Chapter 1
Word had gone round during the
day that old Major, the prize Middle White boar, had had a strange dream
on the previous night and wished to communicate it to the other animals.
It had been agreed that they should all meet in the big barn as soon as
Mr. Jones was safely out of the way. ... [When they were all together, the
venerable old pig told them:]
"....remember, comrades, your resolution must never falter. No argument
must lead you astray. Never listen when they tell you that Man and the
animals have a common interest, that the prosperity of the one is the
prosperity of the others. It is all lies. Man serves the interests of no creature except himself. And
among us animals let there be perfect unity,
perfect comradeship in the struggle. All men are enemies. All animals are
comrades." ...
Major continued:
"...Whatever goes upon two legs is an
enemy. Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend. And
remember also that in fighting against Man, we must not come to resemble
him. Even when you have conquered him, do not adopt his vices. No animal
must ever live in a house, or sleep in a bed, or wear clothes, or drink
alcohol, or smoke tobacco, or touch money, or engage in trade. All the
habits of Man are evil. And, above all, no animal must ever tyrannize over his
own kind. Weak or strong, clever or simple, we are all brothers.... All animals are equal."
....
Old Major cleared his throat and began to sing. As he had said, his voice
was hoarse, but he sang well enough, and it was a stirring tune, something between 'Clementine' and 'La Cucaracha'. The words ran:
Beasts of England, beasts of Ireland,
Beasts of every land and clime,
Hearken to my joyful tidings
Of the golden future time....
For that day we all must labour,
Though we die before it break;
Cows and horses, geese and turkeys,
All must toil for freedom's sake.
During the next three months there
was much
secret activity. Major's speech had given to the more intelligent animals
on the farm a completely new outlook on life. They did not know when the
Rebellion predicted by Major would take place, they had no reason for
thinking that it would be within their own lifetime, but they saw clearly
that it was their duty to prepare for it. The work of teaching and
organising the others fell naturally upon the pigs, who were generally
recognised as being the cleverest of the animals. Pre-eminent among the
pigs were two young boars named Snowball and Napoleon, whom Mr. Jones was
breeding up for sale. ...
The best known among them was a
small fat pig named Squealer, with very round cheeks, twinkling eyes, nimble
movements, and a shrill voice. He was a brilliant talker.... The others said of Squealer
that he could turn black into white.
These three had elaborated old Major's teachings into a complete system of
thought, to which they gave the name of Animalism. Several nights a week,
after Mr. Jones was asleep, they held secret meetings in the barn and
expounded the principles of Animalism to the others. At the beginning they
met with much stupidity and apathy. Some of the animals talked of the duty
of loyalty to Mr. Jones, whom they referred to as "Master," or made
elementary remarks such as "Mr. Jones feeds us. ... The stupidest questions of
all were asked by Mollie,
the white mare. The very first question she asked Snowball was: 'Will
there still be sugar after the Rebellion?' ...
Their most faithful disciples were the two cart-horses, Boxer and Clover.
These two had great difficulty in thinking anything out for themselves,
but having once accepted the pigs as their teachers, they absorbed
everything that they were told.... They were unfailing in their attendance at
the secret
meetings in the barn, and led the singing of 'Beasts of England', with which
the meetings always ended. ...
Chapter 2
...almost before they knew what was
happening, the Rebellion had been successfully
carried through: Jones was expelled, and the Manor Farm was theirs....
In a very little while the animals had destroyed everything that reminded
them of Mr. Jones. Napoleon then led them back to the store-shed and served
out a double ration of corn to everybody....Then they sang 'Beasts of England' from end to end seven times
running....
...Snowball and Napoleon called
them together again.
"Comrades," said Snowball, "it is half-past six and we have a long day
before us. Today we begin the hay harvest. But there is another matter
that must be attended to first."
... by their studies of the past three months the pigs had succeeded in reducing
the principles
of Animalism to Seven Commandments. These Seven Commandments would now be
inscribed on the wall; they would form an unalterable law by which all the
animals on Animal Farm must live for ever after. ... The Commandments were
written on the tarred wall in great
white letters that could be read thirty yards away. They ran thus:
THE SEVEN COMMANDMENTS
1. Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy.
2. Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend.
