Store Shed

The Store Shed on Animal Farm is the building where the farm's grain and meal are stored, making it the most materially significant structure after the farmhouse itself. It is the site of the Rebellion's first act of collective defiance, the place where the pigs' privileged access to food is physically enforced, and the stage for Napoleon's propaganda campaign to deceive the outside world about the farm's food situation. Its contents—the corn, the meal, the hidden sand—are the concrete stakes of the animals' struggle, and its locked door becomes a symbol of the new regime's control over the means of subsistence.

The Rebellion's First Act

The Store Shed is the scene of the spontaneous uprising that expels Mr. Jones. On Midsummer's Eve, after Jones returns drunk from the Red Lion and the animals have gone unfed all day, one of the cows breaks in the door of the Store Shed with her horn, and all the animals begin to help themselves from the bins. This act of taking food by force triggers the confrontation: Mr. Jones and his four men arrive with whips, lashing out, and the animals, hungry and enraged, fling themselves upon their tormentors, driving them off the farm. The Store Shed, then, is the physical flashpoint where the animals' hunger overcomes their fear and the Rebellion is achieved.

The Pigs' Appropriation of Resources

After the Rebellion, the Store Shed becomes the site where the pigs' privileged access to the farm's best food is established and enforced. The mystery of where the milk went to is soon cleared up: it is mixed every day into the pigs' mash. Later, the order goes forth that all the windfall apples are to be collected and brought to the Store Shed for the use of the pigs. When some animals murmur, Squealer is sent to explain that milk and apples contain substances absolutely necessary to the well-being of a pig, the brainworkers on whom the whole farm depends. The Store Shed thus becomes the physical location where the principle of equality is first breached, as the pigs reserve the most nutritious food for themselves.

The Deception of the Outside World

During the bitter winter of food shortage, the Store Shed is used as a stage for a deliberate deception. Napoleon, aware that the human beings are spreading lies about the farm starving, decides to use Mr. Whymper to spread a contrary impression. He orders the almost empty bins in the Store Shed to be filled nearly to the brim with sand, which is then covered up with what remains of the grain and meal. On some suitable pretext, Whymper is led through the Store Shed and allowed to catch a glimpse of the bins. He is deceived, and continues to report to the outside world that there is no food shortage on Animal Farm. The Store Shed, once the symbol of the animals' liberation from hunger, is now a prop in a propaganda exercise designed to conceal the reality of starvation.

The Store Shed in the Later Years

As the years pass and the farm grows richer without the animals themselves becoming any richer, the Store Shed remains a place of unfulfilled promise. The animals are generally hungry, and the corn ration is drastically reduced. The pigs and dogs, however, are well-fed, and the Store Shed's contents are managed to serve the regime's priorities: the sale of grain to buy machinery for the windmill, the increased egg contract that leaves the hens barely able to hatch enough chicks, and the barley that is reserved exclusively for the pigs' beer. The Store Shed, which once held the hope of abundance for all, now holds the evidence of a system in which the many work to feed the few.