Comrade

"Comrade" was introduced by the pig Old Major in his address to the animals gathered in the big barn, where he called them "Comrades" and urged them to recognize their common misery and their enemy: Man. The term was a deliberate rejection of the earlier references to Mr. Jones as "Master" and signaled a new social bond based on equality. In the same speech, Major laid down the foundational precept that "All animals are equal," which became the cornerstone of the ideology that the pigs would later codify as Animalism.

After the Rebellion, the term "Comrade" became the standard form of address on Animal Farm. The pigs, led by Snowball, held secret meetings where they expounded the principles of Animalism, and they taught the animals to read and write so that they could learn the Seven Commandments. Snowball simplified the Commandments into the maxim "Four legs good, two legs bad," which the sheep repeated endlessly. The animals' first collective act was to destroy the symbols of human rule—the whips, bits, and ribbons—and they worked together as comrades, singing "Beasts of England" at every meeting. The term embodied the hope of a society where no animal would tyrannize over another.

Under Napoleon's rule, the term "Comrade" persisted but was increasingly emptied of its revolutionary content. The animals worked harder than ever, often on reduced rations, but Squealer convinced them that they were working for themselves and for the benefit of the farm. He produced statistics showing that food production had increased, and he argued that the pigs' privileges—the milk, the apples, the beds—were necessary for the brainworkers who managed the farm. The animals continued to address one another as "Comrade," but the term now masked a growing inequality. The pigs moved into the farmhouse, the dogs enforced orders, and the sheep's bleating of "Four legs good, two legs bad" was used to drown out dissent.

The final betrayal came when the pigs began to walk on their hind legs, adopting human clothes and carrying whips. Napoleon announced that the old custom of addressing one another as "Comrade" was to be suppressed, and the farm was renamed "The Manor Farm." The sheep now bleated "Four legs good, two legs better." In the last scene, the pigs and the human farmers were indistinguishable, their voices alike. The term "Comrade," which had once signified the unity of all animals against human tyranny, had been discarded as the pigs fully assumed the role of the oppressors they had overthrown.