Animal Farm

A detailed Summary of Animal Farm

The novel Animal Farm written by George Orwell is an allegory of the Russian revolution. In this essay I am going to discuss to what extent Snowball provides a morally legitimate alternative to Napoleon's reign.

In early March Old Major a prize middle white boar who represents Karl Marx dreams of a world where all animals are equal and man is no more. He passes these ideas onto other animals on Manor Farm in hope that someday beasts will trod alone on the fields of England, but the animals must remember:

"All habits of Man are evil. And above all no animal must ever tyrannise over his own kind."

Old Major dies and the rebellion takes place. The animals make seven commandments, change the name of the farm to "Animal Farm" and destroy all traces of humans. The farm house is preserved as a museum and it was agreed no animal must ever live there. Leadership falls amongst the pigs as they are the most intelligent animals, but animalism is not as easy as Old Major had predicted. There are the seven deadly sins of pride, lust, envy, gluttony, anger, laziness and jealousy to consider, combated perhaps by the seven commandments compiled by Snowball, Napoleon and Squealer.

The first hint that Snowball might be a preferabl

Further evidence of Snowball's moral superiority lies in the conflict between them, "These two disagreed at every point where disagreement was possible." Snowball wanted to build a windmill which Orwell uses to symbolise the Soviet Industry but Napoleon said this was a waste of time and the great need at the moment was to increase food production. According to Napoleon the animals must procure fire-arms and train themselves how to use them. Snowball disagrees saying that more pigeons should be sent out to stir up rebellion amongst other farms and points out that if rebellions happened everywhere they would have no need to use weapons. This shows Napoleon is more interested for the safety of himself whereas Snowball wants to spread the word of rebellion so other animals can be free.

However to say that Snowball is blameless would not be true. Snowball does nothing to stop the consolidation of power in the hands of the pigs or the unequal distribution of goods in the pig's favour.

"Our sole subject of taking these things is to preserve our health."

Snowball is chased away by the puppies Napoleon had taken away to educate:

Here Napoleon's greed surfaces. It was later discovered the milk was mixed with the pig's mash. The milk is used to represent the care and love mothers give to their children. Napoleon is stealing from his fellow comrades. The apples were also kept for the use of the pigs. Snowball and Napoleon are in full agreement of this. Squealer convinces the animals that:

"Napoleon himself, majestically upright, casting haughty glances from side to side, and with his dogs gambolling around him. He carried a whip in his trotter."

The seven commandment

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Approximate Word count = 1143
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Novels