Old Major, a prize-winning boar, gathers
the animals of the Manor Farm for a meeting in the big barn. He
tells them of a dream he has had in which all animals live together
with no human beings to oppress or control them. He tells the animals
that they must work toward such a paradise and teaches them a song
called “Beasts of England,” in which his dream vision is lyrically
described. The animals greet Major’s vision with great enthusiasm.
When he dies only three nights after the meeting, three younger
pigs—Snowball, Napoleon, and Squealer—formulate his main principles
into a philosophy called Animalism. Late one night, the animals
manage to defeat the farmer Mr. Jones in a battle, running him off
the land. They rename the property Animal Farm and dedicate themselves
to achieving Major’s dream. The cart-horse Boxer devotes himself
to the cause with particular zeal, committing his great strength
to the prosperity of the farm and adopting as a personal maxim the
affirmation “I will work harder.”
At first, Animal Farm prospers. Snowball works
at teaching the animals to read, and Napoleon takes a group of young
puppies to educate them in the principles of Animalism. When Mr. Jones
reappears to take back his farm, the animals defeat him again, in
what comes to be known as the Battle of the Cowshed, and take the
farmer’s abandoned gun as a token of their victory. As time passes,
however, Napoleon and Snowball increasingly quibble over the future
of the farm, and they begin to struggle with each other for power
and influence among the other animals. Snowball concocts a scheme
to build an electricity-generating windmill, but Napoleon solidly
opposes the plan. At the meeting to vote on whether to take up the
project, Snowball gives a passionate speech. Although Napoleon gives
only a brief retort, he then makes a strange noise, and nine attack
dogs—the puppies that Napoleon had confiscated in order to “educate”—burst
into the barn and chase Snowball from the farm. Napoleon assumes leadership
of Animal Farm and declares that there will be no more meetings.
From that point on, he asserts, the pigs alone will make all of
the decisions—for the good of every animal.
Napoleon now quickly changes his mind about
the windmill, and the animals, especially Boxer, devote their efforts
to completing it. One day, after a storm, the animals find the windmill
toppled. The human farmers in the area declare smugly that the animals
made the walls too thin, but Napoleon claims that Snowball returned
to the farm to sabotage the windmill. He stages a great purge, during
which various animals who have allegedly participated in Snowball’s
great conspiracy—meaning any animal who opposes Napoleon’s uncontested
leadership—meet instant death at the teeth of the attack dogs. With
his leadership unquestioned (Boxer has taken up a second maxim,
“Napoleon is always right”), Napoleon begins expanding his powers,
rewriting history to make Snowball a villain. Napoleon also begins
to act more and more like a human being—sleeping in a bed, drinking
whisky, and engaging in trade with neighboring farmers. The original
Animalist principles strictly forbade such activities, but Squealer,
Napoleon’s propagandist, justifies every action to the other animals,
convincing them that Napoleon is a great leader and is making things
better for everyone—despite the fact that the common animals are
cold, hungry, and overworked.
Mr. Frederick, a neighboring farmer, cheats
Napoleon in the purchase of some timber and then attacks the farm
and dynamites the windmill, which had been rebuilt at great expense. After
the demolition of the windmill, a pitched battle ensues, during
which Boxer receives major wounds. The animals rout the farmers,
but Boxer’s injuries weaken him. When he later falls while working
on the windmill, he senses that his time has nearly come. One day,
Boxer is nowhere to be found. According to Squealer, Boxer has died
in peace after having been taken to the hospital, praising the Rebellion
with his last breath. In actuality, Napoleon has sold his most loyal
and long-suffering worker to a glue maker in order to get money
for whisky.
Years pass on Animal Farm, and the pigs become
more and more like human beings—walking upright, carrying whips,
and wearing clothes. Eventually, the seven principles of Animalism, known
as the Seven Commandments and inscribed on the side of the barn,
become reduced to a single principle reading “all animals are equal,
but some animals are more equal than others.” Napoleon entertains
a human farmer named Mr. Pilkington at a dinner and declares his
intent to ally himself with the human farmers against the laboring
classes of both the human and animal communities. He also changes
the name of Animal Farm back to the Manor Farm, claiming that this
title is the “correct” one. Looking in at the party of elites through
the farmhouse window, the common animals can no longer tell which
are the pigs and which are the human beings.
