I’m a lucky pig. But no animal escapes a hard death in the end. You young pigs in front of me, all of you will scream under the knife in less than a year. Cows, pigs, chickens, sheep, everybody, we must all come to that terrible end. Even the horses and dogs don’t escape it. You, Boxer, as soon as your strong legs and strong back become weak, Jones will sell you to the dog food factory. They’ll kill you and cook your meat to make food for the dogs. And when the farm dogs grow old and lose their teeth, Jones ties a stone around their necks and throws them into the nearest river to die.
“Isn’t it clear, then, comrades, that everything bad in our lives is because humans think themselves above us? If we could get rid of humans, we’d receive the results of our hard work and be rich and free. So what must we do? Work night and day, with all our hearts, to bring down the humans! That’s my message to you, comrades: Revolution! I don’t know when it will come, but I know for sure that sooner or later our lives will improve. Fix your eyes on that, comrades, during the rest of your short lives! And above all, give my message to your children and their children, so that future generations of animals can continue the fight until they win.
“Remember, comrades, never stop. Don’t listen when they say that humans and animals have the same goals. It’s all lies. Humans think of nobody except themselves. Between us animals let us work together, true comrades in the fight. All men are enemies. All animals are comrades.”
Just then, there was a loud noise. While Major was speaking, four mice had come out of their holes to sit and listen to him. The dogs had suddenly noticed them, and the mice had to run for safety back to their mouseholes. Major lifted his front leg for silence.
“Comrades,” he said, “here’s a question for you. Wild animals, for example, mice—are they our friends or our enemies? I suggest the Meeting takes a decision on this topic: Are mice comrades?”
It Began with a Dream | Chapter 1
Almost everybody at the Meeting agreed that mice were comrades. Only four animals disagreed, the three dogs and the cat. Major then continued:
“I don’t have much more to tell you. I’ll just say this: you must always hate humans and all their ways. Anything that walks on two legs is an enemy. Anything that walks on four legs, or has wings, is a friend. And remember, too, that when we fight against humans, we mustn’t copy them. Even when you’ve won against them, don’t follow their bad ways. No animal must ever live in a house, or sleep in a bed, or wear clothes, or drink beer or wine, or smoke, or use money, or do business. All these human activities are really bad, so don’t do them. And, above all, no animal must ever think himself or herself above other animals. Weak or strong, clever or slow, we are all brothers and sisters. No animal must ever kill any other animal. All animals are equal!
“And now, comrades, I want to tell you about my dream. I dreamed of the world in the future without humans. And it made me remember something that I had almost forgotten. Many years ago, when I was a little pig, my mother and the other mother pigs used to sing an old song. Last night, that song came back to me in my dream—both the music and the words. The words, I am sure, were sung by animals long ago, although nobody has sung them for many years. I will teach it to you now, comrades. I’m old and my voice isn’t very good, but once you’ve learned it, you can sing it for yourselves. It’s called Beasts of England.”
Old Major began to sing. His voice was not the best, but the music was exciting. The words went:
Beasts of England, beasts of Ireland, And each country in our land, Hear and share this happy message Of the future near at hand.
Soon or late the day is coming, When humans will all taste defeat,
2 Chapter
The Early
Three nights later, old Major died calmly in his sleep. His body was buried under the apple trees.
This happened in early March. Over the next three months, the animals were very busy. Major’s words had excited them. Could the Revolution happen soon? That was improbable. Nevertheless, they had to prepare for it. The pigs taught and organized the other animals. They were, everybody knew, the cleverest beasts of all. Their leaders were two young pigs—Snowball and Napoleon. Mr. Jones planned to sell them both when they were fully grown. Napoleon was a large
black pig, the only one on the farm, and not a great talker, but he usually got his own way. Snowball spoke more than Napoleon and had many ideas, but his character was weaker, everybody said. All the other young pigs on the farm were for the meat market later that year. All the other animals knew one of these, a small, fat pig called Squealer. He had a round face, bright eyes, quick movements, and a high voice. He was a brilliant speaker, and when he was persuading other animals to do things, he jumped from side to side and moved his tail in a strangely winning way. Everybody said that Squealer could turn black into white.
These three pigs had developed old Major’s ideas into a complete way of life that they called “Animalism”. Several nights a week, while Mr. Jones slept, they held secret Meetings in the barn and explained Animalism to the other animals. At the beginning, nobody could really understand it.
Some of the animals were on the side of Farmer Jones. They said simply, “Mr. Jones feeds us. If he left, we would get hungry and die.” Others asked stupid questions, for example: “Why should we worry about the future of other animals after we’re dead?” or “If this Revolution will happen for sure, why do we need to work towards it?” The pigs found it really difficult to persuade the other animals that these questions were against the central idea of Animalism. Mollie, the little white horse, asked the stupidest questions of all: “Will there still be sugar after the Revolution?” she began.
“No,” Snowball said. “We have no way of making sugar on our farm. And you don’t need sugar. You will have all the hay that you need.”
“And can I still wear ribbons in my hair?” she asked.
“Comrade,” Snowball said, “those ribbons tell others that you aren’t free. Don’t you understand? You will be free after the Revolution, and that is more valuable than ribbons!”
Mollie nodded, but she didn’t seem very happy.
The pigs found it even harder to argue against the lies that the raven, Moses, spread around the farm. Farmer Jones fed Moses and treated him well. Moses slept on a narrow shelf by the Joneses’ back door. He was Mr. Jones’s spy and a clever talker. He spoke of a mysterious country called SugarCandy Mountain. “All animals go there after they die. It’s up
in the sky, above the clouds,” Moses said. “In Sugar-Candy Mountain, it’s Sunday every day, you can eat the best grass all year, and sugar and cake grow on the trees.” The animals hated Moses because he didn’t work, but some of them believed his beautiful stories about Sugar-Candy Mountain, and the pigs had to work hard to persuade them that this place wasn’t real.
The pigs’ most reliable followers were the two carthorses, Boxer and Clover. These two found it difficult to think for themselves, but once they had accepted that the pigs were their teachers, they believed everything that they were told, and they repeated it to the other animals simply and clearly. They went to all the secret Meetings in the barn and they sang Beasts of England loudly and confidently. The Meetings always ended with that song.
Actually, the Revolution came earlier than anyone had expected. Long ago, Mr. Jones, although a hard man, had been a good farmer, but recently he had stopped caring about the farm. He had lost a lot of money at the horse races and had started drinking too much alcohol. For days he sat on his big chair in the kitchen. He read the newspapers, drank, and sometimes fed Moses pieces of bread that were wet with beer. His men were lazy and dishonest, his fields were full of wild plants, the roofs on his farm buildings needed repairs, and his animals were hungry.
June came and it was nearly time to cut the hay. On June 23rd, a Saturday, Mr. Jones went to the nearby village of Willingdon and began drinking beer at the Red Lion pub. In the end, he didn’t come home until the middle of the next day. After the men had milked the cows in the early morning, they had gone to hunt birds, and they hadn’t given the animals any food. When Mr. Jones arrived home, he went to sleep immediately on the sitting room sofa with a newspaper over his face. That evening, the animals were still hungry. In the end, they couldn’t go without food any longer. One of the cows broke open the door of the food shed with her horns and all the animals began helping themselves to food. Just then, Mr. Jones woke up. The next moment, he and his four men were inside the food shed with whips in their hands. They hit the animals around them violently. This was more than the hungry animals could take. Although nothing
had been planned earlier, they all threw themselves at the humans. Jones and his men were suddenly hit by horns and kicked from all sides. They had never seen animals behave this way before, and it frightened them greatly. After only a moment or two, they stopped fighting and ran off. Soon, all five men were hurrying down to the gate beside the main road, with the animals chasing them.
Mrs. Jones looked out of the bedroom window, saw what was happening, threw a few of her things into a bag, and left the farm by another way. Moses, the raven, jumped off his shelf and flew after her. Meanwhile, the animals had chased Jones and his men out on to the road and shut the gate behind them. And so, almost before they knew it, the Revolution had succeeded: Jones had gone, and Manor Farm was theirs.
The animals could hardly believe it. The first thing they did was to run together all around the farm. They wanted to make completely sure that no human was hiding anywhere. Then they returned to the farm buildings to get rid of the evidence of Mr. Jones’s hated ways. The harness-room was broken open. The metal nose-rings and long knives, which Mr. Jones had used on young pigs and sheep, were thrown into the river. The harnesses were thrown on top of a big fire which was burning behind the house. So were the whips. All the animals danced about with happiness when they saw the whips burning. Snowball also threw the horse ribbons on the fire. The horses’ tails had usually been tied with these on market days. “Ribbons,” he said, “are clothes, and clothes are a human fashion. In future, all animals must walk about with no clothes on.”
When Boxer heard this, he brought the small straw hat, which he wore in the summer to keep insects out of his ears, and he threw that on the fire with the rest.
In a short time, the animals had destroyed everything that made them think of Mr. Jones. Napoleon then led them back to the food shed and gave food to everybody. After that, they sang Beasts of England seven times, and finally, they got ready for bed and slept very well.
They woke up early as usual. Then they suddenly remembered the wonderful thing that had happened, and all ran out into the fields. In the middle of these fields, a small hill gave a good view of most of the farm. The animals
The Early Days of the Revolution | Chapter 2
hurried to the top of it and looked all round them in the clear morning light. Everything that they could see was theirs! They threw themselves into the air with excitement when they realized that. Then they rolled in the wet summer grass and ate mouthfuls of it, kicked up pieces of the dark ground and smelled its rich scent. After that, they made a tour of the whole farm and looked with silent happiness at the growing crops, the field of hay, the apple trees, the small drinking pool, the group of wild trees. They could still not really believe that it all belonged to them.
Then they went back to the farm buildings and waited silently at the farmhouse door. That was theirs, too, but they were frightened to go inside. However, after Snowball and Napoleon pushed the door open, the animals entered carefully in a line. They didn’t want to break anything and went quietly from room to room, afraid to make a noise. They found the richness of the furniture amazing: the soft beds, the bright mirrors, the comfortable sofa, the thick carpet, the picture of the Queen over the sitting room fireplace. They were just coming down the stairs when they noticed that Mollie was missing. The other animals went back and found that she had stayed in the main bedroom. She had taken a blue ribbon from the dressing-table on Mrs. Jones’s side of the bed and was holding it against her shoulder and looking at herself in the mirror in a stupid way. The others spoke to her angrily and went outside. Some meat from the kitchen was taken out and buried, and Boxer broke a box of Mr. Jones’s beer with a great kick from his back leg. Except for these things, nothing in the house was touched. All the animals decided that the farmhouse should become a museum. All agreed that no animal must ever live there.
After breakfast, Snowball and Napoleon called all the animals together again.
“Comrades,” Snowball said, “it’s half-past six and we have a long day in front of us. Today we’ll begin to cut the hay. But there’s something important that we must do first.”
The pigs now told the other animals that, over the past three months, they had taught themselves to read and write from an old schoolbook which had belonged to Mr. Jones’s children and which had been thrown out with the garbage. Napoleon sent for pots of black and white paint and told the crowd of animals
to follow him to the gate by the main road. Then Snowball (because Snowball was the best at writing) took a brush and painted over the words at the top of the gate which said MANOR FARM. In their place, he painted ANIMAL FARM.
