Animal Farm

Name: Animal Farm
Author: George Orwell

by George Orwell

Genre

Classics, Fiction

Year

1945

Pages

128

Contents

Overview

Animal Farm follows the animals of Manor Farm, who are inspired by the dying vision of Old Major, an elderly boar who imagines a world free from human exploitation. Led by the clever pigs, the animals overthrow Mr. Jones and attempt to build a society founded on equality, shared labor, and the principles of Animalism.

The story centers on figures such as Napoleon, Snowball, Squealer, Boxer, Clover, and Benjamin as hope gives way to rivalry, propaganda, fear, and unequal privilege. Through the farm’s struggle to govern itself, the book explores power, corruption, memory, class, political language, and the fragility of revolutionary ideals.

Plot Summary ⚠️ Spoilers

At Manor Farm, the drunken Mr. Jones neglects his animals and leaves them hungry and mistreated. One night, Old Major, a respected boar, gathers the animals in the barn and explains that their lives are miserable because humans exploit their labor and dispose of them when they are no longer useful. He identifies Man as the enemy, urges eventual Rebellion, and lays out principles of equality: animals must not imitate human habits, tyrannize over one another, or kill one another. He teaches them the song "Beasts of England," which gives the animals a shared dream of liberation.

Old Major dies soon afterward, and the pigs take charge of turning his ideas into a doctrine called Animalism. Snowball, Napoleon, and Squealer become the movement’s main leaders. When Mr. Jones’s neglect worsens and the animals are left unfed, they spontaneously revolt and drive him and his men from the farm. Manor Farm becomes Animal Farm. The animals destroy symbols of human oppression, preserve the farmhouse as a museum, and paint the Seven Commandments on the barn wall. Yet the first sign of inequality appears almost immediately when the pigs take control of the milk.

The animals’ first harvest is a success. The pigs supervise while the other animals labor, and Boxer, the powerful cart-horse, becomes the farm’s most devoted worker, adopting the motto "I will work harder!" Snowball organizes committees and literacy efforts, while Napoleon dismisses these projects and secretly takes Jessie and Bluebell’s puppies away for private training. When the pigs reserve milk and apples for themselves, Squealer persuades the animals that the pigs need them because they are the farm’s brainworkers. He warns that without pig leadership, Jones might return, and fear makes the animals accept the privilege.

News of Animal Farm spreads to neighboring farms. Mr. Pilkington and Mr. Frederick fear rebellion among their own animals, while Mr. Jones tries to retake the farm. Snowball prepares defenses, and in the Battle of the Cowshed the animals defeat the human attackers. Snowball and Boxer are honored for bravery, though Boxer is troubled by the possibility that he has harmed a human. The victory strengthens the farm’s revolutionary identity and creates annual rituals around the captured gun and the battle’s memory.

As winter comes, rivalry between Snowball and Napoleon intensifies. Snowball proposes building a windmill that will eventually reduce labor and improve the farm, while Napoleon opposes it. At the meeting where the animals seem ready to support Snowball, Napoleon summons the nine dogs he secretly raised. They chase Snowball off the farm. Napoleon abolishes open debate and rules through a pig committee, while Squealer explains that leadership is a burden Napoleon has accepted for the animals’ good. Boxer, confused but loyal, adds a second motto: "Napoleon is always right." Soon Napoleon announces that the windmill will be built after all, and Squealer claims it was Napoleon’s idea from the beginning.

The animals work punishing hours on the windmill. Shortages lead Napoleon to begin trading with humans through Mr. Whymper, despite earlier principles against commerce. The pigs move into the farmhouse and sleep in beds, and Squealer reassures the animals that the commandment only forbids beds with sheets. When a storm destroys the half-built windmill, Napoleon blames the absent Snowball, declares him an enemy, and orders reconstruction.

Hunger and fear deepen. Napoleon hides famine from the outside world by staging grain bins for Mr. Whymper. When he orders the hens to surrender their eggs for sale, they rebel by smashing them, but Napoleon starves them into submission, and several hens die. Squealer expands the campaign against Snowball, portraying him as a lifelong traitor and even revising the story of the Battle of the Cowshed. Napoleon then stages public confessions: dissenting pigs and other animals admit supposed crimes connected to Snowball and are executed by the dogs. The killings horrify Clover, who recognizes that the farm has betrayed Old Major’s hopes, but she remains determined not to let humans return. Squealer bans "Beasts of England," saying the Rebellion is complete, and Minimus supplies a new anthem.