3. No animal shall wear clothes.
4. No animal shall sleep in a bed.
5. No animal shall drink alcohol.
6. No animal shall kill any other animal.
7. All animals are equal.
Chapter III
...The pigs did not actually work, but directed and supervised the
others. With their superior knowledge it was natural that they should
assume the leadership. Boxer and Clover would harness themselves to the
cutter or the horse-rake (no bits or reins were needed in these days, of course) and tramp steadily round and round the field with a pig walking
behind and calling out "Gee up, comrade!" or "Whoa back, comrade!" as the case might be. And every animal down to the humblest worked at turning the
hay and gathering it. Even the ducks and hens toiled...
The animals were happy .... With the worthless parasitical human beings
gone, there was more for everyone to eat. ...everyone worked according to his
capacity....
On Sundays there was no work. ...after breakfast there was a
ceremony which was observed every week without
fail. First came the hoisting of the flag. Snowball had found in the
harness-room an old green tablecloth of Mrs. Jones's and had painted on it
a hoof and a horn in white. This was run up the flagstaff in the farmhouse....
After the hoisting of the flag all
the
animals trooped into the big barn for a general assembly which was known
as the Meeting. Here the work of the coming week was planned out and
resolutions were put forward and debated. It was always the pigs who put forward
the resolutions. ... Snowball and Napoleon were by far the most active in the debates. But it was noticed that these
two were never in agreement: whatever suggestion either of them made, the other could be counted on to oppose it. ...
Snowball also busied himself with organising the other animals into what
he called Animal Committees. He was indefatigable at this. He formed the Egg Production Committee for the hens, the Clean Tails League for the
cows, the Wild Comrades' Re-education Committee (the object of this was
to tame the rats and rabbits), the Whiter Wool Movement for the sheep...
After much thought Snowball declared
that the Seven Commandments could in effect be
reduced to a single maxim, namely: "Four legs good, two legs bad." This,
he said, contained the essential principle of Animalism. ...
The early apples were now ripening, and the
grass of the orchard was littered with windfalls. The animals had assumed
as a matter of course that these would be shared out equally; one day,
however, the order went forth that all the windfalls were to be collected
and brought to the harness-room for the use of the pigs. At this some of
the other animals murmured, but it was no use. All the pigs were in full
agreement on this point, even Snowball and Napoleon. Squealer was sent to
make the necessary explanations to the others.
"Comrades!" he cried. "You do not imagine, I hope, that we pigs are doing
this in a spirit of selfishness and privilege? Many of us actually
dislike
milk and apples. I dislike them myself. Our sole object in taking these
things is to preserve our health. Milk and apples (this has been proved by
Science, comrades) contain substances absolutely necessary to the
well-being of a pig. We pigs are brainworkers. The whole management and organisation of this farm depend on us. Day and night we are
watching over your welfare. It is for YOUR sake that we drink that milk and eat those apples. Do you know what would happen if we pigs failed in our duty? Jones
would come back! ...Surely, comrades," cried
Squealer almost pleadingly, skipping from side to side and whisking his
tail, "surely there is no one among you who wants to see Jones come back?"
Now if there was one thing that the animals were completely certain of, it
was that they did not want Jones back. When it was put to them in this
light, they had no more to say. ...
Chapter V
In January there came bitterly hard weather. The earth was like iron, and
nothing could be done in the fields. Many meetings were held in the big barn, and the pigs occupied themselves with planning out the work of the
coming season. It had come to be accepted that the pigs, who were manifestly
cleverer than the other animals, should decide all questions of farm policy,
though their decisions had to be ratified by a majority vote. This arrangement would have worked well enough if it had not been for the
disputes between Snowball and Napoleon. These two disagreed at every point
where disagreement was possible..... Each had his own following
...there was a terrible baying sound outside, and
nine enormous dogs
wearing brass-studded collars came bounding into the barn. They dashed straight for Snowball, who only sprang from his place just in time to
escape their snapping jaws. In a moment he was out of the door and they
were after him. Too amazed and frightened to speak, all the animals
crowded through the door to watch the chase. Snowball was racing across
the long pasture that led to the road. ... Then he put on an extra spurt and,
with a few inches to spare,
slipped through a hole in the hedge and was seen no more.
