Barn

The barn was the cradle of the animal revolution. On the night that Mr. Jones, too drunk to secure the popholes, stumbled to bed, the big barn filled with the farm's animals — dogs, pigs, hens, pigeons, sheep, cows, and the two cart-horses, Boxer and Clover — to hear Old Major's dream. The old boar, ensconced on a bed of straw under a lantern, delivered his indictment of Man and his vision of a free animal society. The barn's walls echoed with the first singing of "Beasts of England," and the uproar grew so loud that Mr. Jones, waking, fired a gun into the barn's wall, scattering the assembly. In the months that followed, the barn became the secret classroom where the pigs expounded the principles of Animalism, overcoming the animals' apathy and the lies of Moses, the tame raven.

After the Rebellion, the barn was the stage for the new democracy. The Seven Commandments were painted on its end wall by Snowball, establishing the farm's unalterable law. Every Sunday morning the animals gathered there for the Meeting, where the week's work was debated and resolutions were passed — always put forward by the pigs. The barn witnessed the fierce rivalry between Snowball and Napoleon, especially over the windmill, culminating in the day when Napoleon's nine dogs, raised in secret, burst into the barn and chased Snowball out forever. Thereafter, the barn's layout changed: the animals filed past Old Major's skull before entering, and Napoleon, flanked by his dogs, sat on a raised platform. The barn also hosted the meetings where Napoleon announced the rebuilding of the windmill, his decision to trade with humans, and the special gatherings where the animals inspected Frederick's forged banknotes. The sheep's bleating of "Four legs good, two legs bad" was used to drown out any dissent, and the barn's space became a tool of control.

The barn was also the site of the quietest and most profound betrayal: the alteration of the Commandments. When Napoleon conducted his investigation into Snowball's activities, he sniffed for traces in every corner of the barn, claiming to detect Snowball's scent, which led to the confessions and executions that followed. Clover, troubled by the pigs sleeping in beds, had Muriel read the Fourth Commandment, which now included "with sheets." Later, after the executions, the Sixth Commandment was found to read "without cause," and the Fifth "to excess." The final alteration came when Squealer, under cover of night, was discovered with a ladder and paint at the barn's wall; soon after, the barn's wall bore only one commandment: "All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others." The pigs' poem and portrait of Napoleon were inscribed on the opposite wall. The barn, which had once held the promise of equality, now held the lie that justified inequality. When the pigs began walking on their hind legs and carrying whips, the barn's walls silently witnessed the completion of the revolution's corruption.