The commandments continue to change to excuse the pigs’ actions. After the executions, the rule against killing reads that no animal shall kill another "without cause." Napoleon builds a cult around himself with titles, ceremonies, guarded appearances, and Minimus’s poem "Comrade Napoleon." He sells timber to Mr. Frederick, but Frederick pays with forged banknotes and then attacks the farm with armed men. The invaders blow up the rebuilt windmill, enraging the animals, who counterattack and drive them away at heavy cost. Squealer presents the destruction as a victory, and the battle is named the Battle of the Windmill. Soon afterward the pigs discover whisky, drink heavily, and later revise the rule against alcohol so that it forbids drinking "to excess."

Boxer continues working despite injury and age, hoping to help finish the windmill before retirement. Promised pensions never materialize, and rations for ordinary animals shrink while pigs and dogs remain comfortable. Napoleon declares Animal Farm a Republic and is elected President. Moses the raven returns with stories of Sugarcandy Mountain, which the pigs mock but tolerate. When Boxer collapses from overwork, Squealer says he will be sent to a hospital. A van arrives, but Benjamin reads that it belongs to a horse slaughterer. The animals try to warn Boxer, but he is too weak to escape. Squealer later claims the van had merely been bought by a veterinarian and that Boxer died peacefully under expert care. Napoleon praises Boxer’s maxims, while the pigs hold a memorial banquet with newly acquired whisky.

Years pass. The farm grows richer, but the ordinary animals remain hungry and overworked, while pigs and dogs enjoy the benefits. Most animals no longer remember the Rebellion clearly, though they still take pride in living on an animal-run farm. Then the pigs begin walking on two legs. Squealer teaches the sheep to chant "Four legs good, two legs better," drowning protest. Clover and Benjamin look at the barn wall and find the Seven Commandments replaced by a single statement: "All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others." The pigs openly use whips, wear clothes, read newspapers, smoke, and socialize with humans.

Neighboring farmers visit and praise the farm’s discipline and efficiency. At a banquet, Mr. Pilkington compares the farm’s exploited animals to the human lower classes, and Napoleon announces the end of remaining revolutionary symbols: the word "Comrade" will disappear, the boar’s skull will be buried, the flag will be changed, and the farm’s name restored to Manor Farm. When Napoleon and Mr. Pilkington quarrel during a card game, the watching animals look from pigs to men and from men to pigs and can no longer tell them apart. The revolution that promised equality has reproduced the oppression it overthrew.

Characters

Old Major

Old Major is the revered boar whose speech gives the animals their revolutionary vision. He identifies human exploitation as the source of their misery, teaches "Beasts of England," and establishes the ideals later codified as Animalism.
Napoleon

Napoleon is the pig who gradually becomes Animal Farm’s supreme ruler. He uses secrecy, trained dogs, propaganda, scapegoating, and revised commandments to consolidate power and replace the Rebellion’s egalitarian ideals with his own authority.
Snowball

Snowball is Napoleon’s rival among the pigs and an energetic organizer of Animalism. He promotes committees, literacy, and the windmill, leads the defense in the Battle of the Cowshed, and is later expelled and turned into the regime’s chief scapegoat.
Squealer

Squealer is Napoleon’s propagandist, responsible for explaining, excusing, and rewriting the leadership’s actions. He manipulates fear of Jones, alters memories of events, justifies privilege, and announces changes that keep the other animals obedient.
Boxer

Boxer is the immensely strong cart-horse whose loyalty and labor sustain Animal Farm’s projects, especially the windmill. His mottos, "I will work harder!" and "Napoleon is always right," make him a symbol of exploited devotion.
Clover

Clover is the motherly mare who cares for the other animals and worries over Boxer’s decline. She senses that the farm has betrayed Old Major’s vision, but her limited literacy and loyalty leave her unable to stop the changes.
Benjamin

Benjamin is the cynical donkey who remains skeptical of every regime and rarely speaks. His literacy allows him to recognize crucial truths, including the knacker’s van and the final alteration of the commandments.
Mollie

Mollie is the vain white mare who values ribbons, sugar, and comfort more than the farm’s revolutionary ideals. Her defection to a human owner reveals an early fracture in the animals’ unity.
Moses

Moses is the tame raven who tells the animals about Sugarcandy Mountain. The pigs oppose his stories at first but later tolerate him, showing how comforting illusions can coexist with hardship and control.
Mr. Jones