Silent and terrified, the animals crept back into the barn. In a moment
the dogs came bounding back.... They kept close to Napoleon. It was noticed that
they wagged their tails to him in the same way as the other dogs had been
used to do to Mr. Jones.
Napoleon, with the dogs following him, now mounted on to the raised
portion of the floor where Major had previously stood to deliver his
speech. He announced that from now on the Sunday-morning Meetings would
come to an end. ... In future all questions relating to the working of the farm
would be settled by a
special committee of pigs, presided over by himself. These would meet in
private and afterwards communicate their decisions to the others. The animals would still assemble on Sunday mornings to salute the flag, sing
'Beasts of England', and receive their orders for the week....
Afterwards Squealer was sent round the farm to explain the new arrangement
to the others.
"Comrades," he said, "I trust that every animal here appreciates the
sacrifice that Comrade Napoleon has made in taking this extra labour upon
himself. Do not imagine, comrades, that leadership is a pleasure! On the
contrary, it is a deep and heavy responsibility. No one believes more firmly than Comrade Napoleon that
all animals are equal. He would be only
too happy to let you make your decisions for yourselves. But sometimes you might make the wrong decisions, comrades, and then where should we be?
... Discipline, comrades, iron discipline! That is the watchword for today. One
false step, and our enemies would be upon us. Surely, comrades, you
do
not want Jones back?"
Boxer, who had now had time
to think things over, voiced the general feeling by saying: "If Comrade
Napoleon says it, it must be right." And from then on he adopted the
maxim, "Napoleon is always right," in addition to his private motto of "I
will work harder."
...Napoleon, with Squealer and another pig named Minimus, who
had a remarkable gift for composing songs and poems, sat on the front of
the raised platform, with the nine young dogs forming a semicircle round
them, and the other pigs sitting behind. The rest of the animals sat
facing them in the main body of the barn. Napoleon read out the orders for
the week in a gruff soldierly style, and after a single singing of 'Beasts
of England', all the animals dispersed. ...
Chapter VI
All that year the animals worked like slaves. But they were happy in
their
work; they grudged no effort or sacrifice, well aware that everything that
they did was for the benefit of themselves and those of their kind who would
come after them, and not for a pack of idle, thieving human beings.
Throughout the spring and summer they worked a sixty-hour week, and in August Napoleon announced that there would be
work on Sunday afternoons as well. This
work was strictly voluntary, but any animal who absented himself from it would have his rations reduced by half. ...
One Sunday morning, when the animals assembled to receive their orders, Napoleon announced that he had decided upon a new policy.
From now onwards Animal Farm would engage in trade with the neighbouring farms....
Once again the animals were conscious of a vague uneasiness. Never to have use of money--had not these been among the earliest resolutions passed at that first triumphant Meeting after Jones was expelled? All the animals remembered passing such resolutions: or at least they thought that they remembered it. The four young pigs who had protested when Napoleon abolished the Meetings raised their voices timidly, but they were promptly
silenced by a tremendous growling from the dogs.
Then, as usual, the sheep broke into
"Four legs good, two legs bad!" and the momentary awkwardness was
smoothed over. Finally Napoleon ...announced that he had already made all
the arrangements. ...
Afterwards Squealer made a round of the farm and set the animals' minds at rest. He
assured them that the resolution against engaging in trade and using money had never been passed, or even suggested. It was pure imagination, probably traceable in the beginning to lies circulated by Snowball. A few animals still felt faintly doubtful, but Squealer asked them shrewdly, "Are you certain that this is not something that you have
dreamed, comrades? ...
It was about this time that the pigs suddenly moved into the farmhouse and took up their residence there. Again the animals seemed to remember that a resolution against this had been passed in the early days....
Nevertheless, some of the animals were disturbed when they heard that the pigs not only took their meals in the kitchen and used the drawing-room as a recreation room, but also slept in the beds. Boxer passed it off as usual with "Napoleon is always right!", but Clover, who thought she remembered a definite ruling against beds, went to the end of the barn and tried to puzzle out the Seven Commandments which were inscribed there....
"Muriel," she said, "read me the Fourth Commandment. Does it not say something about never sleeping in a bed?"
With some difficulty Muriel spelt it out. "It says, 'No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets,"' she announced finally.
