Summary
In the bitter cold of winter, the animals struggle to
rebuild the windmill. In January, they fall short of food, 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 Snowball caused the destruction of the windmill, saying that
the windmill’s walls simply weren’t thick 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 Boxer, 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 hens rebel, and Napoleon responds by cutting their
rations entirely. Nine hens die 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. Jones from
the start. He recalls Snowball’s attempts at the Battle of the Cowshed
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 Squealer 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 confess to their participation in a conspiracy with Snowball
and then has the dogs tear out these supposed traitors’ throats.
The dogs, apparently without orders, even attack Boxer, 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. Clover
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 England,” 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.
Analysis
The humans react with relief when the windmill topples
because its failure seems to justify their contempt for the animals
and their belief in their own superiority. Similarly, Soviet Russia
struggled against a largely justified reputation for industrial
incompetence, famine, and poor management. Stalin’s vaunted Five-Year
Plans for agriculture resulted in the starvation of millions of
people, and industrial production lagged far behind the capitalist
West. But the Soviets were determined to mask their problems and
keep them from the eyes of the rest of the world. Correspondingly,
the pigs of Animal Farm devise elaborate schemes to keep the human
farmers from learning about their difficulties. The windmill becomes
an important measure of the farm’s competence, and its collapse
deals a major blow to the pigs’ prestige as equals in the community
of farms—just as Soviet Russia’s industrial setbacks threatened
its position as an equal to the leading nations of the world and
as a viable model of communist revolution.
Chapter VII joins Chapter VI in focusing primarily
on the violent tactics employed by oppressive governments—again
explored through the behavior of the pigs—to maintain the docility
and obedience of the populace even as their economic and political
systems falter and grow corrupt. In Soviet Russia, these tactics
led to a massive class division in a supposedly egalitarian society.
Orwell suggests that as long as a leadership claims a monopoly on
logic, it will be able to justify its monopoly on resources, while
the common people suffer and grow hungry. Similarly, as life on
Animal Farm grows leaner and leaner for most of the animals, the
pigs live in increasing luxury.
Napoleon’s transformation of the exiled Snowball into
a despicable enemy to all who care about the good of Animal Farm
mirrors Stalin’s abuse of the exiled Trotsky. Those animals who
show even a glimmering of disapproval toward Napoleon, such as the
hens who oppose the selling of their eggs, meet a swift death. Similarly,
after forcing Trotsky’s exile from Russia, Stalin continued to claim
the existence of Trotskyist plots throughout Soviet society. During
the 1930s, he staged a number of infamous
“purges,” show trials during which Stalin and his allies essentially
forced government members and citizens to “confess” their complicity
with Trotskyist or other anti-Stalinist conspiracies. In many cases,
the purge victims would admit to activities in which they had never
engaged, simply to put a stop to their torture. But after confessing,
the alleged conspirators were executed as “enemies of the people.” Stalin
used his purges to eliminate any dissident elements in his government,
provide his people with a common enemy to despise, and keep both
the populace and his staff in a state of fear for their own safety,
making them far less likely to disobey orders or challenge his rule
in any way.