“That’s the name of the farm now,” Napoleon said.
After this, they all went back to the farm buildings, and Snowball and Napoleon sent for some steps which they put up by the end wall of the big barn.
“Over the past three months,” they told the other animals, “we have studied Animalism deeply. And we have managed to reduce the ideas at the heart of it into Seven Laws. We will now write these Seven Laws on the barn wall.
“All the animals on Animal Farm must follow these seven laws in the future, and they will never change.”
Then with some difficulty (because it is not easy for a pig to climb steps) Snowball went up and began his work. Squealer stood just below him and held the pot of paint. The Seven Laws were written on the black wall in great white letters that could be read thirty meters away. They said:
THE SEVEN LAWS
Anything that walks on two legs is an enemy.
Anything that walks on four legs, or has wings, is a friend.
No animal will wear clothes.
No animal will sleep in a bed.
No animal will drink alcohol.
No animal will kill any other animal.
All animals are equal
It was written neatly and spelled almost correctly from start to finish. Snowball read it aloud for the other animals. They all nodded. The clever ones began to learn the Seven Laws by heart.
“Now, comrades,” Snowball cried, after he had put down the brush, “to the fields! Let’s get in the hay quicker than Jones and his men ever did.”
But at this moment the three cows, who had seemed uncomfortable for ages, began complaining.
The Early Days of the Revolution | Chapter 2
They hadn’t been milked for twenty-four hours, and they were in pain. At once, the pigs asked other animals to bring pails and they milked the cows. Soon five pails full of fresh milk were standing beside them. Many of the animals looked at them thirstily.
“What’s going to happen to all the milk in those pails?” somebody asked.
“Jones sometimes used to mix some of it in our food,” one of the chickens said.
“Don’t worry about the milk, comrades!” Napoleon cried, standing in front of the pails. “We’ll do something with it later. For now, let’s cut the hay and collect it. Follow comrade Snowball. I’ll come in a minute or two. Go, comrades! The hay is waiting.”
So the animals went to the hay field, cut the hay and collected it. When they returned in the evening, they saw that the milk pails had gone.
Chapter
The Hay Harvest 3
The hay harvest was more successful than the animals had hoped, but the work wasn’t easy. All the farm devices and machines had been designed for humans, not animals, and it was a serious problem that no animal could stand on its back legs to work them. However, the pigs were really clever and could find ways round every difficulty. The horses also understood the job of cutting the hay and collecting it much better than Jones and his men had ever done. The pigs did not actually work but gave orders and organized the others. They had far greater knowledge than the other animals and they were natural leaders. Boxer and Clover tied themselves to the hay-cutter (no humans were guiding them now, of course) and walked slowly round the field. A pig walked behind them and said, “Move ahead, comrade!” or “Slow down, comrade!” when necessary.
Every animal, from the biggest to the smallest, collected hay that year. Even the ducks and chickens went forward and backward in the sun, carrying little pieces. In the end, they finished the harvest two days quicker than it had usually taken Jones and his men. It was also the biggest harvest that the farm had ever seen. The animals wasted nothing: the chickens and ducks, with their good eyes, had gathered every last piece. And nobody had stolen any of it.
The Hay Harvest | Chapter 3
Here the work of the next week was planned, and new ideas were shared and discussed. It was always the pigs who suggested new plans. The other animals understood how to vote, but they couldn’t think of any new ideas of their own. Snowball and Napoleon were always very active in the discussions. But the animals noticed that they never agreed with each other: when one of them made a suggestion, the other was always against it. Even when it was decided—a thing that nobody could disagree with—to make the grassy field behind the apple trees into a home for old animals who could no longer work, there was an angry discussion between Snowball and Napoleon about the correct age for each type of animal to stop working. The Sunday Meeting always ended with the song Beasts of England, and the animals could then relax freely during the afternoon.
The pigs had chosen the harness-room as their main office. Here, in the evenings, they learned to make metal horseshoes, produce furniture out of wood, and other necessary things that were described in books which they had found in the farmhouse. Snowball also organized the other animals into what he called “Animal Councils.” Among these were the “Egg Production Council” for the chickens, the “Clean Tails Society” for the cows, the “Wild Comrades Education Group” (its goal was to stop mice and other wild animals from being wild), and the “Whiter Coats Movement” for the sheep. The pigs also organized reading and writing classes.
The plan to make the wild animals less wild was a failure from the start. When the wild animals were treated generously, they took everything that they were given, but didn’t behave any differently from before. The cat joined the Education Group and was very active in it for some days. She was seen one day, lying on a roof and talking to some small brown birds who were sitting just where she couldn’t reach them. She was telling them, “All animals are now comrades, so if any of you sweet little birds want to come and sit by my side, you can.” The brown birds listened to her, but they chose to stay at a safe distance.
The reading and writing classes, however, were a great success. By the fall, almost every animal on the farm could read, some better, and some worse. Of course, the pigs could read and write perfectly. The dogs learned to read fairly well, but they weren’t interested in reading anything except for the Seven Laws. Muriel, the goat, could read better than the dogs, and she sometimes used to read to the others in the evenings from pieces of newspaper that she had found in the garbage. Benjamin could read as well as any pig, but he never did so. He always said, “It’s because there’s nothing that’s worth reading!”
Clover learned all the letters from A to Z, but she couldn’t put words together. Boxer couldn’t get past the letter D. He often wrote A, B, C, D, in the dirt with his great hoof, and then he stood and looked at the letters with his ears back. Sometimes he shook his head, trying to remember the next letter, but he never succeeded. Several times, in fact, he did learn E, F, G, and H, but by that time, he had forgotten A, B, C, and D. In the end, he decided that the first four letters were enough, and he used to write them once or twice each day to check his memory.
Mollie refused to learn any letters except for the six letters which spelled her name. She made these neatly out of small pieces of tree branches, added some pretty flowers and walked round them, her shiny eyes fixed on them, for hours. She clearly thought that they looked lovely.
None of the other animals on the farm could get past the letter A. And the stupider animals—the sheep, chickens, and ducks, for example—couldn’t learn the Seven Laws by heart, either. After he’d thought about it, Snowball said that the Seven Laws could be reduced to just six words: “Four legs good, two legs bad.” “These words,” he said, “contain the central idea of Animalism. Any animal that remembers them will be safe from humans.” The birds at first complained, because it seemed to them that they also had two legs, but Snowball showed them that this was not true.
“Birds’ wings, comrades,” he explained, “are designed for movement and not for holding things. They are, in fact,
The Hay Harvest | Chapter 3
another pair of legs. The thing that makes humans different from other animals is their hands, which they use to do so many terrible things in the world.”
The birds did not fully understand Snowball’s words, but they accepted his explanation, and all the simpler animals began to learn the six words by heart. “FOUR LEGS GOOD, TWO LEGS BAD,” was written on the end wall of the barn, above the Seven Laws and in bigger letters. Once the sheep had learned these words by heart, they decided that they loved them, and often, while they lay in the field, they repeated, “Four legs good, two legs bad! Four legs good, two legs bad!” for hours, without getting tired.
Napoleon wasn’t interested in Snowball’s Councils. He said that the education of young animals was more important than anything else. Jessie and Bluebell had both given birth not long after the hay harvest. Between them, they had nine strong puppies. Napoleon visited the mothers soon after the births and was very interested in their little puppies. As soon as the puppies didn’t need their mothers’ milk any longer, Napoleon took them away. He told the mothers, “I’ll manage their education now.” He took all of the puppies to an upstairs room that could only be reached by steps from Napoleon’s private office. He kept those nine puppies away from all the other animals, and soon the rest of the farm forgot that they were there.
The mystery of the missing milk was soon explained. It was mixed every day into the pigs’ food. The apples were now almost ready to be picked, and the grass under the apple trees was covered with fruit that had fallen to the ground. The animals naturally thought that they could have some of these; they could be shared out. But the order came that all the apples on the ground had to be taken to the harness-room for the pigs. Some of the animals complained, but it was no use. All the pigs agreed on this question, even Snowball and Napoleon.
Squealer was sent to explain things to the other animals. “Comrades!” he cried. “You don’t believe, I hope, that we pigs are doing this because of selfishness. Many of us actually
dislike milk and apples. I myself don’t like them. Our only reason for eating these things is to stay in good health.
The Hay Harvest | Chapter 3
The Battle of the Cowshed
By late summer, the news of what had happened on Animal Farm had spread across half the country.
Every day, Snowball and Napoleon sent out pigeons on important business. Their orders were: “Fly to neighboring farms, mix with the animals there, tell them the story of the Revolution, and teach them the song Beasts of England.”
During most of this time, Mr. Jones had been sitting at the bar of the Red Lion pub in Willingdon. He complained to anyone who listened about the terrible wrong that had been done to him when he was chased out of his own farm by a group of good-for-nothing animals. The other farmers felt sorry for him, but they did not at first give him much help. Each of them was secretly thinking, “I wonder if I can use Jones’s bad luck in some way to get something for myself.” It was lucky that the owners of the two farms which were right next to Animal Farm always disagreed on everything. One of these farms, which was called
Foxwood, was a large, uncared for, old place. It was thick with wild trees and wild plants, all its fields looked tired, and its paths were really untidy. Its owner, Mr. Pilkington, was a relaxed gentleman who spent most of his time fishing or hunting, depending on the season. The other farm, which was called Pinchfield, was smaller and better cared for. Its owner was Mr. Frederick, a hard, clever man. He was always asking his lawyers for help with different problems he had with the law, and he was known to be really good in business. These two farmers disliked each other so much that it was difficult for them to reach any agreement, even to protect their own businesses.
Nevertheless, they were both filled with horror by the Revolution on Animal Farm and they tried very hard to stop their own animals from learning too much about it. At first, they pretended to laugh loudly at the idea of animals managing a farm for themselves. “The whole thing will be
over in two weeks,” they said. They spread the news that the animals on Manor Farm (they continued to call it Manor Farm because they hated the name “Animal Farm”) never stopped fighting among themselves and that they were nearly dying because they had no food. When time passed and the animals clearly hadn’t died, Frederick and Pilkington changed their methods. They began to talk of the terrible things that now happened on Animal Farm. Frederick said, “The animals there eat each other, punish each other with red-hot metal horse-shoes, and share their wives.” And Pilkington added, “This is the result of their Revolution against the natural way of life!”
However, these stories were never completely believed. News of a wonderful farm, where humans had been chased out and animals managed their own business, continued to spread, often strangely changed along the way. Throughout that year, difficult behavior among farm animals increased across the country. Animals which had always obeyed orders suddenly became wild, sheep broke out of their usual fields and ate the sweet grass in neighboring fields, cows kicked over pails of milk, horses refused to jump over hedges and sent their riders flying through the air to fall on to the other side. Most importantly, the music and words of Beasts of England became famous everywhere. The song had spread really quickly. Humans got really angry when they heard it, although they pretended to think it was just laughable. “We can’t understand,” they said, “how even animals can want to sing that garbage.” Any animal that was caught singing it was whipped immediately. And yet the song couldn’t be stopped. The wild birds sang it in the trees, the pigeons repeated it on the roofs, it got into the music of the church bells. And when humans listened to it, they felt secretly afraid, because they heard in it a warning story of the dark future that was waiting for them.
