Animal Farm by George Orwell

Name-

Chapter 1-After Mr. Jones the farmer has gone to bed (drunk as usual), the animals all sneak into the barn to hear a speech by Old Major. First the dogs arrive, then the pigs, followed by the hens, sheep, cows, pigeons, ducks and so on. Among the animals are Boxer and Clover the cart-horses, Muriel the goat, Benjamin the donkey, Mollie the white mare and the cat.Old Major tells them he has done a lot of thinking in his long life, particularly about the hardships the animals face (hard work, little food and eventually being slaughtered). He believes these hardships are all due to the greedy humans:"Man is the only creature that consumes without producing. He does not give milk, he does not lay eggs, he is too weak to pull the plough, he cannot run fast enough to catch rabbits. Yet he is lord of all the animals. He sets them to work, he gives back to them the bare minimum that will prevent them from starving, and the rest he keeps for himself." Chapter 1, pg. 7He tells them to work for the eventual overthrow of the human race. "All men are enemies. All animals are comrades." Chapter 1, pg. 9He reminds the animals to stick together and protect each other, even the wild animals, and to remember that they are all equal. He also warns them never to adopt any human habits. He teaches them a song which came to him in his dream, an old song that he remembers his mother and the other sows singing parts of when he was young. The song is about liberation and is called "Beasts of England".They quickly learn the song and start singing it, but this wakes Mr. Jones who lets off a charge from his gun in case there is a fox in the yard. The animals all hurry off to bed.

Themes Presentation of characters

1. Propaganda ‘Beasts of England.’

2. Greed- main issue dealt with in Old Major’s speech.

Order they enter the barn-

Significance?

Chapter 2Old Major dies peacefully in his sleep three nights later, and the pigs begin teaching and organizing the others to prepare for the Rebellion he predicted. Chief among them are Snowball, Napoleon and Squealer,

who elaborate Old Major's ideas into a system of thought called Animalism. They teach this to the other animals at secret meetings late at night in the barn, but the animals make many silly points like "Mr. Jones feeds us. If he were gone, we should starve to death," and it is slow work. Boxer and Clover are their two most devoted disciples.Moses the pet raven of farmer Jones keeps telling the animals lies about a magical place called Sugarcandy Mountain. The pigs have to work hard to persuade them that it doesn't exist.On Midsummer's Eve, Mr. Jones goes to the pub and gets drunk, then doesn't come back until noon the next day and goes to sleep with the newspaper over his face. The farmhands go out catching rabbits and no one feeds the animals, who become so hungry that by evening they break in the door of the store-shed and help themselves. Mr. Jones then wakes up and he and his men start lashing at the animals with whips. The animals spontaneously attack the humans and drive them off the farm - Mrs. Jones and Moses sneak away when they see what is happening.The animals are thrilled and amazed to be free; they destroy all the reminders of Jones - the whips, knives, chains etc. are thrown down the well and the reins, nosebags and ribbons are burnt. The next morning they wake up and go around the whole farm snuffling at the earth, rolling in the dew, eating the grass and so on, overwhelmed with excitement that it is all theirs. They creep into the farmhouse, inspect it and remove some hams for the kitchen for burial as well as shattering the beer barrel in the scullery. They agree to preserve the farmhouse as a museum, and that no animal must ever live there.The pigs then reveal that they have taught themselves to read and write, and Snowball paints out the 'Manor Farm' sign on the gate and replaces it with 'Animal Farm'. He and Squealer paint the Seven Commandments of Animalism, the new laws of the farm, on the wall of the barn.

THE SEVEN COMMANDMENTS-1. Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy.

2. Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend.3. No animal shall wear clothes.4. No animal shall sleep in a bed.5. No animal shall drink alcohol.

6. No animal shall kill any other animal.7. All animals are equal.

The cows have not been milked and their udders are almost bursting. The pigs manage to milk them, and the animals go off to the hayfield to begin the harvest - when they return that evening they notice that the milk has disappeared.

Themes Presentation of characters

1. Propaganda- ‘The 7 Commandments’

2. Rebellion-

3. Human cruelty and overly luxurious lives-

4. Appearance/reality- *What disappears? What can the reader assume has happened to it?

5. Names- What is the farm called before and after the rebellion?

*Why is this important?