Mr. Jones is the negligent, drunken owner of Manor Farm whose mismanagement provokes the animals’ revolt. After being expelled, he tries and fails to retake the farm, and his possible return becomes a fear Squealer repeatedly exploits.
Mr. Pilkington

Mr. Pilkington is a neighboring farmer who fears Animal Farm’s rebellion but later develops relations with Napoleon. At the final banquet, he praises the pigs’ efficiency and recognizes their rule as comparable to human class power.
Mr. Frederick

Mr. Frederick is a rival neighboring farmer who deals with Napoleon over timber. He cheats the farm with forged banknotes and then attacks, destroying the windmill before being driven off.
Mr. Whymper

Mr. Whymper is the human intermediary Napoleon uses to conduct trade with the outside world. His weekly visits mark Animal Farm’s abandonment of earlier anti-human commercial principles.
Muriel

Muriel is the literate goat who reads commandments and notices their altered wording. Her role helps reveal how the written laws are quietly changed to justify the pigs’ conduct.
The Dogs

The Dogs are Napoleon’s enforcers, especially the nine puppies he secretly raises and trains. They drive out Snowball, intimidate dissenters, guard Napoleon, and carry out executions.
Jessie and Bluebell

Jessie and Bluebell are the mother dogs whose puppies Napoleon takes for private education. Their lost puppies later become the force that secures Napoleon’s power.
The Sheep

The Sheep function as a chorus for simplified slogans that support the pigs’ rule. Their chanting repeatedly drowns out doubt, debate, and protest.
The Hens

The Hens become significant when Napoleon orders their eggs sold for grain. Their rebellion is crushed by starvation, demonstrating the regime’s willingness to punish resistance.
Minimus

Minimus is the pig poet who supplies official verse for Napoleon’s regime. His songs and poems replace earlier revolutionary expression with praise of the leader.
Pinkeye

Pinkeye is a young pig assigned to taste Napoleon’s food for poison. His role reflects the atmosphere of suspicion and ceremony surrounding Napoleon’s rule.
The Cat

The Cat is an early participant in the farm who avoids work and seeks comfort while appearing to support whichever side benefits her. Her behavior illustrates opportunism within the new order.

Themes

George Orwell’s Animal Farm is a compact fable about revolution, but its deepest concern is how noble ideals are corrupted when power escapes accountability. The animals begin with Old Major’s vision of freedom, equality, and shared abundance; by the final chapter, that vision has been inverted into the chilling maxim, “All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.”

The corruption of revolutionary ideals: The Rebellion begins as a collective uprising against Mr. Jones’s exploitation. The Seven Commandments, the destruction of whips and chains, and the anthem “Beasts of England” all express a genuine hope for justice. Yet each principle is gradually revised or abandoned: trade with humans becomes acceptable, pigs sleep in beds “with sheets” forbidden, killings are justified “without cause,” and alcohol is banned only “to excess.” Orwell shows betrayal not as a single event, but as a slow erosion of language, memory, and law.
Propaganda and the control of truth: Squealer is central to the book’s political nightmare. He turns theft into sacrifice, defeat into victory, and murder into necessity. After Snowball is expelled, history itself becomes unstable: Snowball’s heroism at the Battle of the Cowshed is rewritten as treachery, while Napoleon is credited with imaginary bravery. The animals’ weak memories make them vulnerable, and the altered commandments on the barn wall dramatize how authoritarian power rewrites reality.
Labor, exploitation, and class hierarchy: Boxer embodies the tragedy of the working class. His mottos, “I will work harder” and “Napoleon is always right,” reveal both his nobility and his vulnerability. He gives his strength to the farm, but when he collapses, the regime sells him to the knacker and turns his death into another official lie. Meanwhile, the pigs and dogs consume milk, apples, beer, and privilege while others endure hunger.
Fear, violence, and obedience: Napoleon’s dogs transform political disagreement into terror. The expulsion of Snowball, the hens’ starvation, and the public executions teach the animals that survival depends on silence. Even Clover’s grief after the slaughter cannot become rebellion because fear of Jones’s return keeps the animals loyal to their oppressors.
The collapse of distinction between tyrants: The final scene, where pigs and humans become indistinguishable, completes Orwell’s warning. The revolution has not ended oppression; it has merely changed its managers. The return to the name Manor Farm confirms that without vigilance, education, and shared power, liberation can become a new form of domination.