In early October, when the wheat was cut and tied, a group of pigeons landed in the yard of Animal Farm in the wildest excitement. Jones and his men, together with six other men from Foxwood and Pinchfield, had entered the gate beside the
main road and were walking up toward the farm buildings. They were all carrying sticks, except for Jones, who was marching ahead with a gun in his hands. Clearly they wanted to try and take the farm back.
The animals had expected this for some time, and they were ready. Snowball had studied an old book about Julius Caesar’s wars which he had found in the farmhouse. He was the leader of the animals who were responsible for protecting the farm. He gave his orders quickly, and in a few minutes every animal was ready and waiting.
While the humans were reaching the farm buildings, Snowball began his first attack. All the thirty-five pigeons flew this way and that over the men’s heads and dropped their dirty waste down on them from the air. Then, while the men were cleaning themselves, the geese, who had been hiding behind the hedge, ran out and bit their legs. However, this was only a light attack, designed to create a little disorder, and the men easily fought the geese back with their sticks. Snowball now began his second attack. Muriel, the goat, Benjamin, the donkey, and all the sheep, with Snowball at the front, ran forward. They attacked the men violently with horns and hoofs from every side, while Benjamin kicked them with his strong back legs.
But once again the men, hitting with their sticks and kicking with their heavy boots, were stronger. Suddenly, at a cry from Snowball, which was the order to pull back, all the animals ran off through the gate and into the yard.
The men shouted happily. They thought that the animals were running away, and they hurried forward in great disorder after them. This was just what Snowball had planned. As soon as the men were completely inside the yard, the three horses, three cows, and the other pigs, who had been hiding in the cowshed, suddenly came out behind them, stopping their escape. Snowball now gave the order to attack. He himself ran at Jones. Jones saw Snowball coming, lifted his gun, and shot at him. The bullet drew a bloody line along Snowball’s back, and an old sheep behind him dropped dead.
The Battle of the Cowshed | Chapter 4
The Battle of the Cowshed | Chapter 4
their victory against the humans immediately. They put up the green flag with the white horn and hoof on it and they sang Beasts of England several times. Then the sheep who had been killed was buried, and a small tree was planted in her memory. By the tree, Snowball spoke seriously to the animals. He explained that all of them needed to be ready to die for Animal Farm if necessary.
Together, the animals decided to create an army medal for brave actions in war. They called it, “Animal Hero, First Class,” and they gave it to Snowball and Boxer. The medals themselves (in reality big, old metal coins which had been found in the harness-room) were meant to be worn on Sundays and holidays. There was also “Animal Hero, Second Class,” which was given after death to the brave sheep that had been killed by the bullet which Jones had shot at Snowball.
They discussed for hours what the name of the battle should be. In the end, they called it the Battle of the Cowshed, because that was where it had begun. Mr. Jones’s gun had been found lying on the ground, and they knew that there were boxes of bullets in a closet in the farmhouse. So they decided to keep the gun with the flag and to shoot it in the air twice a year — once on October 12th, to celebrate the Battle of the Cowshed, and once on June 24th, to celebrate the Revolution.
Chapter
This Can’t Continue! 5
That winter, Mollie became a real problem. She was always late for work. She also complained of stomachaches, although she ate very well. She often left work, went to the drinking pool, and looked at herself in the water there for hours. But there was more. One day, when Mollie came into the yard with a piece of hay in her mouth, Clover spoke to her.
“Mollie,” she said, “I have something serious to tell you. This morning I saw you looking over the hedge between Animal Farm and Foxwood. One of Mr. Pilkington’s men was talking to you over the hedge and you were allowing him to touch your nose with his hand. This can’t continue!”
“It isn’t true!” cried Mollie, jumping about and hitting the ground nervously with her front hoof. The next moment she ran off into the field.
Then an idea came to Clover. Without saying anything, she went to Mollie’s stall and moved the straw on the floor to one side with her hoof. Under it, she discovered a pile of sugar and several colored ribbons.
Three days later, Mollie disappeared. Weeks afterwards, the pigeons reported that they had seen her in Willingdon. She was in front of a red and black cart outside a pub. A red-faced man in check pants, who looked like the pub owner, was kissing her nose and feeding her sugar.
She had a red ribbon behind her ear. She appeared to be enjoying herself, the pigeons said. None of the animals ever spoke of Mollie again.
In January, the bitterly cold weather came. The earth was as hard as a stone, and nothing could be done in the fields. Many Meetings were held in the big barn, and the animals busily planned the work of the coming season. The clever pigs were now the farm managers, although their decisions had to be voted for by the majority of the other animals.
This way of organizing things would have worked well if Snowball and Napoleon hadn’t argued. But they did. If one of them suggested planting more wheat, the other would suggest more hay. If one of them said that a field was just right for beans, the other would say that it was useless for anything except potatoes. Each had his own followers, and there were violent discussions. At the Meetings, Snowball often won the support of the majority through his brilliant words. Napoleon was better at getting support for himself in between Meetings. He was very successful with the sheep. Recently they had started repeating, “Four legs good, two legs bad!” during the Meetings. Interestingly, they often did this while Snowball was talking. Snowball had studied some old farming magazines from the farmhouse, and he had many plans for improvements. He talked about making the fields more productive, and the water management better. Napoleon produced no plan himself, but said quietly, “Snowball’s plans won’t succeed!” He seemed to be waiting for the right moment to act.
The worst of their arguments was about the windmill. Not far from the farm buildings, there was a small hill which was the highest place on the farm. After checking the ground, Snowball explained that it was the perfect place for a windmill, which could help to bring electricity to the farm. Electricity could light the animals’ stalls, heat them, and also run an electric milking machine. The animals had never heard of anything so modern. The farm was an old one with only the simplest machines. They listened with interest.
In a few weeks, Snowball’s plans for the windmill were ready. His ideas came from three of Mr. Jones’s books—1,000 Useful
Things to Do About the House, How to Build Walls, and Electricity for Beginners. He worked for hours in a shed which had a flat white wood floor that was perfect for drawing on. With his books held open by a stone and a thick pencil in his front foot, he drew line after line and gave little cries of excitement. Slowly the plans grew into a great machine which covered half of the floor. All the other animals came to see Snowball’s drawings. They couldn’t really understand them, but they said, “They’re amazing!” Only Napoleon stayed away. One day, however, he visited and looked carefully at the plans. Then, suddenly, he lifted his back leg, and soon the plans were all wet. After that, he left silently.
Although everybody was interested in the windmill, they couldn’t agree. Even Snowball said, “It won’t be easy. We’ll have to find stones for the walls. After that, we’ll need to make the arms at the front which will catch the wind. Then we’ll need to take the electricity to the farm.”
He added: “We can finish the windmill in a year. After that, we can work only three days a week.”
But Napoleon didn’t agree: “We need to increase food production,” he explained. “If we waste our time on this windmill, we’ll all go hungry and die.”
The animals started two different groups with two different messages: “Vote for Snowball and the three-day week!” said one message and, “Vote for Napoleon and more food for all!” said the other message.
Benjamin refused to choose a side. “I don’t believe either of them,” he said. “We won’t have more food or work fewer days. Windmill or not, life will continue badly.”
There was also the question of the protection of the farm. The animals realized that, although the humans had lost the Battle of the Cowshed, they could still try to return and bring Mr. Jones back. They might do that because news of the animals’ victory had spread across the country and made the animals on neighboring farms very badly-behaved. Naturally, Snowball and Napoleon disagreed on the answer to this question.
Napoleon said, “We must get guns and learn how to use them.” This Can’t Continue! | Chapter 5
think of anything to say. Four young pigs in the front row, however, disagreed loudly. But when Napoleon’s dogs moved towards them angrily, the four of them became silent. Then the sheep repeated, “Four legs good, two legs bad!” for fifteen minutes and this stopped any discussion.
Afterwards Squealer went round the farm to explain the new arrangement to the others.
“Comrades,” he said, “I hope that everybody values the fact that Comrade Napoleon is doing all this extra work for you. It’s not pleasant to be a leader, comrades! In fact, it’s a heavy responsibility. Nobody believes more strongly than Comrade Napoleon that all animals are equal. But if he allowed you to decide for yourselves, you might make the wrong decisions, comrades. What then? Suppose, for example, that you had decided to follow Snowball, with his crazy idea of a windmill—Snowball, who we now know was a criminal …”
“He fought bravely at the Battle of the Cowshed,” somebody said.
“It’s not enough to be brave,” Squealer replied. “It’s important to obey your leader, too. And I believe in future we might learn that Snowball’s part in the Battle of the Cowshed was made to seem bigger than it really was. Follow your orders, comrades! That’s all for today. One false step, and our enemies could attack. Surely, comrades, you don’t want Jones back?”
Of course they didn’t, so if holding discussions and voting on Sunday mornings might bring him back, those things must stop. Boxer, who had now had time to think, spoke for everybody when he added: “If Comrade Napoleon says it, it must be right.” After this, he often repeated to himself the sentence, “Napoleon is always right,” as well as his promise: “I will work harder.”
With the warmer weather, the spring work on the farm began. The shed where Snowball had drawn his plans of the windmill had been locked, and it was thought that the floor had been cleaned. Every Sunday morning at ten o’clock, the
animals met in the barn for their weekly orders. Some of old Major’s bones, now clean and white, had been dug up and put beside the gun. After the flag was put up, the animals had to march past the bones before they entered the barn. These days, Napoleon sat next to Squealer and another pig called Minimus, who wrote excellent songs and poetry. The nine dogs made a half-circle around them, and the other pigs sat behind. The rest of the animals sat opposite them on the floor in the main part of the barn. After they got their weekly orders, they sang Beasts of England once, and then left the barn.
On the third Sunday after Snowball’s exit, the animals were very surprised when Napoleon told them, “We’re building the windmill after all.” He didn’t give any reason for this change in his ideas, but warned the animals, “This extra job will mean more work; and maybe we’ll have to reduce your food, too. The plans, however, are ready. A special council of pigs has worked on them over the last three weeks. We expect that it will take two years to build.”
That evening Squealer explained privately to the other animals that Napoleon had never really been against the windmill. Quite the opposite, he was the one who had first suggested it, and the plan which Snowball had drawn in pencil on the white wood floor of the shed had actually been stolen from Napoleon’s papers. The windmill was, in fact, Napoleon’s idea.
“So why,” somebody asked, “did he speak against it?”
Here Squealer gave a strange smile. “That,” he said, “is an example of Comrade Napoleon’s cleverness. He spoke against the windmill to get rid of Snowball, who was a bad influence. Now that Snowball is out of the way, the plan can go forward without any problem.” This, Squealer explained, was politics. “Politics, comrades, politics!” he repeated while he jumped round, laughing and moving his tail from side to side.
Squealer was a great persuader, and because the three dogs with him looked so dangerous, the animals accepted his explanation without any question.
This Can’t Continue! | Chapter 5
Important Steps 6 Chapter
All that year, the animals worked really hard. During the spring and summer they were working a sixty-hour week.