*Manipulation of language-SEE ACTIVITY WORKSHEET for

ideas…

Who initiates the rebellion?

How do the animals celebrate victory over the humans?

What do the pigs reveal to the other animals?

Author’s craft and intentions-

How does Orwell prepare us for the idea that the pigs are natural leaders?

Chapter 3-The animals harvest the hay, with everyone helping - the pigs supervise the others as they work, and even the ducks and hens go back and forth in the sun all day carrying tiny wisps of hay in their beaks.Through the summer and the later corn harvest, everything continues to go well.

"The animals were happy as they had never conceived it possible to be. Every mouthful of food was an acute positive pleasure, now that it was truly their own food, produced by themselves and for themselves, not doled out to them by a

grudging master."

Boxer pulls everyone through again and again, doing the work of three horses rolled into one. He gets up half an hour early to do extra volunteer work, and his personal slogan and answer to every problem is "I will work harder!" The animals work hard, although some, like Mollie and the cat, seem to avoid work.

On Sundays there is no work and after breakfast the animals hoist their flag. Then they have a Meeting to discuss work and proposed resolutions, and Snowball and Napoleon are always the most active in debating resolutions, although they never agree with each other.

The pigs use the harness-room as a headquarters where they study blacksmithing, carpentering and so on from books they find in the farmhouse. Snowball organizes the animals into committees (such as the Wild Comrades' Re-education Committee), which are not very successful, but also organizes reading and writing lessons, which are very successful, particularly with the pigs, dogs, Muriel and Benjamin who all learn to read well.

They find that the stupider animals - like hens, sheep and ducks - cannot learn the Seven Commandments by heart, and so after thinking about it Snowball decides that the Seven Commandments can effectively be reduced to the slogan: "FOUR LEGS GOOD, TWO LEGS BAD" and this is written up above the Seven Commandments on the wall of the barn, in bigger letters. The birds object that they have two legs, but Snowball tells them a wing is more like a leg than a hand, because the wing is used for movement and not to manipulate objects. The sheep, hens and ducks then learn this slogan by heart.Napoleon says it is more important to educate the young than those who are already grown up, and he takes the nine puppies that are born right after the harvest away from their mothers for education, secluding them in a loft until the rest of the farm has pretty much forgotten that they exist.The animals discover what has been happening to the milk - it all gets mixed into the pigs' mash. As the apples begin to ripen, orders go out that all the windfall apples and the main crop later on are to be reserved for the sole use of the pigs. Even Snowball and Napoleon agree on this - Squealer explains to the other animals that it is necessary for the pigs to eat milk and apples for their health, because they have to do all the brain work and if they fail in their duties Jones will come back.

Themes Presentation of characters

1. Communism in action- How do the animals present the ideals of Communism (Old Major’s idea-ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL)?

2. Leaders- *Who? How does Orwell present them to us?

How successful are the animals at running the farm?

How is Boxer presented in this chapter? What is his slogan and what does it suggest about him?

How is Mollie shown to the reader?

3. Followers- *Who? How does Orwell present them to us?

***USE this chapter to help you discuss the two different leaders-

Napoleon and Snowball…

Why are the puppies taken away and by who?

What kind of committees does Snowball establish? Successful eg-

Unsuccessful eg-

Chapter 4-

News about the takeover on Animal Farm spreads through the county, and Snowball and Napoleon send out special flights of pigeons instructed to go to other farms and tell the animals the story of the Rebellion and teach them, "Beasts of England.”

Mr. Jones spends most of his time sitting in the Red Lion Pub complaining about his woes, and the other farmers wonder if there is a way they can gain by his loss. Luckily the two farmers neighbouring Animal Farm, Mr. Pilkington of Foxwood and Mr. Frederick of Pinchfield, hate each other and would never cooperate against the animals. They are both worried by the rebellion, though, and say that it will never last and that the animals are fighting among themselves and starving to death. Then when it is clear that the animals are not starving to death, they change their tune:

"It was given out that the animals there practised cannibalism, tortured one another with red-hot horseshoes, and had their

females in common. This was what came of rebelling against the laws of Nature, Frederick and Pilkington said."

Still, rumours of a wonderful farm spread among animals, and 'Beasts of England' can be heard everywhere, much to the anger of the human beings.

