No Sunday-morning Meetings

The abolition of the Sunday-morning Meetings marked a pivotal moment in the transformation of Animal Farm from a collective enterprise into a dictatorship. Until that point, the Sunday assembly in the Big Barn had been the farm's central democratic institution: the green flag was hoisted, the work of the coming week was planned, resolutions were put forward and debated, and the meeting always ended with the singing of 'Beasts of England'. The pigs, being the cleverest, naturally put forward the resolutions, but the other animals understood how to vote, and the decisions had to be ratified by a majority vote. Snowball and Napoleon were the most active in the debates, and it was noticed that these two were never in agreement: whatever suggestion either of them made, the other could be counted on to oppose it. Even a seemingly uncontroversial resolution—to set aside the small paddock behind the orchard as a home of rest for animals who were past work—provoked a stormy debate over the correct retiring age for each class of animal. The meetings were the forum where policy was contested and where Snowball, with his brilliant speeches, often won over the majority.

The Expulsion of Snowball and the End of Debate

The end of the Sunday Meetings came immediately after the expulsion of Snowball. At the Meeting on the Sunday when the windmill question was to be put to the vote, Snowball had just delivered a passionate appeal that seemed certain to carry the day. But Napoleon, who had been biding his time, stood up and uttered a high-pitched whimper. At this signal, nine enormous dogs wearing brass-studded collars—the puppies he had taken from their mothers and reared privately—burst into the barn and chased Snowball off the farm. With Snowball gone, Napoleon mounted the raised platform where Old Major had once stood and announced that from now on the Sunday-morning Meetings would come to an end. They were unnecessary, he said, and wasted time. In future, all questions relating to the working of the farm would be settled by a special committee of pigs, presided over by himself. These would meet in private and afterwards communicate their decisions to the others. The animals would still assemble on Sunday mornings to salute the flag, sing 'Beasts of England', and receive their orders for the week, but there would be no more debates.

The Suppression of Dissent

The announcement dismayed the animals. Several of them would have protested if they could have found the right arguments. Even Boxer was vaguely troubled; he set his ears back, shook his forelock several times, and tried hard to marshal his thoughts, but in the end he could not think of anything to say. Four young porkers in the front row uttered shrill squeals of disapproval and sprang to their feet, but the dogs sitting round Napoleon let out deep, menacing growls, and the pigs fell silent and sat down again. Then the sheep broke out into a tremendous bleating of "Four legs good, two legs bad!" which went on for nearly a quarter of an hour and put an end to any chance of discussion. Afterwards, Squealer was sent round the farm to explain the new arrangement. He argued that leadership was a deep and heavy responsibility, that Napoleon believed all animals were equal, and that the animals might make wrong decisions—for instance, they might have followed Snowball, who was now known to be no better than a criminal. When someone pointed out that Snowball had fought bravely at the Battle of the Cowshed, Squealer replied that bravery was not enough, that loyalty and obedience were more important, and that the time would come when Snowball's part in the battle would be seen as much exaggerated. The unanswerable argument, as always, was the threat of Jones's return: "Surely, comrades, you do not want Jones back?" Boxer, who had now had time to think things over, voiced the general feeling by saying, "If Comrade Napoleon says it, it must be right." From then on he adopted the maxim "Napoleon is always right" in addition to his private motto of "I will work harder."

The New Sunday Routine

With the abolition of the Meetings, the Sunday morning assembly became a purely ceremonial occasion for receiving orders. Every Sunday morning at ten o'clock the animals assembled in the Big Barn. The skull of Old Major, now clean of flesh, had been disinterred from the orchard and set up on a stump at the foot of the Flagstaff, beside the gun. After the hoisting of the flag, the animals were required to file past the skull in a reverent manner before entering the barn. They no longer sat all together as they had done in the past. Napoleon, with Squealer and another pig named Minimus, who had a remarkable gift for composing songs and poems, sat on the front of the raised platform, with the nine young dogs forming a semicircle round them, and the other pigs sitting behind. The rest of the animals sat facing them in the main body of the barn. Napoleon read out the orders for the week in a gruff soldierly style, and after a single singing of 'Beasts of England', all the animals dispersed. The Sunday Meetings, once a forum for debate and collective decision-making, had been replaced by a ritual of obedience.

The Significance of the Abolition

The abolition of the Sunday Meetings was the first institutional step in the dismantling of the democratic structures that had defined the early days of the Rebellion. It established the principle that the pigs—and ultimately Napoleon alone—would decide all matters of policy without consultation. The meetings had been the one place where the animals could voice their opinions, however limited their understanding. Their removal meant that dissent had no legitimate outlet, and the only remaining form of political expression was the ritualised affirmation of the regime. The sheep's bleating of "Four legs good, two legs bad" became a tool to drown out any potential protest, and the dogs' growls ensured that no one would dare to speak. The abolition thus paved the way for the subsequent erosion of all the Seven Commandments, the rewriting of history, and the eventual transformation of Animal Farm into a tyranny indistinguishable from the human-run farms it had once rebelled against.