In August, Napoleon told everybody, “From this fall, you’ll be given work on Sunday afternoons, too. You don’t have to do it, but any animals that don’t work on Sunday will have their food reduced by half.”
The harvest was less successful than the year before, and two fields which the animals had planned to plant with potatoes in the early summer stayed unplanted because they had been plowed too late. Many animals said, “A hard winter is coming!”
The windmill was also harder to build than they had thought. There was a quarry on the farm for the stone, and plenty of sand and cement had been found in one of the farm sheds. They actually had everything necessary for the building. But the animals couldn’t break the stone into small pieces. How could they do that without any cutting devices? No animal could use those, because they couldn’t stand on their back legs. Finally, however, somebody had a brilliant idea. Maybe they could use the weight of the stone to help them. Huge round rocks were lying all over the floor of the quarry. The animals pushed and pulled these slowly up the hill to the top. Then they pushed them over the edge, to break into pieces on the quarry floor. The transportation of
the smaller stones was not too difficult. The horses carried them off in big carts, the sheep pushed single stones across the ground. Even Muriel and Benjamin pulled a smaller cart of stones. By late summer, enough stones of the right size had been collected, and the animals began to build, under the pigs’ management.
But it was slow, back-breaking work. They couldn’t have done it without Boxer, who seemed as strong as all the other animals together. One day, when a huge, round rock began to move backward down the hill, the animals pulling it lost hope. But Boxer brought the heavy rock to a stop. Then everybody was amazed when he worked his way up the hill with the rock, step by step, breathing fast, the front of his hoofs digging into the ground, and his great sides wet with the effort. Clover warned him not to work too hard, but Boxer didn’t listen. His promise, “I will work harder!” and his sentence, “Napoleon is always right,” were his answers to every problem. He now asked the rooster to call him forty-five minutes earlier in the mornings instead of thirty minutes. In his free time, he used to go to the quarry, collect a cartful of stones, and pull it himself up the hill to the place where they were building the windmill.
The animals didn’t do badly that summer. They had no more food than they had had in Jones’s day, but they needed to feed only themselves, after all. They didn’t need to support greedy humans, too. This great plus made the minuses seem unimportant. In many ways, the animal method of doing things worked better than human methods. Animals could dig up and clear away unwanted wild plants, for example, better than humans. Now that no animal stole, it wasn’t necessary to guard the fields, so they didn’t need to look after hedges, walls, and gates. Nevertheless, while the summer continued, the animals found that they needed several things: oil for lamps, dog food, and metal for the horses’ shoes, for example. They couldn’t produce these on the farm. Towards the end of the summer, they realized that they needed even more things: seeds, plant food, and the machines to go inside the windmill. Nobody could think of how they could get those.
One Sunday morning, when the animals were getting their weekly orders, Napoleon told them that he had decided on a new farm management plan. “From now on, Animal Farm will do business with neighboring farms: not to make money, just to get things that we really need. The windmill is important,” he said. “So I am making arrangements to sell some hay and part of this year’s wheat. Later, if we need more money, we can sell some eggs. You chickens,” Napoleon said, “should welcome this chance to give something toward the building of the windmill.”
Once again, the animals felt uncomfortable. “Never to mix with humans, never to do business, never to use money!” Weren’t those things that everybody had voted for at that first Meeting after they had chased Jones out of the farm? All the animals thought that they remembered this. The four young pigs who had complained when Napoleon had stopped the Meetings, complained about this also, but they quickly became silent after Napoleon’s dogs growled at them. Then the sheep began repeating, “Four legs good, two legs bad!” and the uncomfortable moment passed. Napoleon lifted his front leg for silence and said, “I’ve already made the arrangements. There will be no need for any of you to mix with humans. I’m going to take this responsibility on my shoulders alone. Mr. Whymper, a lawyer from Willingdon, has agreed to go between Animal Farm and the outside world with messages. He will visit the farm every Monday morning for his orders.” Napoleon ended his talk with his usual cry of, “Long live Animal Farm!” Once the animals had sung Beasts of England, they were asked to leave.
Afterwards, Squealer went round the farm to make the animals feel calmer. He promised them, “Nobody ever voted against doing business or using money. Nobody even suggested that. Probably you got the idea from lies that were spread by Snowball.” A few animals still felt unsure, but Squealer asked them, “Is this something that you dreamed, comrades? Did you record when you voted against it? Is it written down anywhere?” There was nothing in writing, so the animals were persuaded that they had made a mistake.
Important Steps | Chapter 6
Every Monday after that, Mr. Whymper visited the farm. He was a strange-looking little man with a hairy face. A village lawyer, he had cleverly understood before anybody else that Animal Farm needed someone like him. “And I’ll get a percentage of all their business—a good amount of money,” he said to himself. The animals were scared when he visited, so they stayed away from him as much as possible.
Nevertheless, when Napoleon, on all four legs, gave orders to Whymper, who was standing on two legs, it filled them with pride. That helped them to accept the new arrangement.
The human farmers did not like Animal Farm better now that it was doing well; in fact, they hated it more. Every human believed that the farm was sure to lose money and go out of business, and that the windmill was sure to fail. However, over time, they began to feel more positive about the way that the animals were managing their farm. They even started to call it Animal Farm, not Manor Farm. They also stopped supporting Jones, who had given up hope of getting his farm back and had gone to live in another village. Except for Whymper, Animal Farm had no communication with the outside world. However, there were rumors that, in future, Napoleon wanted to reach a business agreement either with Mr. Pilkington of Foxwood or with Mr. Frederick of Pinchfield—but never, it was noticed, with both of them at the same time.
It was about this time that the pigs suddenly began living in the farmhouse. Again the animals seemed to remember that everybody had voted against this in the early days, and again Squealer managed to persuade them that their memories were incorrect. “It’s completely necessary,” he said, “that we pigs, who are the brains of the farm, should have a quiet place to work in.” He also explained that it was more suitable for the Great Leader (recently he had begun to speak of Napoleon under the title of “Leader”) to live in a house instead of a simple shed. Nevertheless, some of the animals felt uncomfortable when they heard that the pigs not only took their meals in the kitchen and used the sitting room to relax in, but also slept in the beds. Boxer simply repeated his usual slogan, “Napoleon is always right!”, but Clover, who
thought that she remembered a law against beds, went to the barn and tried to read the Seven Laws which were written there. In the end, she fetched Muriel.
“Muriel,” she said, “Can you read the Fourth Law to me? Doesn’t it say something about never sleeping in a bed?”
Muriel read it out slowly. “‘No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets,’” she said.
Clover had not remembered that the Fourth Law spoke about sheets; but the words were on the wall. She felt puzzled. Squealer, who was passing by at this moment, with three dogs behind him, helped Clover and Muriel to understand things in the correct way.
“So you’ve heard, comrades,” he said, “that we pigs now sleep in beds in the farmhouse? And why not? You didn’t think, surely, that there was a law against beds? A bed simply means a place to sleep in. A pile of straw is a bed, if you think of it that way. The rule was against sheets, a human invention. We’ve taken the sheets from the farmhouse beds, and sleep between blankets. And very comfortably, too! But not more comfortably than necessary, comrades, with all the work that our poor brains have to do these days. You don’t want to rob us of our rest, do you, comrades? You don’t want us to be too tired and fail to meet our responsibilities? Surely you don’t wish to see Jones back?”
Clover and Muriel told him at once that they didn’t, and no more was said about the pigs sleeping in the farmhouse beds. And when, some days afterwards, all the animals heard that in future the pigs would get up an hour later in the mornings than the other animals, no complaint was made about that either.
By the fall, the animals felt tired but pleased with themselves. After some of the hay and the wheat was sold, not much food was left for the winter, but the windmill made everything worth it. It was almost half finished now. After the harvest, there were some weeks of clear, dry weather, and the animals worked harder than ever. They were happy to walk forward and backward all day carrying stones if this meant that they could build the walls of the windmill higher. Boxer even used to come out at night and work for an hour or two by himself in the light of the moon. In their free moments, the animals used to walk round the half-finished windmill. They loved its thick, straight walls and were amazed to think that they had built something so grand. Only old Benjamin, the donkey, refused to get excited about the windmill. He said only, “Donkeys live a long time.”
November brought strong south-west winds. The animals had to stop building because they couldn’t mix the cement in the wet weather. One night, the storm was so wild that the Important Steps | Chapter 6
farm buildings shook, and the wind lifted up parts of the barn roof in several places and blew these away. The chickens woke up really afraid because they had all dreamed that they heard the noise of a gun. In the morning, the animals came out of their stalls to find that a tree at the end of one of the fields had been pulled up out of the ground, as easily as a carrot. Then, suddenly, a hopeless cry came from every animal’s throat. A terrible sight had met their eyes. The windmill was destroyed!
Together they hurried to the place. Napoleon, who usually walked everywhere, ran ahead. The windmill lay flat on ground. The stones that they had broken and carried with all that effort were spread all round. They looked sadly at them. Napoleon walked up and down silently, and from time to time he smelled the ground. His tail moved quickly from side to side. He was thinking. Suddenly, he stopped.
“Comrades,” he said, “do you know who is responsible for this? Do you know the enemy who has attacked our windmill? SNOWBALL!” he cried angrily. “He decided to pay us back for the way that we chased him out of here. Under cover of night, he’s destroyed our work of nearly a year.
“Comrades, right now I tell you that Snowball must die. Five kilos of apples to any animal who kills him, and ten kilos to anybody who catches him alive!”
The animals were angry to learn that Snowball was a criminal. Almost immediately the footprints of a pig were discovered in the grass nearby. They appeared to go to a hole in the hedge. Napoleon smelled them and said that they were Snowball’s footprints. “I believe that he probably came from Foxwood Farm,” he said.
After the footprints had been checked, Napoleon spoke again. “What are we waiting for, comrades!” he cried. “We must start building the windmill again today. We’ll build all through the winter. We’ll teach Snowball that he can’t defeat us so easily. Forward, comrades! Long live the windmill! Long live Animal Farm!”
Chapter 7
The Revolution Is Complete!
That winter, which was full of storms, snow, and freezing weather, the animals began building the windmill again.
The humans didn’t believe that Snowball had destroyed the windmill. “It fell down because the walls were too thin,” they said. The animals knew this was untrue, but despite that, they decided to build the walls of the new windmill twice as thick as before. That meant more stone. After the snow finally left the quarry, the animals began fetching stones again, although they didn’t feel as positive as before. Only Boxer and Clover never lost hope. Squealer often said, “Help others! Be happy!”
But Boxer’s personal efforts and his promise, “I will work harder!” influenced the other animals more.
In January there wasn’t much food in the food shed. The animals’ wheat rations were reduced. An extra potato ration was promised. But the potatoes had gone bad during the freezing weather because they hadn’t been covered correctly. So the food shed stayed almost empty and the animals ate nothing for days. Was death near?
After the fall of the first windmill, the humans invented fresh lies about Animal Farm: “The animals there are hungry, sick, dying. They’re fighting, eating each other, killing their children.” Napoleon wanted to keep the real facts secret, so he used Mr. Whymper to spread false news. Until that time,
the animals had rarely met Whymper: now some sheep were chosen to help Napoleon. They had to speak loudly about increased food rations near Whymper. The almost empty food shed was filled with sand, which was covered with the remaining wheat. Whymper saw the full shed during his weekly visit. He told the outside world that there was plenty of food on Animal Farm.