Curiously enough, Clover had not remembered that the Fourth Commandment mentioned sheets; but as it was there on the wall, it must have done so. And Squealer, who happened to be passing at this moment, attended by two or three dogs, was able to put the whole matter in its proper perspective....
Chapter VII
It was a bitter winter. ... Squealer made excellent speeches on the joy of service and the dignity of labour, but the other animals found more inspiration in Boxer's strength and his never-failing cry of "I will work harder!"
In January food fell short. ... Starvation seemed to stare them in the face....
One Sunday morning Squealer announced that the hens, who had just come in to lay again, must surrender their eggs. Napoleon had accepted, through Whymper, a contract for four hundred eggs a week.....
Whenever anything went wrong it became usual to attribute it to Snowball. If a window was broken or a drain was blocked up, someone was certain to say that Snowball had come in the night and done it, and when the key of the store-shed was lost, the whole farm was convinced that Snowball had thrown it down the well. Curiously enough, they went on believing this even after the mislaid key was found under a sack of meal. The cows declared
unanimously that Snowball crept into their stalls and milked them in
their sleep. ...
The animals were thoroughly
frightened. It seemed to them as though Snowball were some kind of invisible influence, pervading the air about
them and menacing them with all kinds of dangers...
Four days later, in the late afternoon, Napoleon ordered all the animals to assemble in the yard. When they were all gathered together,
Napoleon emerged from the farmhouse, wearing both his medals (for he had recently awarded himself "Animal Hero, First Class", and "Animal Hero, Second Class"), with his nine huge dogs frisking round him and uttering growls that sent shivers down all the animals' spines. They all cowered silently in their places, seeming to know in advance that some terrible thing was about to happen.
Napoleon stood sternly surveying his audience; then he uttered a high-pitched whimper. Immediately the dogs bounded forward, seized four of the pigs by the ear and dragged them, squealing with pain and terror, to
Napoleon's feet....
The four pigs waited, trembling, with guilt written on every line of their countenances.
Napoleon now
called upon them to confess their crimes. They were the same four pigs as had protested when Napoleon abolished the Sunday Meetings. Without any further prompting they confessed that they had been
secretly in touch with Snowball ever since his expulsion, that they had
collaborated
with him in destroying the windmill.... They added that Snowball had privately
admitted to them that he had been Jones's secret agent for years past. When they had finished their confession, the dogs promptly tore their throats out, and in a terrible voice Napoleon demanded whether any other animal had anything to
confess.
The three hens who had been the ringleaders in the attempted rebellion over the eggs now came forward and stated that Snowball had appeared to them in a dream and incited them to disobey Napoleon's orders. .... And so the
tale of confessions and executions went on...
The animals huddled about Clover, not speaking. ... These scenes of terror and
slaughter were not what they had looked forward to on that night when old Major first stirred them to rebellion....
...they
had come to a time when no one dared speak his mind, when fierce, growling dogs roamed everywhere, and when you had to watch your comrades torn to pieces after confessing to shocking crimes. There was no thought of rebellion or
disobedience in her mind.... But still, it was not for this that she and all the other animals had hoped and toiled....
At last, feeling this to be in some way a substitute for the words she was unable to find, she began to sing 'Beasts of England'. The other animals sitting round her took it up, and they sang it three times over--very tunefully, but slowly and mournfully, in a way they had never sung it before.
They had just finished singing it for the third time when Squealer, attended by two dogs, approached them with the air of having something important to say. He announced that,
by a special decree of Comrade Napoleon, 'Beasts of England' had been abolished. From now onwards it was forbidden to sing it.
The animals were taken aback.
"Why?" cried Muriel.
"It's no longer needed, comrade," said Squealer stiffly. "'Beasts of England' was the song of the Rebellion. But the Rebellion is now
completed. The execution of the traitors this afternoon was the final act. The enemy both external and internal has been defeated. In 'Beasts of England' we expressed our longing for a better society in days to come. But that society has now been established. Clearly this song has no longer any purpose."...
Chapter 8
A few days later, when the terror caused by the executions had died down, some of the animals remembered--or thought they remembered -- that the Sixth Commandment decreed "No animal shall kill any other animal." And though
no one cared to mention it in the hearing of the pigs or the dogs, it was felt that the killings which had taken place did not square with this.
