Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy

The first of the Seven Commandments, inscribed on the end wall of the big barn by Snowball shortly after the expulsion of Mr. Jones, declares: "Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy." This commandment, derived directly from Old Major's speech, establishes the foundational binary of Animalism: all human beings are the enemy, and all creatures that walk on four legs or have wings are friends. It is the first and most fundamental rule of the new society, intended to unite the animals against their common oppressor and prevent any future reconciliation with humanity.

Origin and Ideological Foundation

The commandment originates from Old Major's revolutionary address, where he taught that "Man is the only real enemy we have" and that "Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy. Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend." This simple dichotomy was meant to replace the animals' former loyalty to their human master with a new, unified identity as comrades. The pigs, led by Snowball and Napoleon, later codified this teaching as the first of the Seven Commandments, painting it in great white letters on the tarred wall of the barn, where it could be read thirty yards away.

Role in Animalist Doctrine

The commandment served as the cornerstone of the pigs' ideological education. Snowball later reduced the entire Seven Commandments to a single maxim, "Four legs good, two legs bad," which he claimed contained "the essential principle of Animalism." This slogan was inscribed on the end wall of the barn above the Commandments in even bigger letters. The sheep, in particular, developed a great liking for this maxim, often bleating "Four legs good, two legs bad" for hours on end, and they would frequently interrupt meetings with this chant, especially at crucial moments in Snowball's speeches. The birds initially objected, since they also had two legs, but Snowball convinced them that a bird's wing was "an organ of propulsion and not of manipulation" and should therefore be regarded as a leg, while the distinguishing mark of man was the hand.

Manipulation and Subversion

As Napoleon consolidated his power, the first commandment was systematically subverted. After the pigs began walking on their hind legs, the sheep, trained by Squealer, burst out with a new bleating: "Four legs good, two legs BETTER!" This revised slogan, repeated for five minutes without stopping, silenced any potential protest from the other animals and retroactively justified the pigs' adoption of human posture and, eventually, human clothing and habits. The commandment's original meaning—that all two-legged beings are enemies—was thus inverted to mean that the pigs, who now walked on two legs, were superior. The final transformation occurred when the pigs, now fully resembling humans, entertained neighboring farmers in the farmhouse, and Napoleon himself appeared with a whip in his trotter, later strolling in the garden with a pipe in his mouth and wearing Mr. Jones's clothes. The commandment had been emptied of all content, serving only as a tool of ideological control.

Thematic Significance

The first commandment encapsulates the central irony of Animal Farm: the revolution's founding principle, meant to guarantee freedom from human tyranny, becomes the instrument of a new tyranny. The binary of "two legs bad, four legs good" is first used to unite the animals against their oppressors, then manipulated to justify the pigs' assumption of human privileges, and finally discarded when the pigs themselves become the two-legged oppressors. The commandment's trajectory—from revolutionary rallying cry to empty slogan to inverted justification for tyranny—mirrors the broader corruption of the revolution's ideals. The animals' inability to recognize that the pigs, now walking on two legs, have become the very enemy the commandment was meant to guard against, underscores the novel's warning about the ease with which revolutionary principles can be perverted.