Renaming Back to Manor Farm

On a late afternoon, a deputation of neighbouring farmers drove up to the farm in dog-carts. They were shown all over the farm and expressed great admiration for everything they saw, especially the windmill. The animals were weeding the turnip field, working diligently and hardly raising their faces from the ground, not knowing whether to be more frightened of the pigs or of the human visitors. That evening, loud laughter and bursts of singing came from the farmhouse. The animals, stricken with curiosity, crept into the farmhouse garden and peered in at the dining-room window. There, around the long table, sat half a dozen farmers and half a dozen of the more eminent pigs, with Napoleon himself occupying the seat of honour. The company had been enjoying a game of cards and broke off to drink a toast. No one noticed the wondering faces of the animals outside.

Mr. Pilkington of Foxwood, standing with his mug in hand, gave a speech praising the discipline and orderliness of the farm. He noted that the lower animals on Animal Farm did more work and received less food than any animals in the county, and declared that between pigs and human beings there was no clash of interests whatever. Napoleon then rose to reply. He expressed happiness that the period of misunderstanding was at an end and denied that he or his colleagues had ever intended to stir up rebellion among the animals on neighbouring farms. Their sole wish, he said, was to live at peace and in normal business relations with their neighbours. He added that the farm was a co-operative enterprise and that the title-deeds, in his own possession, were owned by the pigs jointly.

Napoleon announced several changes intended to promote confidence further. The custom of addressing one another as ‘Comrade’ was to be suppressed. The strange custom of marching every Sunday morning past a boar’s skull nailed to a post in the garden would also be suppressed, and the skull had already been buried. He pointed out that the green flag flying from the masthead had been altered: the white hoof and horn with which it had previously been marked had now been removed, and it would be a plain green flag from now onwards. These measures erased the most visible symbols of the Rebellion.

Then Napoleon made the decisive announcement. He had only one criticism of Mr. Pilkington’s speech, he said: Pilkington had referred throughout to ‘Animal Farm’. Napoleon declared that the name ‘Animal Farm’ had been abolished. Henceforward the farm was to be known as ‘The Manor Farm’—which, he believed, was its correct and original name. He concluded by giving a toast: ‘To the prosperity of The Manor Farm!’ The human guests cheered and emptied their mugs, and the pigs joined them in drinking.

Outside, the animals watched the scene in silence. The moment crystallised the trajectory of the entire revolution. What had begun with the expulsion of Mr. Jones, the burning of the whips, and the painting of the Seven Commandments on the barn wall had ended with the pigs adopting human clothes, sleeping in beds, drinking alcohol, and now officially renaming the farm after its former human owner. The green flag, originally designed to represent the green fields of England and the future Republic of the Animals, had been stripped of its revolutionary emblems. The boar’s skull, which had been displayed as a relic of Old Major, was buried. The word ‘Comrade’, which had once embodied the unity of all animals, was forbidden. The pigs had not only become indistinguishable from humans in their behaviour—they had now formally repudiated the very name of the revolution.