... Muriel read the Commandment for her. It ran: "No animal shall kill any other animal WITHOUT CAUSE." Somehow or other, the last two words had slipped out of the animals' memory. But they saw now that the Commandment had not been violated; for clearly there was good reason for killing the traitors who had leagued themselves with Snowball.....
Napoleon was now never spoken of simply as "Napoleon." He was always referred to in formal style as "our Leader, Comrade Napoleon," and this pigs liked to invent for him such titles as
Father of All Animals, Terror of Mankind, Protector of the Sheep-fold, Ducklings' Friend, and the like.
In his speeches, Squealer would talk with the tears rolling down his cheeks of Napoleon's wisdom the goodness of his heart, and the deep love he bore to all animals everywhere, even and especially the unhappy animals who still lived in ignorance and slavery on other farms....
The general feeling on the farm was
well expressed in a poem entitled Comrade Napoleon, which was composed by Minimus and which
ran as follows:
Friend of fatherless!
Fountain of happiness!
Lord of the swill-bucket! Oh, how my soul is on
Fire when I gaze at thy
Calm and commanding eye,
Like the sun in the sky,
Comrade Napoleon!...
Napoleon approved of this poem and caused it to be inscribed on the wall of the big barn, at the opposite end from the Seven Commandments. It was surmounted by a portrait of Napoleon, in profile, executed by Squealer in white paint....
About this time there occurred a
strange incident which hardly anyone was able to understand. One night at about twelve o'clock there was a loud
crash in the yard, and the animals rushed out of their stalls. ... At the foot of the end wall of the big barn, where the Seven Commandments were written, there lay a ladder broken in two pieces. Squealer, temporarily stunned, was sprawling beside it, and near at hand there lay a lantern, a paint-brush, and an overturned pot of white paint....
But a few days later Muriel, reading over the Seven Commandments to herself, noticed that there was yet another of them which the animals had remembered wrong. They had thought the Fifth Commandment was "No animal shall drink alcohol," but there were two words that they had forgotten. Actually the Commandment read: "No animal shall drink alcohol TO EXCESS."
Chapter 9
One afternoon in late February a warm, rich, appetising scent, such as the animals had never smelt before, wafted itself across the yard from the little brew-house, which had been disused in Jones's time, and which stood beyond the kitchen. Someone said it was the smell of cooking barley. The animals sniffed the air hungrily and wondered whether a warm mash was being prepared for their supper. But no warm mash appeared, and on the following Sunday it was announced that from now onwards
all barley would be reserved for the pigs. ...And the news soon leaked out that every pig was now receiving a ration of a pint of beer daily, with half a gallon for Napoleon...
In April, Animal Farm was proclaimed a Republic, and it became necessary to elect a President. There was only one candidate, Napoleon, who was elected unanimously.
...
... the man ... whipped up his horses and the van moved out of the yard at a smart trot. All the animals followed, crying out at the tops of their voices.
Clover forced her way to the front.... "Boxer!" she cried. "Boxer! Boxer! Boxer!" And just at this moment, as though he had heard the uproar outside, Boxer's face, with the white stripe down his nose, appeared at the small window at the back of the van....
Three days later it was announced that he had
died in the hospital ....
"It was the most affecting sight I have ever seen!" said Squealer, lifting
his trotter and wiping away a tear.... 'Forward, comrades!' he whispered.
Here Squealer's demeanour suddenly changed. He fell silent for a moment, and his little eyes darted suspicious glances from side to side before he proceeded.
It had come to his knowledge, he said, that a foolish and wicked rumour had been circulated at the time of Boxer's removal. Some of the animals had noticed that the van which took Boxer away was marked "Horse Slaughterer," and had actually jumped to the conclusion that Boxer was being sent to the knacker's. It was almost unbelievable, said Squealer,
that any animal could be so stupid. Surely, he cried indignantly... surely they knew their beloved Leader, Comrade Napoleon, better than that?...
Napoleon himself appeared at the
meeting on the following Sunday morning and pronounced a short oration in Boxer's honour... On the day appointed for
the banquet, a grocer's van drove up from Willingdon and delivered a large wooden crate at the farmhouse.