Nevertheless, towards the end of January, they really needed more wheat. These days, Napoleon stayed mostly inside the farmhouse, with dogs guarding each door. When he came outside, he brought six dogs with him. They growled when anybody came near.
Often Napoleon did not appear on Sunday mornings, but gave his orders through Squealer. One Sunday morning, Squealer told the chickens, “You must give your eggs to us pigs now. Through Whymper, we’ve agreed to sell four hundred eggs a week to a company in Willingdon. This will pay for enough wheat to fill the food shed and feed us until things become easier this summer.”
The chickens complained. They had known that this might be necessary, but now it was actually happening. They were getting ready to have young birds in spring. “If you take our eggs now, you’re murdering our babies!” said a black chicken— one of their three leaders. The chickens worked against Napoleon’s plan. They began laying on the roof and their eggs fell and broke on the ground.
Napoleon responded quickly. He ordered the chickens’ rations to be stopped and added, “Any animal that gives wheat to a chicken will be punished by death.” The dogs made sure that these orders were followed. For five days, the chickens refused to agree. On the sixth day, they started laying eggs again in the usual way. Nine chickens had died during this time. Their bodies were buried under the apple trees. Everybody heard that they had died of an unpleasant stomach disease. Whymper learned nothing of these events, the eggs were produced, and a truck came from Willingdon and collected them each week.
The Revolution Is Complete! | Chapter 7
All this time, nobody had seen anything of Snowball. It was rumored that he was hiding at a neighboring farm. Through Whymper, Napoleon became friendlier with the nearby farmers. A pile of wood had been left in the yard ten years earlier when some trees were cut down, and Whymper advised Napoleon to sell it. Both Mr. Pilkington and Mr. Frederick were interested. Napoleon couldn’t decide between them. When he seemed to be reaching an agreement with Frederick, everybody said that Snowball was hiding at Foxwood, but when Pilkington was his favorite choice, everybody said that Snowball was at Pinchfield.
Then, in spring, something worrying was discovered. Snowball was visiting Animal Farm at night! The animals couldn’t sleep in their stalls after they heard this. Every night, it seemed, Snowball arrived in darkness and stole wheat, knocked over milk-pails, broke eggs, walked over flowerbeds, and attacked fruit trees with his teeth.
Anything bad that happened was because of Snowball. If a window was broken or a pipe stopped working, Snowball had done it. When the key to the food shed was lost, everybody was sure that Snowball had stolen it. Strangely, they continued to believe this even after the missing key appeared under a bag of wheat. The cows said that Snowball milked them in their sleep. The mice, who gave a lot of trouble that winter, were also working with Snowball, everybody said.
Napoleon ordered a review of Snowball’s activities. With his dogs, he made a tour of the farm. The other animals followed them. Every few steps, Napoleon smelled the ground for evidence of Snowball’s footprints in the barn, cowshed, chicken-houses, and vegetable garden. He found Snowball’s footprints everywhere! When he discovered a footprint, he said in a terrible voice, “Snowball was here!” and the dogs growled and showed their teeth.
That evening, Squealer called all the frightened animals together. He had serious news.
“Comrades,” he said, “we’ve discovered that Snowball has sold himself to Mr. Frederick. Frederick is planning to attack
The Revolution Is Complete! | Chapter 7
Four days later, in the early evening, Napoleon ordered everybody to gather in the yard. When Napoleon appeared, he was wearing both his medals. (He had recently given himself, “Animal Hero, First Class,” and “Animal Hero, Second Class”.) His nine dogs stood around him, growling. The animals waited silently in their places. They expected the worst.
Napoleon looked seriously round; then he gave a strange, high cry. Immediately the dogs jumped at four pigs, took them by the ears and pulled them, noisily and painfully, to Napoleon’s feet. The pigs’ ears were bleeding, the dogs had tasted blood, and for a while they went crazy. Everybody was shocked when three dogs attacked Boxer.
Boxer saw them coming and put out his great hoof. He caught a dog in the air and pushed it hard to the ground. It cried for help while the other two dogs ran off. Boxer looked at Napoleon. Should he kill the dog under his hoof or release it? Napoleon ordered Boxer to release the dog. Boxer lifted his hoof, and the dog hurried noisily away, clearly hurt.
The noise soon stopped. The four pigs shook, and their frightened faces went white. These were the four pigs that had complained when Napoleon had stopped the Sunday Meetings. Napoleon said, “Tell us about your crimes.”
They spoke nervously, “We secretly planned with Snowball to destroy the windmill, and we entered into an agreement with him to give Animal Farm to Mr. Frederick. What’s more, Snowball privately told us that he’s been Jones’s spy for years.” Immediately after they finished, the dogs killed them. In a terrible voice, Napoleon asked, “Do any more criminals wish to speak?”
The three chickens who had been the leaders of the failed Revolution about the eggs stepped forward and said, “Snowball visited us in a dream and persuaded us to disobey Napoleon.” They, too, were killed. After that, a goose said, “I hid some wheat during last year’s harvest and ate it at night.” Then a sheep said, “I went to the toilet in the drinking pool because Snowball persuaded me.” Two other young sheep added, “We chased an old grandfather sheep in circles when
he had a cough until he died. He was a great follower of Napoleon, and we murdered him.” All were killed by the dogs. The crime stories and the deaths continued, until there was a pile of dead bodies in front of Napoleon.
When the Meeting finished, the remaining animals, except for the pigs and dogs, left the yard together. They felt shocked and miserable. In the old days there had been violent events as bloody as these, but it seemed worse now because it was happening among themselves. Since Jones had left, until that day, no animal had killed another animal. They went together to the little hill where the half-finished windmill stood. There, silently, they all lay, shaking, on the ground—Clover, Muriel, Benjamin, the cows, the sheep, and some geese—everybody, in fact, except for the cat, who had disappeared just before the Meeting.
Only Boxer remained on his feet. He couldn’t rest, moving his long black tail against his sides. Finally, he said: “I can’t believe that these terrible things are happening. Did we do something wrong? I must work harder. From now on, I’ll get up an hour earlier every morning.”
He left for the quarry, filled two carts with stones, and pulled them to the windmill before bedtime.
The other animals stayed beside Clover. Nobody spoke. The hill gave them a good view of most of Animal Farm. They saw the grassy field by the main road, the hayfield, the trees, the drinking pool, the plowed fields, the farm buildings, and the smoky chimneys. It was a clear spring evening. The hedges and trees looked gold in the sun. The whole farm—their farm—seemed lovely. Clover’s eyes filled with tears. She thought, “We didn’t dream of this horror when we began our Revolution.”
It wasn’t part of Clover’s dream, for sure. She had dreamed of animals living together in peace, not hungry, not thirsty, and free from whips. All were equal, all worked hard. Strong animals protected weak ones. She remembered the baby ducks in the barn. Instead they had reached this terrible time: afraid to speak, with growling dogs walking around
The Revolution Is Complete! | Chapter 7
freely, and comrades dying for terrible crimes. Clover did not plan to disobey. Although times were hard, things were better than before, and they had to stop the return of the humans. She promised privately to stay true to the Revolution, to work hard, obey orders, and follow Napoleon. But the Animal Revolution hadn’t been for this!
In the end, she began singing Beasts of England. The other animals joined her. They sang it three times—slowly, sadly, in a way that they had never done before.
They had just finished when Squealer arrived with two dogs. He said, “By order of Comrade Napoleon, you can’t sing Beasts of England now. It’s against the law.”
The animals were shocked. “Why?” Muriel, the goat, cried.
“Beasts of England was the song of the Revolution.” Squealer said. “Now the Revolution is complete! The deaths of the criminals who worked against us was the end of it. The enemy, both inside and outside Animal Farm, has been defeated. The song is unnecessary now!”
Some animals complained nervously, but the sheep started repeating, “Four legs good, two legs bad!” This stopped more discussion.
Soon afterwards, Minimus the poet wrote a new song. It began:
Animal Farm, Animal Farm,
Let’s sing of your goodness, arm in arm!
They sang it every Sunday morning. But, to the animals, it never seemed as good a s Beasts of England
Chapter
Laws That They Forgot
Days later, after the horror of the criminals’ deaths had passed, some animals remembered the Sixth Law: “No animal must kill any other animal.” Some of them felt that the criminals’ deaths broke this law. Clover took Muriel to the barn. “Can you read the Sixth Law to me?” she asked. Muriel read: “No animal must kill any other animal without a reason.” The Law had clearly not been broken. There was a good reason for killing criminals with links to Snowball.
All that year, the animals worked really hard. On Sunday mornings, Squealer read out the farm’s increased productivity figures. But the animals wanted fewer figures and more food.
All orders now came through Squealer. Napoleon himself appeared rarely, always with his dogs and a black rooster that cried “cock-a-doodle-doo” before Napoleon spoke. In the farmhouse, Napoleon had his own apartment away from other pigs. He took his meals alone, with two dogs for waiters. Around this time, the order was given for the gun be shot in the air on Napoleon’s birthday, as well as the other two important dates in the calendar.
Napoleon was now always, “Our Leader, Comrade Napoleon.” Tears ran down Squealer’s face when he spoke of Napoleon’s wise character, good heart, and love for all animals. It became usual on Animal Farm to thank Napoleon for every success.
Laws That They Forgot | Chapter 8
Shortly afterwards, Napoleon arranged, through Whymper, to sell the pile of wood to Mr. Pilkington. The animals didn’t like Pilkington, but they preferred him to Frederick, who frightened them. When the windmill was almost complete, the rumors of a future attack on the farm became stronger. Frederick, everybody said, planned to come with twenty men, all carrying guns. He’d even paid the local police to agree that he was the farm’s new owner. There were rumors also of Frederick’s terrible treatment of his animals: he killed horses with whips, gave cows no food, threw dogs on the fire, and made roosters fight each other. The animals became really angry at this. But Squealer told them not to move against Frederick but to leave everything to Comrade Napoleon.
Then, one Sunday morning, Napoleon explained that he had never planned to sell the wood to Frederick. The pigeons who still spread news of the Revolution were ordered not to land at Pinchfield. They also changed their earlier message, “Death to Humans” to, “Death to Frederick.” In the late summer, another of Snowball’s plans was discovered. The wheat field was full of wild plants. One night before planting season, it seemed that Snowball had mixed wild plant seeds with the wheat seeds. An old goose who had known about the plan, but told nobody, spoke of his crime to Squealer and then killed himself with poison. The animals also learned that Snowball had never really received the medal “Animal Hero, First Class.” He had started this rumor himself after he had run away from the Battle of the Cowshed. Again, some animals felt puzzled, but Squealer persuaded them that their memories were incorrect.
In the fall, the windmill was finished on the agreed date! They still needed to buy the dynamo to go inside it, but Whymper was arranging that. It was a great achievement and better, with its thicker walls, than the old windmill. Nothing, except maybe gunpowder, could destroy it!
Filled with fresh energy, the animals danced round it. Napoleon, with his dogs and black rooster, came to watch. He personally thanked everybody, saying, “Good job! We’ll call it Napoleon Windmill!”