Napoleon sends __________________ out across the lands to tell others of the rebellion and to help other animals learn the words to _______________________________________.Meanwhile Mr Jones is _______________________________________________________________________________________________________

In early October, Jones and all his men with some others from nearby farms, come back to try and retake the farm - Jones carrying a gun and the others were carrying sticks. Snowball assumes leadership (he has studied an old book of Julius Caesar's campaigns from the farmhouse) and together the animals manage to defeat the humans and drive them off the farm - although a shot from Jones kills a sheep and wounds Snowball along the back. One stable-boy is hit on the skull by one of Boxer's hooves, and then lies motionless face-downward in the mud. Boxer is upset because he believes he has killed the boy, and when Snowball tells him that the only good human being is a dead one:"'I have no wish to take life, not even human life,' repeated Boxer, and his eyes were full of tears."

The animals discover Mollie is missing, go to look for her and find her hiding in her stall with her head buried in the hay - when they return they find that the stable-lad, who was only stunned, has recovered and run away.The battle is named the Battle of the Cowshed and the animals decide to make two military decorations - "Animal Hero, First Class", which they give to Snowball and Boxer, and "Animal Hero, Second Class", which they give to the dead sheep. The gun Mr. Jones left behind is set up at the foot of the flagstaff, to be fired twice a year - once on the anniversary of the battle, and once on the anniversary of the Rebellion.Write down the key events from, ‘The Battle of the

Cowshed…’

Themes Presentation of characters

1. Propaganda and communication- ‘Beasts of England’ is spread via carrier pigeons.

Definition of propaganda:

2. Leaders- Who assumes leadership?

*What is the significance of Julius Caesar? Who was he? What did he do?

Snowball- How is he presented in this chapter? *Use this to complete Snowball vs.

Napoleon*

Why is Boxer upset?

Human/Animal relations-What are the two contrasting ideas about humans portrayed in the summary above?

Why is "Animal Hero, First Class,"invented? What does it symbolise?

Chapter 5Mollie becomes an increasing burden on Animal Farm: she arrives late for work, accepts treats from men associated with nearby farms, and generally behaves contrary to the ideas of Animalism. Eventually she disappears, lured away by a fat, red-faced man who stroked her coat and fed her sugar; now she pulls his carriage. None of the other animals ever mentions her name again.During the cold winter months, the animals hold their meetings in the big barn, and Snowball and Napoleon’s constant disagreements continue to dominate the proceedings. Snowball proves a better speaker and debater, but Napoleon can better canvass for support in between meetings. Snowball brims with ideas for improving the farm: he studies Mr. Jones’s books and eventually concocts a scheme to build a windmill, with which the animals could generate electricity and automate many farming tasks, bringing new comforts to the animals’ lives. But building the windmill would entail much hard work and difficulty, and Napoleon contends that the animals should attend to their current needs rather than plan for a distant future. The question deeply divides the animals. Napoleon surveys Snowball’s plans and expresses his contempt by urinating on them.When Snowball has finally completed his plans, all assemble for a great meeting to decide whether to undertake the windmill project. Snowball gives a passionate speech, to which Napoleon responds with a pathetically unaffecting and brief retort. Snowball speaks further, inspiring the animals with his descriptions of the wonders of electricity. Just as the animals prepare to vote, however, Napoleon gives a strange whimper, and nine enormous dogs wearing brass-studded collars charge into the barn, attack Snowball, and chase him off the farm. They return to Napoleon’s side, and, with the dogs growling menacingly, Napoleon announces that from now on meetings will be held only for ceremonial purposes. He states that all important decisions will fall to the pigs alone.Afterward, many of the animals feel confused and disturbed. Squealer explains to them that Napoleon is making a great sacrifice in taking the leadership responsibilities upon himself and that, as the cleverest animal, he serves the best interest of all by making the decisions. These statements make the animals feel better, though they still question the expulsion of Snowball. Squealer explains that Snowball was a traitor and a criminal. Eventually, the animals come to accept this version of events, and Boxer adds

How does Napoleon originally feel about the windmill?

How does he express this?