...No one stirred in the farmhouse before noon on the following day, and the word went round that from somewhere or other the pigs had acquired the money to buy themselves another case of whisky.
Chapter 10
YEARS passed. The seasons came and went, the short animal lives fled by. A time
came when there was no one who remembered the old days before the Rebellion,
except Clover, Benjamin, Moses the raven, and a number of the pigs....
...the luxuries of which Snowball
had once taught the animals to dream, the stalls with electric light and hot and
cold water, and the three-day week, were no longer talked about. Napoleon had
denounced such ideas as contrary to the spirit of Animalism. The truest
happiness, he said, lay in working hard and living frugally.
Somehow it seemed as though
the farm had grown richer without making the
animals themselves any richer-except, of course, for the pigs and the dogs.
Perhaps this was partly because there were so many pigs and so many dogs. It was
not that these creatures did not work, after their fashion. There was, as
Squealer was never tired of explaining, endless work in the supervision and
organisation of the farm.... For example, Squealer told them that the pigs
had to expend enormous labours every day upon mysterious things called "files,"
"reports," "minutes," and "memoranda."...
As for the others, their life, so
far as they knew, was as it had always been. They were generally hungry,
they slept on straw, they drank from the pool, they laboured in the fields; in
winter they were troubled by the cold, and in summer by the flies. Sometimes the
older ones among them racked their dim memories and tried to determine whether
in the early days of the Rebellion, when Jones's expulsion was still recent,
things had been better or worse than now....
....the tune of Beasts of England was perhaps hummed
secretly here and there: at any rate, it was a fact that every animal on the
farm knew it, though no one would have dared to sing it aloud. It might be that
their lives were hard and that not all of their hopes had been fulfilled; but
they were conscious that they were not as other animals. If they went hungry, it
was not from feeding tyrannical human beings; if they worked hard, at least they
worked for themselves. No creature among them went upon two legs. No
creature called any other creature "Master." All animals were equal....
It was just after the sheep had returned.... that the
terrified neighing of a horse sounded from the yard. Startled. ...all the
animals broke into a gallop and rushed into the yard. Then they saw what Clover
had seen.
It was a pig walking on his hind legs.... And a moment later, out from the door of the
farmhouse came a long file of pigs, all walking on their hind legs.... Napoleon
himself, majestically upright, casting haughty glances from side to side.... He carried a whip in his trotter.
There was a deadly silence. Amazed, terrified, huddling together, the animals
watched the long line of pigs march slowly round the yard. It was as though the
world had turned upside-down. ... But just at that moment, as though at a
signal, all the sheep burst out into a tremendous bleating of-
"Four legs good, two legs better! Four legs good, two legs better! Four legs
good, two legs better!"...
Benjamin felt a nose nuzzling at his shoulder. He looked round. It was Clover.
Her old eyes looked dimmer than ever. Without saying anything, she tugged gently
at his mane and led him round to the end of the big barn, where the Seven
Commandments were written. For a minute or two they stood gazing at the tatted
wall with its white lettering.
"My sight is failing," she said finally. "Even when I was young I could not have
read what was written there. But it appears to me that that wall looks
different. Are the Seven Commandments the same as they used to be, Benjamin?"
For once Benjamin consented to break his rule, and he read out to her what was
written on the wall. There was nothing there now except a single Commandment.
It ran:
All Animals Are Equal
But
Some Animals Are More Equal than Others
....That evening loud laughter and bursts of singing came from the farmhouse. And
suddenly, at the sound of the mingled voices, the animals were stricken with
curiosity. What could be happening in there, now that for the first time
animals and human beings were meeting on terms of equality? ...
There was the same hearty
cheering as before, and the mugs were emptied to the dregs. But as the
animals outside gazed at the scene, it seemed to them that some strange
thing was happening. What was it that had altered in the faces of the
pigs?...
Twelve voices were shouting in anger, and they were all alike. No question, now,
what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from
pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was
impossible to say which was which.
See also
Was Marx a Satanist? |
When Iron
Gates Yield
The
Revolutionary Roots of the UN |
Real Conspiracies -- Past and
Present
"Who shall
separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or
persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? ... Yet in all
these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us."
Romans 8:35,37.
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