Two days later, the animals were called to a special Meeting. They were shocked when Napoleon said, “I’ve sold the wood to Frederick. Tomorrow his carts will collect it.” While Napoleon had seemed to be Pilkington’s friend, he had kept secret links with Frederick!
Links with Pilkington were now cut; impolite messages were sent to him. The pigeons were told not to land at Foxwood and to change their message to, “Death to Pilkington.” Napoleon also explained that the rumors about Frederick’s planned attack on Animal Farm, and the treatment of his animals, were untrue. They had probably come from Snowball, who—it seemed—was not staying at Pinchfield but at Foxwood.
Napoleon’s cleverness pleased the pigs. Because of his friendly links with Pilkington, Frederick had increased his price by twelve pounds. But Napoleon was always careful, said Squealer. Frederick had wanted to buy the wood with a check—a piece of paper with a promise to pay on it.
“But our leader asked him for five-pound bills,” Squealer said. “And to pay before he collected the wood. Frederick has paid now; and we have enough money to buy the dynamo for the windmill.”
While he spoke, Frederick’s men were collecting the wood. When it was gone, the animals went to see the bank-bills. Smiling widely, and wearing both his medals, Napoleon lay on a high bed of straw next to the money. The animals walked past in a line and looked.
Then, three days later, something terrible happened. Whymper, his face deadly white, arrived on his bike and ran into the farmhouse. The next moment, an angry cry came from Napoleon’s apartment. The news spread immediately through the farm. The bank-bills were false ones! Frederick had got the wood for nothing!
Napoleon called the animals together and said, “When Frederick is caught, he must be cooked alive in red hot water. He cheated us, and he might attack at any moment.” Guards were put at all the farm entrances. Pigeons were also sent to Foxwood with friendly messages. They hoped that Pilkington might forgive them and forget their earlier unfriendly messages.
Laws That They Forgot | Chapter 8
The next morning at breakfast time, Frederick and his men entered the main gate. The animals went bravely forward to meet them. But this was different from the Battle of the Cowshed. There were fifteen men with six guns, and they began shooting immediately. The noise and the bullets soon pushed the animals back. Many of them were hurt. They hid in some of the sheds and looked out carefully. The windmill was now in their enemies’ hands. Even Napoleon seemed unsure what to do. He walked up and down silently, his tail moving quickly from side to side. Everybody looked towards Foxwood. If Pilkington and his men helped them, they might still win. But just then, the pigeons brought Pilkington’s reply. It said: “You asked for it!”
At the same time, Frederick and his men gathered around the windmill. Two men held a metal bar and a huge hammer.
“They’re going to knock it down!” the animals cried. “Impossible!” Napoleon said. “The walls are too thick. Courage, comrades!”
Benjamin watched carefully. The men with the hammer and the metal bar made a hole in the front wall. “Look!” Benjamin said moments later. “They’re putting gunpowder into that hole.”
Really frightened now, the animals waited in their hiding-places. Suddenly, the men ran in all directions and the windmill exploded with a loud crash. The pigeons flew away, and all the animals, except for Napoleon, threw themselves on the ground. When they got up, a huge cloud of smoke stood where the windmill had been. The building itself was gone!
At this sight, the animals ran towards the enemy angrily, careless of the bullets. It was a violent, bitter battle. When the animals got close, the men hit them with their sticks and guns. Several animals were killed, and everybody was hurt. Even Napoleon, giving orders at the back, was hit in the tail by a bullet. But the men also got hurt. Boxer hit three men’s heads with his hoofs; a cow drove her horn into another man’s stomach; Jessie and Bluebell pulled a fifth man’s pants to pieces with their teeth. And when Napoleon’s dogs, who
had moved forward behind the hedge, suddenly appeared, Frederick’s men were worried. Frederick shouted, “Let’s go while we can!” They ran for their lives. The animals chased them to the road and kicked them while they pushed themselves through the hedge.
The animals were exhausted and bleeding. Slowly they returned to the farmhouse. Some of them cried when they saw their dead comrades on the grass. For a while, they stopped sadly at the place where the windmill had stood.
When they reached the farm, Squealer, who had been missing during the battle, ran over happily. The animals heard, from the direction of the farmhouse, the noise of the gun.
“Why are they shooting the gun?” Boxer said.
“To celebrate our victory!” Squealer cried.
“Our what?” Boxer said. His knees were bloody, he’d lost a shoe, broken his hoof, and small pieces of metal had buried themselves in his back leg.
“We chased the enemy off our land!”
“But the windmill’s gone. After two years’ work!”
“We can build another. You don’t seem to value our achievement, comrade. The enemy held the ground that we’re standing on. And now—thanks to our great leader, Comrade Napoleon—we’ve won back every centimeter!”
“Land that we had before,” Boxer said.
They entered the yard. The metal under the skin of Boxer’s leg was really painful. He saw ahead the hard work of building the windmill a third time. But he also knew that he was eleven years old and that his legs and back were not as strong as before.
However, when the animals saw the green flag, heard the gun, and listened to Napoleon’s words about their brave actions, they felt that they had won a great victory. Squealer said, “This will be called the Battle of the Windmill. Napoleon has made a new medal for it, the Order of the Green Flag, which he has given to himself.” They celebrated for two days—and the false bank-bills were quietly forgotten.
Laws That They Forgot | Chapter 8
Soon afterwards, the pigs found some bottles of whiskey in the farmhouse which they hadn’t noticed before. That evening, the pigs sang loudly inside the house. To everybody’s surprise, Beasts of England was heard with other songs. In the morning, there was silence at the farmhouse. Nobody was awake. Squealer came outside at nine o’clock, looking ill. He called the animals together to share some terrible news: “Comrade Napoleon is dying!”
A sad cry came from the crowd. Tearful animals said, “What will we do if we lose our Leader?” Had Snowball poisoned Napoleon’s food? Late that morning, Squealer told the animals. “Comrade Napoleon’s final decision is to introduce a new law: drinking alcohol will be punished by death.”
Next morning, Squealer said, “Our great leader’s health has improved.” The day after, Napoleon asked Whymper to buy books in Willingdon about making beer and whiskey. A week later, he gave new orders about the field which was planned to be for old animals. “It must be plowed,” he said. “The grass is exhausted. It must be freshly planted.” However, the animals later heard that Napoleon planned to plant barley there.
Shortly afterwards, something really strange happened. At twelve o’clock one night, there was a loud crash outside. The animals hurried out of their stalls. The moon was shining brightly. At the foot of the barn wall lay some steps. Squealer, his eyes closed for the moment, lay beside them with a lamp, a paint-brush, and a pot of white paint. The dogs took Squealer to the farmhouse as soon as he could walk. None of the animals understood any of this, except for old Benjamin. He nodded his head but didn’t explain.
Some days later, Muriel noticed another law on the barn wall which the animals had remembered wrongly. They had thought that the Fifth Law was “No animal will drink alcohol,” but there were two words that they had forgotten: “No animal will drink alcohol too often.”
Chapter 9 Learning from Boxer
Boxer’s broken hoof didn’t improve. The animals started building the new windmill the day after the victory party. Boxer continued working and kept his painful hoof a secret. In the evenings, he told Clover that it hurt badly. She treated it with medicine which she made from wild plants. Both she and Benjamin told Boxer to stop working for some days. “A horse’s lungs don’t last long,” Clover said. Boxer replied, “I want to see the new windmill half-finished before my retirement.”
When the Laws of Animal Farm were first made, the retirement age was fixed for horses at twelve years. Retirement pay had been agreed. With barley now in the small field behind the apple trees, it was rumored that they might put a new wall around a corner of the large field of grass to make an area for older animals. After retirement, a horse got two kilos of wheat daily in the summer and seven kilos of hay in the winter. Boxer’s twelfth birthday was next summer.
That winter was hard. Rations were reduced for everybody, except for the pigs and dogs. “If we gave everybody the same,” Squealer said, “that wouldn’t be Animalism. We’ve had to make changes to the rations, but things are still better than before.” He read out figures which showed that they had more wheat, hay, vegetables, and straw, shorter working hours,
better drinking water, longer lives, and healthier children than in Jones’s day.
The animals could hardly remember those days.
“And you weren’t free then, but now you are,” Squealer added.
There were more animals to feed these days. In the fall, four mother pigs gave birth, producing thirty-one young pigs between them. They were all partly black, so Napoleon was clearly their father. The animals heard about plans for a young pigs’ schoolroom. For now, the little pigs were taught by Napoleon himself in the farmhouse kitchen. They exercised in the garden and were told not to play with other young animals. About this time, two new laws were made. One said that when a pig met another animal on the path, the other animal had to move to one side. The other said that all pigs could wear green ribbons around their tails on Sundays.
The farm had been quite successful that year, but there still wasn’t much money. They needed sand and cement for the schoolroom, the dynamo for the windmill, and things for the house: lamp oil, for example, and sugar for Napoleon (not for the other pigs because it made them fat). Some hay and potatoes were sold, and weekly egg production was increased to six hundred eggs. That year, the chickens hardly had enough young ones to keep their numbers the same. Rations were reduced in December, and in February. To save oil, lamps were not allowed in animals’ stalls. One afternoon in late February, an unusual warm, rich, smell came from the little shed beside the kitchen which had never been used in Jones’s time. Somebody said that it was the smell of cooking barley. The animals smelled the air hungrily. “Are they making warm food for supper?” some animals asked. But no warm food arrived. Next Sunday they heard that in future all the barley was for the pigs. The field behind the apple trees was already full of it. Soon every pig received half a liter of beer daily and Napoleon received two liters.
Around this time, Napoleon started a new weekly event called an “Unplanned Demonstration” to celebrate the successes of Animal Farm. At the agreed time, the animals left work and marched around the farm. The pigs came
Learning from Boxer | Chapter 9
first, followed by the horses, cows, sheep, chickens, ducks, and geese. The dogs marched at the sides, and Napoleon’s black rooster at the front. Boxer and Clover carried a green flag with the hoof and horn on it, and the words, “Long live Comrade Napoleon!” After the march, they listened to Minimus’s poems, Squealer told them about increases in food production, and sometimes the gun was shot in the air. The sheep loved the Unplanned Demonstrations. If anybody complained about them, the sheep loudly repeated, “Four legs good, two legs bad!” But mostly the animals enjoyed the Demonstrations. The songs, the marching, Squealer’s figures, the gun, the rooster’s “cock-a-doodle-doo,” and the flag helped them to forget that their stomachs were empty.
In April, Animal Farm became a Republic, and the animals chose a President. Napoleon was the only choice, so everybody voted for him. That same day, they learned that fresh papers had been discovered with extra information about Snowball’s secret links to Jones. It now seemed that Snowball had been openly fighting on Jones’s side at the Battle of the Cowshed. In fact, he had been the leader of the human army, and had shouted, “Long live Humans!” before he ran into battle. The bloody line on Snowball’s back, which some animals still remembered, had been made by Napoleon’s teeth.
