Paint and brush

In the immediate aftermath of the Rebellion, paint and brush became the instruments through which the new order declared itself. Snowball, the most literate of the pigs, took a brush between the knuckles of his trotter and painted out the name "Manor Farm" from the five-barred gate, replacing it with "Animal Farm". Then, with Squealer holding the paint-pot, Snowball climbed a ladder set against the end wall of the big barn and inscribed the Seven Commandments in great white letters readable from thirty yards away. The paint thus transformed the physical landscape, erasing the human past and fixing the principles of Animalism as an unalterable law. Snowball threw down the paint-brush and called the animals to the hayfield, as if the work of creation were complete.

Later, as Napoleon's personality cult took hold, the same materials were used to glorify the new leader. Squealer executed a portrait of Napoleon in white paint on the wall of the big barn, surmounting a poem called "Comrade Napoleon" composed by Minimus. The paint now served not to inaugurate a revolution but to sanctify a dictator, turning the barn wall into a shrine of the regime.

The most revealing use of paint and brush occurred under cover of darkness. One moonlit night, a loud crash brought the animals rushing to the barn. At the foot of the wall where the Commandments were written lay a broken ladder, an overturned pot of white paint, a paint-brush, and a lantern—and Squealer, temporarily stunned, sprawled beside them. The dogs quickly surrounded Squealer and escorted him away. None of the animals understood the meaning, except Benjamin, who nodded knowingly but said nothing. In the days that followed, the animals discovered that the Commandments had been altered: the Sixth Commandment now read "No animal shall kill any other animal without cause," and the Fifth read "No animal shall drink alcohol to excess." The paint and brush had been used to revise the foundational law, silently and without debate, demonstrating that the pigs' control over writing equaled control over history itself.