How is the reader expected to feel about Napoleon’s character?

greatly to Napoleon’s prestige by adopting the beliefs; “I will work harder” and “Napoleon is always right.” These two maxims soon reinforce each other when, three weeks after the banishment of Snowball, the animals learn that Napoleon supports the windmill project. Squealer explains that their leader never really opposed the proposal; he simply used his apparent opposition as a maneuver to oust the wicked Snowball. These tactics, he claims, served to advance the collective best interest. Squealer’s words prove so appealing, and the growls of his three-dog entourage so threatening, that the animals accept his explanation without question.

Themes Characters

1. Leaders- Who is fighting for leadership?

Who would make a better leader?Give 3 reasons (quotations) to support your answer… (PEE paragraph please)

Snowball vs. Napoleon-

Look at each character and use

the information provided to

complete your worksheet- noting down positive and

negative presentation.

Chapter 6-For the rest of the year, the animals work at a backbreaking pace to farm enough food for themselves and to build the windmill. The leadership cuts the rations—Squealer explains that they have simply “readjusted” them—and the animals receive no food at all unless they work on Sunday afternoons. But because they believe what the leadership tells them—that they are working for their own good now, not for Mr. Jones’s—they are eager to take on the extra work. Boxer, in particular, commits himself to Animal Farm, doing the work of three horses but never complaining. Even though the farm possesses all of the necessary materials to build the windmill, the project presents a number of difficulties. The animals struggle over how to break the available stone into manageable sizes for building without picks and crowbars, which they are unable to use. They finally solve the problem by learning to raise and then drop big stones into the quarry, smashing them into usable chunks. By late summer, the animals have enough broken stone to begin construction.Although their work is strenuous, the animals suffer no more than they had under Mr. Jones. They have enough to eat and can maintain the farm grounds easily now that humans no longer come to cart off and sell the fruits of their labour. But the farm still needs a number of items that it cannot produce on its own, such as iron, nails, and paraffin oil. As existing supplies of these items begin to run low, Napoleon announces that he has

hired a human solicitor, Mr. Whymper, to assist him in conducting trade on behalf of Animal Farm. The other animals are taken aback by the idea of engaging in trade with humans, but Squealer explains that the founding principles of Animal Farm never included any prohibition against trade and the use of money. He adds that if the animals think that they recall any such law, they have simply fallen victim to lies made up by the traitor Snowball.Mr. Whymper begins paying a visit to the farm every Monday, and Napoleon places orders with him for various supplies. The pigs begin living in the farmhouse, and rumor has it that they even sleep in beds, a violation of one of the Seven Commandments. But when Clover asks Muriel to read her the appropriate commandment, the two find that it now reads “No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets.” Squealer explains that Clover must have simply forgotten the last two words. All animals sleep in beds, he says—a pile of straw is a bed, after all. Sheets, however, as a human invention, constitute the true source of evil. He then shames the other animals into agreeing that the pigs need comfortable repose in order to think clearly and serve the greater good of the farm.Around this time, a fearsome storm descends on Animal Farm, knocking down roof tiles, an elm tree, and even the flagstaff. When the animals go into the fields, they find, to their horror, that the windmill, on which they have worked so hard, has been toppled. Napoleon announces in appalled tones that the windmill has been sabotaged by Snowball, who, he says, will do anything to destroy Animal Farm. Napoleon passes a death sentence on Snowball, offering a bushel of apples to the traitor’s killer. He then gives a passionate speech in which he convinces the animals that they must rebuild the windmill, despite the backbreaking toil involved. “Long live the windmill!” he cries. “Long live Animal Farm!”Read the statement in bold and find a quotation from the summary above to support what it is saying.

-BE SELECTIVE and do not choose LONG quotations!!

-The animals are coping well with the farm and are relatively better off than they were with Mr. Jones-e.g. “The animals suffer no more than they had under Mr. Jones.”

-The animals realise they are reliant on human beings-

-The pigs have changed the seven commandments. They try to convince the others-

-The pigs provide proof to support their changing of the laws-

Snowball the SCAPEGOAT A scapegoat is…

*How is Snowball used by Napoleon as a scapegoat in this chapter? What is he accused of?