In the middle of the summer, Moses, the raven, returned to the farm after several years. He still did no work and
talked about Sugar-Candy Mountain. “Up there, comrades,” he said, “above that dark cloud is Sugar-Candy Mountain, that happy place where we poor animals will rest for ever after all our efforts!” He even pretended that he had flown there once and seen its green fields and the cake and sugar on its hedges. Many animals believed him. They had hard-working, hungry lives; so they felt pleased to hear from the raven Moses that a better world was waiting for them. What did the pigs think of Moses? It was hard to tell. They said that his stories about Sugar-Candy Mountain were lies, but they allowed him to stay on the farm, be unemployed, and have 100 milliliters of beer a day.
Once his hoof was better, Boxer worked even harder. In fact, all the animals worked really hard that year. There was regular farm work, plus the new windmill, and the pigs’ schoolhouse to be built. Work started on the schoolhouse in March. Sometimes the long hours with no food were difficult, but Boxer never stopped. You couldn’t tell, from his actions or words, that he felt weaker. But he looked different: his coat wasn’t as shiny as before, his thick legs seemed thinner. The other animals said, “Boxer will get stronger when the winter ends!”; but when the spring came, Boxer’s health didn’t improve. Sometimes, when he was pushing a huge, round rock up the hill to the top of the quarry, it seemed that only his strong character kept him on his feet. At these times, he said quietly, “I will work harder!” He had hardly any voice left. Clover and Benjamin again told him to be careful, but he didn’t listen. His twelfth birthday was coming. He wanted to collect as many stones as he could before his retirement.
Late one summer evening, something happened to Boxer. He’d gone out alone to pull a cart of stones up to the windmill. A few minutes later, two pigeons brought news: “Boxer has fallen by the windmill! He’s on his side and can’t get up!”
Half the animals hurried to the place. Boxer lay in front of the cart. He couldn’t lift his head. His eyes were glassy and his sides were wet and shaking. Blood was coming from his mouth. Clover went down on her knees beside him.
“Boxer!” she cried, “What’s the matter?”
“It’s my lung,” said Boxer weakly. “It doesn’t matter. I think you can finish the windmill without me. I’ve collected lots
Learning from Boxer | Chapter 9
of stones. I had only another month before my retirement. Honestly, I can’t wait. Maybe, because Benjamin is also growing old, they’ll allow him to stop working, too, and we can spend retirement together.”
“We must get help,” said Clover. “Can somebody quickly tell Squealer?”
The other animals immediately ran to give Squealer the news. Only Clover stayed, and Benjamin, who lay at Boxer’s side and kept the insects away with his tail. After fifteen minutes, Squealer arrived, full of kindness and care. He said, “Comrade Napoleon is very sad to hear of this accident to one of our best workers. He’s already arranging to send Boxer to the hospital in Willingdon.” The animals were worried. Except for Mollie and Snowball, no other animal had ever left the farm, and they didn’t like to think of their sick comrade in the hands of humans. However, Squealer persuaded them that the vet in Willingdon could treat Boxer better than they could on the farm. Thirty minutes later, when Boxer was not so weak, he stood, and managed to walk unevenly to his stall. Clover and Benjamin prepared a good bed of straw for him there.
For two days, Boxer stayed in his stall. The pigs sent a large bottle of pink medicine which they had found in the medicine box in the bathroom in the farmhouse, and Clover gave it to Boxer twice daily after meals. In the evenings, she lay in his stall and talked to him, while Benjamin kept the insects off him. Boxer said, “If I get fully better, I might live another three years, and I’ll pass my days peacefully in the corner of the big field. It’ll be the first time in my life that I can study and improve myself. I want to learn the letters from E to Z.”
However, Benjamin and Clover could only be with Boxer after work, and the truck came to take him away in the middle of the day. The animals were all working in the fields, managed by a pig, when they saw Benjamin running from the farm buildings. Nobody had ever seen him so excited. “Come quickly!” he shouted. “They’re taking Boxer away!” The animals stopped work immediately and ran to the farm buildings. There was a closed truck in the yard, with an unpleasantlooking man in the driver’s seat. Boxer’s stall was empty.
from Boxer | Chapter 9
Learning
All the Same 10 Chapter
Years passed. Animals were born, lived their lives, and died. Soon, nobody remembered the days before the Revolution, except for Clover, Benjamin, Moses, the raven, and some pigs.
Muriel, the goat, had died; the dogs Bluebell, Jessie, and Pincher also. Jones had died in a home for people with alcohol problems. Snowball and Boxer were forgotten by almost everybody. Clover was an old horse now, with painful legs and weak eyes. The idea of a retirement place for old animals had been forgotten because no animal on Animal Farm ever reached retirement.
Napoleon was now a very big pig of 150 kilos. Squealer was really fat. Only old Benjamin was the same, except for his grayer nose, and, since Boxer’s death, his greater silence.
There were more young animals on the farm now. The Revolution was only an old story for them. Other animals, bought from nearby farms, had never heard of it before they arrived.
The farm was richer, too, and better organized. The windmill had been completed. However, it wasn’t used to make electricity but to grind wheat—because grinding wheat brought in good money. The animals were building another windmill; when that was finished, everybody said, the dynamo could go there. But the things which Snowball had promised to go with the dynamo— stalls with electric light, hot and cold water, a three-day week— were no longer talked about. Napoleon said that they were
against the central idea of Animalism. “You’re only truly happy,” he said, “when you work hard and live simply.”
It seemed that the farm had grown richer without making the animals rich—except for the pigs and dogs. Naturally, everybody worked in their own way. Squealer explained that the pigs made huge efforts every day with things called “reports,” “records,” and “summaries.” “They’re very important for the farm,” Squealer said. Nevertheless, neither pigs nor dogs produced food, but they ate a lot and there were so many of them!
For the other animals, life was no different. They were hungry, they slept, they drank water, they worked; in winter they were cold; in summer they were hot. Sometimes the older animals tried to remember the early days of the Revolution. Had things been better or worse? They had forgotten. They had nothing now to help them except for Squealer’s figures, which always showed that everything was better now. Only old Benjamin said that he could remember his long life well and that things had always been hard.
Nevertheless, the animals felt proud to be part of Animal Farm. It was still the only farm in all of England which was owned and organized by animals. All of them, even the youngest animals, found that wonderful. And when they heard the gun and saw the green flag, their hearts filled with pride. Many animals still believed in The Republic of the Animals which Major had dreamed about, when animals could walk alone on the green fields of England without humans. Even the music of Beasts of England was sometimes heard: every animal on the farm knew the song, but nobody ever sang the words. Their lives were different from other animals’ lives. They were hungry, but not because they fed humans; they worked hard, but for themselves. No animal walked on two legs. All animals were equal.
One day in early summer, Squealer took the sheep to some waste ground at the other end of the farm, which was full of young trees. They spent the day there. The sheep ate leaves under Squealer’s watchful eye. In the evening, Squealer returned to the farmhouse, but, because it was warm, he told the sheep to stay on the waste ground. They remained
there for a week, during which time the other animals saw nothing of them.
Squealer was with them for most of each day. “I’m teaching them privately to sing a new song,” he said.
It was a pleasant evening when the sheep returned. The animals had finished work and were returning to the farm buildings when they heard a horse neigh in a frightened way in the yard. The animals stopped. It was Clover’s voice. She neighed again, and all the animals hurried into the yard. Then they saw the sight that Clover had neighed at.
It was a pig on his back legs!
Yes, it was Squealer. Because walking on two legs was new for him, he was moving unevenly across the yard. A moment later, a long line of pigs came out of the farmhouse door; they were all walking on their back legs, too. Some did it better and some worse, but they all made their way round the yard successfully. Finally the black rooster came out, and Napoleon himself appeared. He stood very straight and looked proudly from side to side, while his growling dogs ran after him.
He carried a whip in his trotter.
There was a deadly silence. Shocked, frightened, standing close together, the animals watched the long line of pigs march slowly round the yard. It seemed that the world had gone crazy. After the first moment of surprise—although they were afraid of the dogs and never usually complained about anything—somebody began to say something negative. Just then, all the sheep started repeating loudly: “Four legs good, two legs better! Four legs good, two legs better!”
This continued for five minutes without a break. By the time the sheep stopped, the chance for complaint had been lost, because the pigs had marched back into the farmhouse.
Benjamin felt a nose against his shoulder. He looked round. It was Clover. Her old eyes seemed cloudy. Without a word, she took him to the big barn. For a moment or two they looked at the black wall with the Seven Laws on it in white letters.
“I can’t see well,” she said finally. “Even when I was young I couldn’t read all those laws. But it seems to me that this
wall doesn’t look the same. Are the Seven Laws different now, Benjamin?”
This time, Benjamin read her the words on the wall. There was nothing there now except for a single Law. It read:
ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS
After that, it didn’t seem strange when, the next day, the pigs who were managing farm workers all carried whips in their trotters. It didn’t seem strange to learn that the pigs had bought themselves a radio, planned to get a telephone, and had ordered different weekly magazines and daily newspapers from Willingdon. It didn’t seem strange when Napoleon was seen in the garden with a pipe in his mouth—nor when the pigs took Mr. Jones’s clothes out of the closets and put them on. Napoleon wore a black coat, tight pants, and brown boots, while his favorite wife appeared in the fine pink dress which Mrs. Jones used to wear on Sundays.
A week later, in the afternoon, several small carts arrived at the farm. Six neighboring farmers had been invited by the pigs to make a tour of the place. They visited everywhere, and said that everything was “amazing,” above all the windmill. The other animals were clearing wild plants from the carrot field at the time. They continued working, hardly lifted their faces from the ground, and couldn’t decide who frightened them more— the pigs or the human visitors.
That evening in the farmhouse, the pigs and humans laughed and sang together. At the sound of their mixed voices, the animals became very interested. What was happening in there, now that pigs and humans were equal? The animals moved as quietly as possible towards the farmhouse garden.
They stopped at the gate, frightened. Clover, their leader, entered first. They followed her to the house, and the taller animals looked through the dining-room window. The human farmers and six of the more important pigs sat round the long table. Napoleon sat at the head. The pigs seemed completely relaxed. They had been enjoying a game of cards but had stopped
All the Same | Chapter 10
from originally, but it will stop. The bones have already been buried. Now, maybe you visitors saw the green flag which was flying in the yard during your visit. Maybe you also noticed that the white hoof and horn which used to be on it have now disappeared. In future, our flag will be completely green.
“There’s only one more thing that I want to say in reply to Mr. Pilkington’s excellent and neighborly words. He spoke all the way through of ‘Animal Farm.’ Of course, he couldn’t know—because I’m telling you now for the first time—that the name of our farm will be changed. In future it will be called ‘Manor Farm’—which, I believe, was its correct and original name.
“So,” finished Napoleon, lifting the glass in his trotter, “let’s drink to the future again in a different way. Please stand and make sure that your glasses are full. To the future richness of Manor Farm!”
“To Manor Farm!” they all cried, and everybody lifted their glasses and emptied them. But while the animals at the window looked inside, it seemed to them that something strange was happening. What was different in the fat faces of the pigs? Clover’s weak eyes moved from one face to another. There was something that seemed to be changing in them. Then the pigs and humans sat down and continued their card game, and the animals at the window left silently.
