Napoleon Mill

Napoleon Mill is the name given to the windmill on Animal Farm after its completion, a structure that becomes the central symbol of the pigs' betrayal of revolutionary ideals, representing the transformation of collective labor into a tool for exploitation and the replacement of utopian dreams with profit-driven pragmatism.

Origins and the Dream of Liberation

The windmill was originally conceived by Snowball, who declared that the small knoll near the farm buildings was the perfect place for a windmill that could operate a dynamo and supply the farm with electrical power. This, he promised, would light and warm the stalls in winter, and run a circular saw, a chaff-cutter, a mangel-slicer, and an electric milking machine. The animals listened in astonishment as Snowball conjured up pictures of fantastic machines that would do their work for them while they grazed at their ease or improved their minds with reading and conversation. The windmill was thus born from the dream of a life freed from sordid labor, a vision of a future where technology would serve the collective good. Snowball's plans, drawn with chalk on the floor of the incubator shed, grew into a complicated mass of cranks and cog-wheels that the other animals found completely unintelligible but very impressive. All of them came to look at Snowball's drawings at least once a day, even the hens and ducks, who were at pains not to tread on the chalk marks. Only Napoleon held aloof, declaring himself against the windmill from the start, and he eventually urinated over the plans and walked out without a word.

The Struggle for Construction and the First Destruction

After Snowball's expulsion, Napoleon announced that the windmill was to be built after all, claiming the plan as his own creation. The animals worked like slaves throughout the spring and summer, often a sixty-hour week, and in August Napoleon announced that there would be work on Sunday afternoons as well, strictly voluntary but with rations halved for those who absented themselves. The quarry presented unexpected difficulties; the animals could not use picks or crowbars, so they lashed ropes around huge boulders and dragged them with desperate slowness up the slope, toppling them over the edge to shatter below. Nothing could have been achieved without Boxer, whose strength seemed equal to that of all the rest of the animals put together. When the boulder began to slip and the animals cried out in despair, it was always Boxer who strained himself against the rope and brought it to a stop. His two slogans, "I will work harder" and "Napoleon is always right," seemed to him a sufficient answer to all problems. By November, the windmill was almost half built, but a violent gale reduced it to ruins. Napoleon immediately blamed Snowball, pronouncing the death sentence upon him, and ordered the windmill to be rebuilt with walls three feet thick instead of eighteen inches.

The Second Construction and the Battle of the Windmill

The rebuilding was a tremendous labor, carried out through a bitter winter of sleet, snow, and hard frost. The animals were always cold and usually hungry, and the corn ration was drastically reduced. Squealer made excellent speeches on the joy of service and the dignity of labor, but the other animals found more inspiration in Boxer's strength and his never-failing cry of "I will work harder." By the autumn, the windmill was finished, and Napoleon himself came down to inspect the completed work, announcing that the mill would be named Napoleon Mill. The animals walked round and round their masterpiece, which appeared even more beautiful in their eyes than when it had been built the first time, and they gambolled round and round it, uttering cries of triumph. Two days later, Frederick and his men attacked. They drilled a hole near the base of the windmill, packed it with blasting powder, and blew it up. The windmill ceased to exist, its stones flung to distances of hundreds of yards. The animals, enraged, charged the men and drove them off in what was called the Battle of the Windmill, but the structure was gone.

The Final Form and the Betrayal of the Dream

Years passed, and the windmill was successfully completed at last. However, it was not used for generating electrical power as Snowball had once taught the animals to dream. Instead, it was used for milling corn, and brought in a handsome money profit. The luxuries of which Snowball had spoken—the stalls with electric light and hot and cold water, and the three-day week—were no longer talked about. Napoleon had denounced such ideas as contrary to the spirit of Animalism, declaring that the truest happiness lay in working hard and living frugally. The farm grew richer, but the animals themselves did not; the pigs and dogs prospered while the others remained hungry and cold. The windmill, once a symbol of liberation from toil, had become a machine for generating profit that enriched the ruling class. The animals were hard at work building yet another windmill, but the dream of a life of ease and dignity had been abandoned. The windmill's transformation from a vision of collective freedom to an instrument of exploitation mirrors the complete betrayal of the principles of the Rebellion, a betrayal that culminates in the final scene where the pigs walk on their hind legs and the Seven Commandments are reduced to the single, cynical maxim: "All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others."