Summary Of Animal Farm | George Orwell

Animal Farm by George Orwell

About George Orwell:

Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950), known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist, essayist, journalist and critic. His work is characterized by lucid prose, biting social criticism, total opposition to totalitarianism, and outspoken support of democratic socialism.

Summary:

This is a story about a group of animals who live on Manor Farm, a farm in the British countryside that is under the operation of Mr. Jones, a poor drunkard. Old Major, a well-respected pig, calls all of the animals to a meeting to share his vision of a farm free of humans, where the animals reap what they sow.

This vision inspires all of the animals and they await the day for a rebellion. After Old Major passes away, the rebellion begins when Mr. Jones forgets to feed the animals. The animals, led by the pigs, chase away all of the humans from the farm, renaming it Animal Farm. Two pigs named Snowball and Napoleon emerge as leaders, and for a while life on the farm is good.

Rules are written on the barn for everyone to follow and a rhythm of work and recreation settles on the farm. The animals coexist in harmony and they feel a sense of pride as they work for no master. One day, the farm is attacked by Mr. Jones and some men. Bravely, the animals fight the intruders away. Tension begins to build on the farm, as Snowball and Napoleon are at odds with one another on the direction the farm should take.

Snowball wants the build a windmill, which he claims will increase food and reduce work, while Napoleon wants to increase production. Just as Snowball wins over the animals with his windmill idea, Napoleon calls his secret attack dogs to chase Snowball away.

With Snowball gone, Napoleon becomes the sole leader of the farm. Over time, more and more resources go toward the pigs and dogs and less resources go toward the working animals. Through the smooth talking of Squealer, the mouthpiece for Napoleon, the animals are assured that the pigs need the extra resources in order to think and organize the farm.

Surprisingly, Napoleon then declares that they should build a windmill and that he was never actually against the idea since it had secretly been his all along. The animals work hard to build the windmill, but it gets destroyed. Napoleon blames Snowball for this act of vandalism and vows that the animals on Animal Farm will build it again. Soon, Napoleon reaches out to humans outside of the farm and begins making business deals for more supplies.

The attempt to rebuild the windmill is led by the efforts of Boxer, an old work horse nearing retirement age. Eventually, the windmill is completed, but then gets blown up during an attack by neighbouring men. Over time, the rules on the barn begin to change to fit the pig’s new lifestyle until only one rule remains: All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.

In the end, Napoleon invites neighbouring farmers to visit the farm and because the pigs have picked up on the mannerisms of humans, the animals cannot tell the difference between the two.

First, this story highlights the relationship between the working class, proletarians, and the aristocracy, bourgeoisie, within the context of a capitalist society. As farm animals, they work not for themselves, but for the profit of someone else and they are only fed and rested enough so that they can perform more work. And when the animals are no longer productive, they are killed off and replaced. This relationship, though easily illustrated through farm animals, is applicable to social classes today. Socialist theory argues that for the rich to be rich, there must be a working class that is poor.

This is clearly illustrated not only on a national level, but a worldwide level as well. Ideally, it might be nice to picture a world where people own what they work for. That every person contributes and takes equally. But as the story develops, readers see more of why this type of utopian society cannot exist, an example of a communist system trying to exist in a capitalist world. The animals are protected within the boundaries of their socialist farm and they thrive under this system of equality.

But soon, they are forced to interact with the outside world and that's when communism turns into something else. It becomes a totalitarian society under the rule of one leader. And slowly we see that for socialism to work under a communist rule, everyone, even those outside of the community, has to be under the same system.

Brief Summary:

Lastly, this story demonstrates the power of knowledge and how the uneducated and ignorant can be easily manipulated. Squealer will often twist words and events around to make Napoleon look good. And while it may seem obvious as readers to see the manipulation, this sort of thing happens in real life too. The public can oftentimes be misinformed and manipulated about certain issues if they are ignorant about it. Facts and events that seem so concrete may not actually be true. Nowadays, it's often up to individuals to find out for themselves.