Contents
Chapter 7
Overview
Facing famine and a brutal winter, Napoleon conceals shortages, sells hens’ eggs, and quashes their rebellion, causing deaths. He deepens Snowball’s scapegoating, rewrites the Battle of the Cowshed, and stages mass confessions and executions to cement control. Clover mourns the betrayal of ideals as Squealer bans ‘Beasts of England,’ replacing it with a new anthem.
Summary
Through a bitter winter, the animals rebuild the windmill with thicker walls while suffering cold and hunger. To hide a food crisis worsened by ruined potatoes and reduced rations, Napoleon uses Mr. Whymper and staged grain bins to deceive outsiders into believing the farm is thriving.
Needing grain, Napoleon forces the hens to surrender eggs for sale. Led by three Black Minorca pullets, the hens rebel by smashing eggs from the rafters. Napoleon starves them and threatens death to helpers; after five days the hens capitulate and nine die, their deaths concealed.
Rumors depict Snowball as a nightly saboteur. Squealer declares Snowball a lifelong agent of Jones allied with Frederick, recasting the Battle of the Cowshed to credit Napoleon and brand Snowball a traitor. Boxer resists briefly but submits when told Napoleon has “categorically” decreed it.
Napoleon then summons all animals. His dogs seize four pigs who confess collaboration with Snowball; they are executed. More animals confess to petty or coerced crimes and are slaughtered, leaving a pile of corpses and terror across the farm. Boxer resolves to work harder; the others huddle in grief.
Clover reflects that the terror and repression betray Major’s vision, yet she resolves to remain loyal to prevent humans’ return. The animals sing ‘Beasts of England’ mournfully, whereupon Squealer arrives to announce its abolition, claiming the Rebellion is complete. Minimus’s new, hollow anthem replaces it.
Who Appears
- NapoleonAutocratic leader; hides famine, seizes hens’ eggs, orchestrates scapegoating, and orders mass confessions and executions.
- SquealerPropagandist; deceives Whymper, rewrites the Battle of the Cowshed, announces bans, and justifies executions and the new anthem.
- BoxerIndustrious cart-horse; doubts the revisionism briefly, then accepts it and vows to work even harder.
- CloverKind mare; grieves the betrayal of ideals, reflects on fear and inequality, leads a mournful ‘Beasts of England.’
- Mr. WhymperHuman intermediary; duped by staged grain bins and reports no shortages.
- The Hens (three Black Minorca pullets)Lead egg-smashing rebellion against confiscations; starved into surrender; nine hens die.
- SnowballAbsent scapegoat; blamed for sabotage and recast as Jones’s agent to justify repression.
- The DogsNapoleon’s enforcers; intimidate, attack Boxer, and execute confessors.
- Mr. Frederick and Mr. PilkingtonRival farmers vying for timber; invoked in shifting accusations about Snowball’s alliances.
- MinimusPig poet; composes the new anthem replacing ‘Beasts of England.’
- Four Pigs who ProtestedFormer dissenters; confess under duress to collusion with Snowball and are executed.
- MurielGoat who questions the song’s abolition but is silenced by the sheep’s bleating.