Animal Farm Summary

The beginning There is a farm called Manor Farm, leaded by Mr Jones, a drunk human who forgets to feed his animals. Old Major, a pig, decides to inspire all animals to rebel by telling them his dream and reminding them of all the torture they suffer. He creates the song Beasts of England. Old Major dies and Snowball and Napoleon, two other pigs, are left in charge of the Rebellion. They finally get to the Rebellion on Midsummer’s Eve and all animals are free. They decide not to live in the house and follow the 7 commandments. They change the name of the farm to Animal Farm. Problems begin for the animals, since they do not know how to milk the cows or use some of the instruments Mr Jones used to use.

Getting used to Animals start to get used to using the tools for the farm. Boxer is the best worker in the farm, he follows the rules and inspires everyone with his motto “I will work harder!”. On the other hand, Mollie, doesn’t want to work and refuses to stop using ribbons and eating sugar. The animals create a new flag and they start feeling the sense of belonging. Snowball stablishes some commitees with various goals. One of the goals is to learn animals how to read, but they don’t accomplish that so they decide to shorten the 7 commandments. In the midtime, Napoleon takes the dog’s puppies in order to teach them some things. The pigs arise as the intelligent animals and leaders of the movement. They keep the apples and milk to themselves. In October, Mr. Jones decides to recover the farm together with Mr. Frederik and Mr. Pilkington, but they fail. The animals win the Battle of Cowshed. Everyone fights hard, except for Mollie, who avoids any risk by hiding.

The windmills Mollie keeps on refusing to work until she decides to leave the farm. Disagreements between Snowball and Napoleon start to become more and more usual. As winter arrived, the soil was not good for the harvest and the animals start to worry about their food. Snowball starts to plan the idea of building windmills to provide the farm with electricity. Napoleon does not agree with him and ends up ruining his plan. Finally, at one of the committees, Napoleon sends his (former puppies) now grown-up dogs to kill Snowball, but he manages to scape. Napoleon becomes the new leader. Boxer is loyal to Napoleon as well as Squealer, but there are some animals that start questioning some of the ideas. Finally, Napoleon decides to keep on the idea of the windmills. When animals ask about this decision, Squealer, with the power of speech, convinces everyone that it was always Napoleon plan to build the windmills.

Napoleon’s government During spring and winter animals work as slaves, they work from Monday to Monday. Work is voluntary but if they don’t work, their rations are reduced by half. The harvest is not as good as in previous years. Building the mills presented some difficulties, but in the end, the animals start to manage to do it “nothing could have been achieve without Boxer”. Animals start to need some things they cannot produce, so Napoleon suggests trading with other farms in order to obtain th necessary things. Many animals feel uncomfortable with the trading idea, but Napoleon has everything already planned and he is the one in charge of the trading together with a farmer called Whymper (representing capitalism). The pigs move to the farmhouse and start sleeping in beds. Animals are confused, Squaler convince them that they remember the rules wrong. Boxer says “Napoleon is always right” but Clover is not happy with it.

November comes… With november, there comes the storms and strong winds. The winds destroy the windmill in process and Napoleon blames Snowball. He offers apples in exchange for him. Humans and neighbours start spreading the news that Animal Farm is failing and that animals are starving, so Napoleon uses Mr Whymper to send the world a different message. The hens are supposed to give 400 eggs to Mr Whymper, but they don’t want to, so they smashed them against the floor and Napoleon cut out their rations of food, leaving them with no option rather than go back to the nesting boxes. Nine hens die in the midtime but they are said to have died of coccidiosis. That lie comes together with many other, such as the one that says that Snowball is visiting them at night to make things worse for them. Squealer is the one in charge of telling all that lies to the animals.

Snowball’s ghost Napoleon calls for a meeting where he asks the animals to confess to their crimes. Many animals do so and they are slaughtered on spot. Many corpses lie on the floor. Napoleon keeps on blaming Snowball for all of their miseries. He ends up abolishing things, such as the song Beast of England, the commandment “no animal shall kill another animal”. He has a new song written. A poem is written for Napoleon himself (as a song has been done for Stalin). And when the mill was finished, it was called upon him. Napoleon starts negotiating with Frederik (their main enemy and the only human that was supposedly going to attack them), but he denies doing so, until que tells the animals that he is handing over a pile of timber to him. However Frederick paid them with false checks.

After Frederick Frederick attacks Animal Farm with more than 15 men. They set the mill on fire and the animals get furious. They attack back but many animals die. They win but many of them are wounded. The mill is destroyed. Animals are depressed about that but Napoleon insists on celebrating the victory. Some animals spot Snowball with a ladder and a pot of white paint. He was changing the commandments but only Clover and Benjamin realized that. The day after the celebrations finish, they start building the windmill again. Boxer is wounded but he doesn’t want to stop working. There appear 31 new baby pigs in AF and they are treated differently to the rest of the animals. They get to study and to wear ribbons on Sundays. Every animal should step aside when a pig comes to them.

Who are the pigs? Now the pigs get to eat barley when no other animal is allowed to, they get to drink beer and Napoleon himself can eat sugar with his meals. In April, Animal Farm was proclaimed a Republic and the only candidate to become a President, was Napoleon, who was elected. Boxer is getting old and one day he falls down and doesn’t get up. Napoleon arranges averything for him to go to a vet in Willington. Apparently, he is not being taken to a vet, but to a slaughter house. Finally he dies three days later. Squealer says he has been there when Boxer passed and that his last words have been to encourage the animals to keep on with the mill. The rumour appears that the pigs have bought a new bottle of whiskey.

Years later… Muriel, Bluebell, Jessie and Pincher are dead as well as Jones. Many animals have got the age of retirement but haven’t done it. The mill is finished but it is used for milling corn and animals are building another one. The promises Snowball made them haven’t been acomplished yet. The farm has become richer, but the animals haven’t. Well, the pigs and dogs have… The animals know that they are usually hungry and they work a lot, but they are happy to work for themselves and not for humans. Until Clover sees Squealer walking in two legs. They all see the pigs walking in two legs. The sheeps learnt a new song “Four legs good, two legs better!” The new commandment was “All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others”. They pigs organize a toast with the human neighbours and Pilkington congratulates the pig for the conditions in which animals work.

The ending He says their method will be used in other farms and that the reduced rations of food are good. The pigs keep on changing customs and traditions such as the flag, the Sunday meetings, the adoration for the Old Major and so on. He even changed the name of the farm to MANOR FARM, again. The meeting between pigs and men doesn’t end well.