Chapter 7-In the bitter cold of winter, the animals struggle to rebuild the _______________. In January, they fall short of ____________, a fact that they work to conceal from the human farmers around them, lest Animal Farm be perceived to be failing. The humans refuse to believe that ________________ caused the destruction of the windmill, saying that the windmill’s walls simply weren’t ___________ enough. The animals deem this explanation false, but they nevertheless decide to build the walls twice as thick this time. Squealer gives ennobling speeches on the glory of sacrifice, but the other animals acquire their real inspiration from the example of ___________, who works harder than ever. In order to feed the animals, Napoleon contracts to sell four hundred eggs a week. The other animals react with shock—one of Old Major’s original complaints about humans focused on the cruelty of egg selling, or so they remember. The _________ rebel, and Napoleon responds by cutting their rations entirely. Nine hens ________ before the others give in to Napoleon’s demands.Soon afterward, the animals hear, to their extreme dismay, that Snowball has been visiting the farm at night, in secret, and sabotaging the animals’

efforts. Napoleon says that he can detect Snowball’s presence everywhere, and whenever something appears to go wrong by chance, Snowball receives the blame. One day, Squealer announces that Snowball has sold himself to Mr. Frederick’s farm, Pinchfield, and that the treacherous pig has been in league with Mr. ___________ from the start. He recalls Snowball’s attempts at the Battle of the ____________ to have the animals defeated. The animals hear these words in stupefied astonishment. They remember Snowball’s heroism and recall that he received a medal. Boxer, in particular, is completely baffled. But Napoleon and Squealer convince the others that Snowball’s apparent bravery simply constituted part of his treacherous plot. They also work to convince the animals of Napoleon’s superior bravery during that battle. So vividly does Sq_____________ describe Napoleon’s alleged heroic actions that the animals are almost able to remember them.Four days later, Napoleon convenes all of the animals in the yard. With his nine huge dogs ringed about him and growling, he stages an inquisition and a purge: he forces certain animals to con_______ to their participation in a conspiracy with Snowball and then has the ________ tear out these supposed traitors’ throats. The dogs, apparently without orders, even attack _________, who effortlessly knocks them away with his huge hooves. But four pigs and numerous other animals meet their deaths, including the hens who rebelled at the proposal to sell their eggs. The terrible bloodshed leaves the animals deeply shaken and confused. After Napoleon leaves, Boxer says that he would never have believed that such a thing could happen on Animal Farm. He adds that the tragedy must owe to some fault in the animals themselves; thus, he commits to working even harder. ____________ looks out over the farm, wondering how such a glorious rebellion as theirs could have come to its current state.

Some of the animals begin to sing “Beasts of ______________,” but Squealer appears and explains that “Beasts of England” may no longer be sung. It applied only to the Rebellion, he says, and now there is no more need for rebellion. Squealer gives the animals a replacement song, written by Minimus, the poet pig. The new song expresses profound patriotism and glorifies Animal Farm, but it does not inspire the animals as “Beasts of England” once did.

England Dogs Confess Boxer Cowshed Jones Windmill

Die Hens Thick Snowball Food Squealer Clover

Scan over the chapter to find out information for the following to complete your character profile-

Squealer

What happens to the hens’ eggs?

Look back to p4. What does Old Major say to the hens about their eggs?

-How does he move around?

-What jobs does he do for Napoleon?

Boxer

-What does he question in this chapter?

-Why does Boxer vow to work even harder?

Dogs

-How have they been used by Napoleon?

Snowball the SCAPEGOAT

The things that Snowball is accused of seem to escalate to beyond the ridiculous. Write down all of the things he is accused of in this chapter…

1. Milking the cows in their sleep- (Find quotation and write page reference)

Napoleon brings his ‘Rule by Fear’ tactics to a new level in this chapter. Complete the mind map to take a not of what he does-

*Napoleon stages an inquisition and a purge- A purge is…An inquisition is…

Napoleon uses guard dogs to attack/kill animals.

Chapter 8- (Write a detailed summary for this chapter)

Napoleon’s reign of terror…

Summary Chapter 9-

Summary Chapter 10-

Napoleon- **Transfer info from Napoleon vs. Snowball**Use the page references to find suitable quotations to describe the characters-

Also- write down the information you currently have in your books onto these pages…

Snowball- **Transfer info from Napoleon vs. Snowball**

Squealer-

Old Major-

Boxer-

Muriel, Benjamin and Clover-

Pigs-

Hens-

Sheep-

Mr. Jones-

Mr. Whymper-

Mr. Pilkington-

Mr. Frederick-