Orwell cleverly adds descriptions that are unnecessary in the symbolic aspect of the story, but keep the interest of the reader and make the book more entertaining. For example on page 23: "Mr. Pilkington, was an easy going gentleman farmer who spent most of his time in fishing or hunting according to the season".

             The basic outline of the book is quite simple. Jones, the owner of Manor farm comes home drunk, he is a careless farmer that does not think about the animals well being. After he has locked up the farm and gone to bed the animals go into one of the stables to listen to a speech by Old major, the oldest animal on the farm. They decide that one-day they are going to rebel and overthrow Jones. This day comes quite quickly, the animals have not been fed, and when Jones gets home they knock down the stable door and run him off the farm. They are left to run the farm themselves, the pigs being the cleverest take charge. Napoleon and Snowball become the head of the pigs, constantly fighting between themselves. In the end Napoleon has Snowball run off the farm by some dogs that he has raised from puppies. Napoleon then took over the running of the farm. Making the animals build a windmill to power the farm, he tells them that they will be able to work less and have more food when it is finished. While they are building it they are working hard for virtually no food, while the pigs are living in luxury in the farmhouse. Jones and his men come back twice to try and re-capture the farm but both times are chased off by the animals. By this time Napoleon has convinced the animals that everything that he did was right. By the end of the book the pigs have completely taken over the farmhouse, making all the animals work for nothing. The farm becomes a worse state than it was before the revolution and the animals are sad. It is as though the pigs have turned in to humans, the things for the mess in the first place.