Animal Farm

Animal Farm is the renamed farm that becomes the central setting and political entity of George Orwell's allegorical novel, transformed from the dilapidated Manor Farm through a successful animal rebellion and then gradually corrupted into a tyranny indistinguishable from its human predecessor.

Origins and the Rebellion

The farm began as Manor Farm, owned by the drunken and neglectful Mr. Jones, who had fallen on evil days after losing money in a lawsuit and taken to drinking more than was good for him. His men were idle and dishonest, the fields were full of weeds, the buildings wanted roofing, the hedges were neglected, and the animals were underfed. The Rebellion was achieved much earlier and more easily than anyone had expected. On Midsummer's Eve, after Mr. Jones got so drunk at the Red Lion in Willingdon that he did not return until midday on Sunday, the animals went unfed. One of the cows broke in the door of the store-shed with her horn and all the animals began to help themselves from the bins. When Mr. Jones and his four men arrived with whips, the animals flung themselves upon their tormentors. Jones and his men, frightened by this sudden uprising, took to their heels, and Mrs. Jones slipped out of the farm by another way with a few possessions. The animals chased Jones and his men out onto the road and slammed the five-barred gate behind them. The Rebellion had been successfully carried through: Jones was expelled, and the Manor Farm was theirs.

Renaming and Early Ideals

After the Rebellion, the pigs revealed that during the past three months they had taught themselves to read and write from an old spelling book. Snowball took a brush between the two knuckles of his trotter, painted out MANOR FARM from the top bar of the five-barred gate and in its place painted ANIMAL FARM. This was to be the name of the farm from now onwards. The pigs had succeeded in reducing the principles of Animalism to Seven Commandments, which were inscribed on the end wall of the big barn in great white letters that could be read thirty yards away. The farm was to be a cooperative enterprise where all animals were equal, and the farmhouse was preserved as a museum that no animal must ever live in. The animals worked like slaves but were happy, knowing that everything they did was for the benefit of themselves and those of their kind who would come after them, and not for a pack of idle, thieving human beings.

Economic and Political Transformation

As the farm developed, it faced unforeseen shortages of paraffin oil, nails, string, dog biscuits, and iron for the horses' shoes, none of which could be produced on the farm. Napoleon announced a new policy: Animal Farm would engage in trade with the neighbouring farms. Mr. Whymper, a solicitor living in Willingdon, agreed to act as intermediary between Animal Farm and the outside world, visiting every Monday morning. The animals watched his coming and going with a kind of dread, but the sight of Napoleon, on all fours, delivering orders to Whymper, who stood on two legs, roused their pride. The human beings, against their will, developed a certain respect for the efficiency with which the animals were managing their own affairs, and began to call Animal Farm by its proper name, ceasing to pretend that it was called the Manor Farm. The farm was proclaimed a Republic, and Napoleon was elected President unanimously. The windmill, which had been destroyed and rebuilt, was successfully completed at last, and the farm possessed a threshing machine and a hay elevator of its own, and various new buildings had been added to it. The farm was more prosperous now, and better organised; it had even been enlarged by two fields bought from Mr. Pilkington.

The Corruption of Principles

Despite the farm's prosperity, the animals themselves did not grow richer. The pigs and dogs, who produced no food by their own labour, were numerous and well-fed. The other animals were generally hungry, slept on straw, drank from the pool, and laboured in the fields. The Seven Commandments were gradually altered: the Fourth Commandment became "No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets," the Sixth became "No animal shall kill any other animal without cause," and the Fifth became "No animal shall drink alcohol to excess." Eventually, the wall bore only a single Commandment: "ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS." The pigs moved into the farmhouse, slept in the beds, and took their meals in the kitchen. Napoleon appeared with a pipe in his mouth, and the pigs took Mr. Jones's clothes out of the wardrobes and put them on. The green flag, which had borne a hoof and a horn, became a plain green flag.

Final Transformation Back to Manor Farm

In the final stage of the farm's corruption, Napoleon announced 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 proposed a toast: "To the prosperity of The Manor Farm!" The pigs entertained a deputation of neighbouring farmers, who expressed great admiration for everything they saw. Mr. Pilkington noted that the lower animals on Animal Farm did more work and received less food than any animals in the county. The pigs and the human beings played cards together, and when a quarrel broke out, the creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which. The farm had completed a full circle, returning to its original name and its original exploitative structure, with the pigs having become indistinguishable from the humans they had overthrown.