But they had not gone more than twenty meters away when they stopped. Loud voices were coming from the farmhouse. The animals hurried back and looked through the window. Yes, the pigs and humans inside were having a violent argument. There were shouts, bangs on the table, dark looks, angry disagreements. The reason for the trouble seemed to be that Napoleon and Mr. Pilkington had each played the same card at the same moment in their game.
Twelve voices were shouting angrily, and they were all the same. There was no question now about what had happened to the pigs’ faces. The animals outside looked from pig to man, from man to pig; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
Read Chapters 1–3.
Read the sentences and write if they are T (true), F (false), or DK (we don’t know).
1. Major teaches the animals the song Beasts of Russia and they sing it together. F They sing Beasts of England .
2. The pigs have no problems explaining the idea of Animalism to the other farm animals. F
They have some problems.
3. Just before the Revolution, Mr. Jones prefers drinking alcohol to looking after his farm. T
4. Mrs. Jones leaves the farm with a big, brown, leather bag full of her things. DK
Mrs. Jones leaves with a bag full of her things, but we don’t know its color or what it is made of.
5. Squealer guides Boxer and Clover while they pull the hay-cutter. DK
We don’t know which pig does this.
6. The “Wild Comrades Education Group” is very successful from the start. F
The Group is a failure.
Correct the spelling mistakes in the underlined words in these sentences.
1. Boxer and Clover usually pull the farm cards carts
2. The animals meet in the big burn barn
4. There are five mails full of fresh milk. pails
7. They busy Old Major under an apple tree. bury 1 2
3. The animals need to collect the pay from the field. hay
5. The green flag has a roof and a born on it. hoof, horn
6. Muriel is the name of the boat in the story. goat
WHILE READING ACTIVITIES
WHILE READING ACTIVITIES
Read Chapters 4–6.
3 4
Complete the text with words, phrases, and names from the box.
business Foxwood hard, clever man hate horror large lawyers old Pinchfield paths relaxed gentleman small uncared for well cared for
Mr. Frederick lives on a farm that’s called Pinchfield . It’s a small and well cared for place. Frederick is a hard, clever man who is really good in business He’s always asking lawyers for advice.
Mr. Pilkington lives on a farm that’s called Foxwood It’s a large farm and an old one, too, and it’s an uncared for place – its paths are very untidy!
Pilkington is a very relaxed gentleman .
Both Frederick and Pilkington hate Animal Farm and both are filled with horror at the Animal Revolution.
Read Chapters 7–8.
Put the sentences in the correct order to match the content of Chapters 7 and 8. Number them 1-11. There is an extra sentence. Mark it with X
a. A pig called Pinkeye starts tasting all Napoleon’s food to check it isn’t poisoned. 6
b. Frederick and his men destroy the windmill with dynamite and hurry away. 9
c. Minimus, the poet pig, writes a song about Animal Farm and a poem about Napoleon. 5
d. Napoleon learns that Mr. Frederick cheated him. 8
e. Napoleon makes a new law to stop all the animals singing Beasts of England 4
f. Napoleon marries ten wives and has a huge wedding party. X
g. Napoleon sells the pile of wood to Mr. Frederick. 7
h. Napoleon’s dogs kill four pigs, three chickens, a goose, and three sheep. 3
i. Squealer says that the Battle of the Windmill was a great victory. 10
j. Squealer tells the chickens to give their eggs to the pigs. 1
k. The chickens disobey Napoleon’s orders for five days. 2
l. The pigs drink a lot of whiskey and feel sick the next day. 11
Correct the twelve mistakes in Mr. Whymper’s Diary.
Since I agreed to take milk from Animal Farm to the outside world, I visit the farm every Tuesday morning. Every week, the boss pig, Squealer, gives me orders.
For the flower arrangements that I make for Animal Farm with the outside world, I get a percentage of the money that they earn, which is terrible for me.
There was a recent rumor that there was no money on Animal Farm. However, while I was visiting the other day, I saw that the farmhouse was full of it, and I heard some dogs who were talking about getting more than before, so I believe that this rumor is false. I’m telling the outside world that there’s plenty of cash to spend in Animal Farm.
Monday messages business Napoleon food great eggs two wood sheep food shed food eat
Not long ago, I helped the pigs sell 400 apples a week to a company in Willingdon and I’ve spoken to three of Animal Farm’s neighbors about buying stones from the farm.
WHILE READING ACTIVITIES
Read Chapters 9–10.
What does Napoleon change at Animal Farm to make humans more comfortable to do business with it? Check ü the things you read about in Chapters 9 and 10.
How do you think Napoleon dies? What will the animal newspapers say about him just after his death? What will the animal history books say about him years later? 6 7 8 Personal answers.
1. The hoof and horn to go from the green flag. ü
2. The President becomes King Napoleon the First.
3. Animals stop calling each other “Comrade.” ü
4. The name of the farm is changed back to “Manor Farm.” ü
5. Napoleon’s family owns the farm, instead of all the animals. ü
6. New medals are introduced: “Human Friend of All Farm Animals.”
7. There’s no more marching past Old Major’s bones on Sundays. ü
Match the beginnings and endings of these sentences. There is one extra beginning. Mark it with X.
1. Squealer reads out figures d
2. Mrs. Jones decides X
3. Napoleon becomes e
4. Moses returns to Animal Farm a
5. Boxer gets sick with lung problems b
6. Benjamin reads the words c
a. and continues to talk about Sugar-Candy Mountain.
b. and is taken away in a closed truck.
c. “Glue Maker” on the side of the truck.
d. that show life is better now than it was in Jones’s day.
e. the President of the Republic of Animal Farm.
1
Which animal says this? Match the sentences with the speakers.
1. “All animals go there after they die.” i
2. “I want to tell you about my dream.” d
3. “I don’t believe either of them .” g
4. “Can you read the Fourth Law to me?” h
5. “I’ll manage their education now.” i
6. “We can build another.” a
7. “But we saw the blood on his back.” b
8. “Four legs good, two legs bad.” e
9. “Ribbons are clothes, and clothes are a human fashion.” c
10. “Will there still be sugar after the Revolution?” f
a. Squealer, the pig who’s good at talking, tells Boxer.
b. Boxer, the big carthorse, says to Squealer.
c. Snowball, the clever pig, explains to Mollie.
d. Major, the wise, old pig, says.
e. The stupid sheep repeat together.
f. Mollie, the little white horse, asks Snowball.
g. Benjamin, the donkey, says.
h. Clover, the carthorse, asks.
i. Moses, the raven, says.
j. Napoleon, the black pig, tells Jessie and Bluebell.
2
What are the main themes of the story? Check the correct boxes for you. Discuss it with a partner.
Students’ own answers.
1. Politics is always a dirty business.
2. A strong government never needs to say sorry or explain.
3. A president who controls the news controls the country.
AFTER READING ACTIVITIES
3
4. Those at the top of society come first. Those at the bottom come last.
5. Leaders of revolutions often become like the old leaders they got rid of.
6. People will believe anything if you can make it into a good story.
7. Listen to the things that I say, don’t look at the things that I do.
8. Stupid people often forget quickly. They are easy to lie to.
Use the names of the humans in the story to complete the sentences. You can use some names more than once.
Arthur Simmonds Mr. Frederick Mr. Jones Mr. Pilkington Mr. Whymper Mrs. Jones
1. Mr. Jones dies in a home for people with alcohol problems.
2. Mr. Whymper finds a business in Willingdon that buys eggs from Animal Farm.
3. Arthur Simmonds has a glue factory in Willingdon.
4. Mr. Pilkington likes fishing and hunting.
5. Mr. Jones loses Manor Farm to the animals after the Animal Revolution.
6. Mr. Pilkington sends the message, “You asked for it!” to Napoleon.
7. Mr. Jones shoots through the bedroom window at a chicken thief.
8. Arthur Simmonds takes Boxer away from Animal Farm in a van.
9. Mr. Frederick uses false five-pound bills to buy wood from Animal Farm.
4 5 6 7
Correct the twelve mistakes in the newspaper story.
NAPOLEON AND THE REVOLUTION BY THE BLACK ROOSTER
Snowball
Snowball
Snowball
Napoleon green hoof after
Snowball
Napoleon and Squealer developed “Animalism” without Snowball’s help. Squealer painted “Animal Farm” on the gate just before the Revolution. Squealer also painted the original Seven Laws on the barn wall. Napoleon made the red flag with the hammer and horn on it. Napoleon also fought at the Battle of the Cowshed and got a medal for his brave actions. Snowball didn’t have the idea for the windmill. The idea was stolen from Napoleon, who drew the plans for it on some papers. Napoleon decided to build the windmill before Snowball left Animal Farm. with
Snowball the floor of the farm building after
Read the “corrected” laws at the end of the story. Underline the words that were added or changed. Check the story. Note story events just before these changes.
The Laws of Animal Farm
1. Four legs good, two legs better
2. No animal will sleep in a bed with sheets
3. No animal will drink alcohol too often
4. No animal will kill any other animal without a reason
5. All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others
What happened in the story just before these changes?
Students’ own answers.
Write a short essay called: “Laws for the Many! No Laws for the Few!” about the way the pigs in Animal Farm think that they’re above the law. Students’ own answers.
GLOSSARY
alcohol strong drinks, like wine or beer
barley a plant that is used in making food, beer, and whiskey
barn a large building on a farm where animals or other things are kept
battle a fight between two armies
beast an animal
bury put something under the ground
cart something with four wheels which is usually pulled by a horse or other animal
cement a gray powder that is mixed with water to build things
comrade someone you work with
demonstration when a lot of people come together to ask for something
donkey an animal like a small horse and with long ears
duck a type of bird that can swim or fly
dynamo a machine that makes electricity
footprint the mark left be a person’s foot
glue a thick liquid used to fix things together
goat an animal with horns and long hair
goose (plural geese ) a water bird that is larger than a duck
grind break something into very small pieces
growl make a low noise in the throat
gunpowder the substance that is needed to fire a gun
hammer a big tool for hitting things
harness a leather and metal object that you put on a working animal
harvest the time of year when plants are ready to eat, and they are collected
hay long dry grass that is used to feed animals
hedge a line of small trees between two fields
hoof the foot of an animal
horn a hard thing on the head of some animals
hunt search for something or someone
lung the air goes into the lungs when you breathe
medal a flat, round piece of metal that is given to someone who has been brave
neigh the noise of a horse
pail a metal container for liquid
pigeon a common brown or gray bird
pile a lot of things on top of each other plow turn over the earth so that it is ready for seeds
puppy a young dog
quarry a place where stone is taken out of the ground rations the amount of food for a person or animal
raven a large black bird
republic a country where there is no king or queen and people vote for a president
retirement the time when you can stop working revolution when the government changes completely
ribbon a long narrow piece of colored cloth
rooster a male chicken
seed a small hard thing which can grow into a plant
shed a small wooden building
shocked unpleasantly surprised
stall a place in a barn where animals sit, stand, or sleep
stick a long piece of wood
straw long dry pieces of grass
trotter the foot of a pig
vet a doctor for animals
victory the time when someone wins
vote make a choice in an election
wheat a plant whose seeds are used to make bread
whip a long thin piece of rope with a handle, used for making animals move
whiskey a strong drink
windmill a machine which is moved by the wind
yard a space in the middle of a farm, between the buildings
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