Gun

The gun on Animal Farm begins as a weapon of human authority and ends as a ceremonial prop of the pigs' dictatorship, its trajectory mirroring the farm's descent from liberation into tyranny. Originally owned by Mr. Jones, the gun is fired during the first Rebellion when Jones, awakened by the animals' singing of 'Beasts of England,' seizes it and lets fly a charge of number 6 shot into the darkness, the pellets burying themselves in the wall of the barn and breaking up the meeting. This initial use establishes the gun as the instrument of human power, the threat that silences the animals' first collective expression of hope. After the Rebellion's success, the gun is found lying in the mud following the Battle of the Cowshed, where Snowball had used it to charge at Jones, and it is decided to set it up at the foot of the Flagstaff like a piece of artillery, to be fired twice a year: once on October the twelfth, the anniversary of the Battle of the Cowshed, and once on Midsummer Day, the anniversary of the Rebellion. This transforms the gun from a weapon of oppression into a symbol of the animals' victory and their new-won freedom, a marker of their triumph over human beings.

The Gun as a Tool of Ceremony and Propaganda

As Napoleon consolidates power, the gun's role shifts from a commemorative artifact to a tool of propaganda and intimidation. It is announced that the gun will also be fired every year on Napoleon's birthday, alongside the other two anniversaries, tying the weapon's symbolic power directly to the cult of the Leader. During the Battle of the Windmill, after Frederick's men have destroyed the windmill with blasting powder and the animals have driven them off, the gun is fired seven times in all to celebrate what Squealer calls a victory, even though the windmill lies in ruins. The gun's booming sound becomes part of the orchestrated pageantry of the regime, used to manufacture a sense of triumph and to drown out the reality of loss and hardship. Later, during the Spontaneous Demonstrations, the gun is fired on occasion, its report blending with the songs, speeches, and processions to create a spectacle that helps the animals forget their empty bellies, at least part of the time. The gun, once a symbol of the animals' collective struggle, is now a tool for manipulating their emotions and reinforcing Napoleon's authority.

The Gun as a Symbol of the Pigs' Tyranny

In the final chapter, the gun's transformation is complete. It is no longer a weapon of defense or a commemorative piece but a prop in the pigs' performance of power. When the pigs begin walking on their hind legs, Napoleon himself emerges from the farmhouse carrying a whip in his trotter, and the gun is not mentioned in this scene, but its symbolic function has been absorbed into the pigs' new regalia. The gun's original purpose—to defend the farm from human beings—has been inverted: the pigs now use the threat of violence, embodied by the dogs and the whip, to control their own animals. The gun, like the Seven Commandments, has been hollowed out of its original meaning. It no longer represents the animals' liberation but the pigs' absolute rule, a reminder that the revolution has consumed itself and that the new masters are indistinguishable from the old. The gun's journey from a weapon fired by a drunken human to a ceremonial object fired to celebrate a dictator's birthday encapsulates the novel's central tragedy: the animals' fight for freedom has produced a tyranny as oppressive as the one they overthrew.