Animal Farm Chapter Summaries

Chapter 1 opens on Manor Farm, owned by the irresponsible and frequently drunk Mr. Jones. After Jones locks up the henhouses for the night but is too intoxicated to remember to shut the pop-holes, the animals gather in the big barn at the urging of Old Major, an aging prize-winning Middle White boar. Old Major, who is twelve years old and nearing the end of his life, tells the assembled animals about a dream he has had—a vision of a world in which animals live free from human exploitation. Old Major delivers a powerful speech about the nature of their existence. He argues that the life of every animal is "miserable, laborious, and short," and that human beings are the root cause of all their suffering. Man consumes without producing, takes the animals' labor and products, and gives them barely enough to survive in return. He urges the animals to work toward rebellion and to remember that all animals are comrades and all humans are enemies. He warns them never to adopt human vices—to never live in houses, sleep in beds, wear clothes, drink alcohol, smoke tobacco, or trade with humans. He establishes the foundational principle: "All animals are equal." Old Major then teaches the animals a song called "Beasts of England," which paints a picture of a future golden age when tyrannical humans have been overthrown. The animals sing the song several times with great enthusiasm, waking Mr. Jones, who fires his gun into the darkness to silence them. The chapter ends with the animals retiring to sleep, their minds burning with the vision Old Major has given them.

Old Major dies peacefully in his sleep three days after delivering his speech, but the animals have been profoundly affected by his vision. Over the following months, the work of organizing and teaching falls to the pigs, who are generally recognized as the cleverest animals on the farm. Two young boars emerge as leaders: Napoleon, a large, fierce-looking Berkshire boar who is "not much of a talker" but has a "reputation for getting his own way," and Snowball, a more vivacious and inventive pig who is quicker in speech and more creative in developing ideas. Together with Squealer, a small, round pig with an extraordinary talent for persuasive argument, they develop Old Major's teachings into a complete system of thought called Animalism. The pigs hold secret meetings in the barn to spread Animalism among the other animals, facing resistance from some who are loyal to Jones or too apathetic to care. Moses the raven, Jones's special pet, tells the animals about Sugarcandy Mountain, a paradise where animals go after death, which the pigs struggle to counteract. Meanwhile, Mr. Jones sinks deeper into alcoholism and neglect. One Midsummer's Eve, Jones gets so drunk at the Red Lion that he does not return until midday Sunday, and his men, following his example, fail to feed the animals. The starving animals can stand it no longer. A cow breaks into the store-shed with her horn, and the animals help themselves to food. Jones and his men arrive with whips, but the half-starved animals attack with a fury that takes the humans by surprise. Within minutes, Jones and his workers are fleeing down the cart-track with the animals in pursuit. Mrs. Jones hastily packs her belongings and slips away. The animals have won. They destroy the whips, nose-rings, halters, and other instruments of oppression. They rename the property Animal Farm and paint the Seven Commandments on the barn wall in large white letters. The pigs reveal they have taught themselves to read and write, and the animals set about the harvest with enthusiasm and high spirits.

The animals throw themselves into the harvest with energy and dedication, and the result is the biggest harvest Manor Farm has ever seen. Every animal works according to their capacity. Boxer, the enormous carthorse, is the most dedicated worker, rising earlier than anyone and volunteering for extra labor. His personal motto, "I will work harder," becomes an inspiration to the others. The pigs, however, do not perform manual labor. They supervise and direct, justifying this division by arguing that the management of the farm requires specialized mental effort. Snowball organizes a variety of committees—the Egg Production Committee, the Clean Tails League, the Whiter Wool Movement, and others—and also undertakes to teach the animals to read and write. The results are mixed: the pigs master reading quickly, the dogs learn reasonably well, but most of the other animals struggle. Benjamin the donkey can read perfectly well but refuses to exercise his ability, saying that there is nothing worth reading. The sheep, hens, and ducks cannot progress beyond the letter A, so Snowball reduces the Seven Commandments to a single maxim: "Four legs good, two legs bad." Napoleon takes no interest in Snowball's committees. Instead, he takes nine newborn puppies from their mothers, Jessie and Bluebell, saying he will make himself responsible for their education. He takes them up to a loft where they are kept in such seclusion that the rest of the farm soon forgets about them. Meanwhile, the mystery of the vanishing milk is resolved: it is being mixed into the pigs' mash every day. When the apple harvest comes, the pigs claim all the windfalls for themselves. Squealer is dispatched to explain that the pigs need the milk and apples because they contain substances essential for brain work. He asks pointedly: "Surely there is no one among you who wants to see Jones come back?" The animals accept this reasoning, and the first small act of inequality passes without challenge.

News of the rebellion at Animal Farm spreads across the countryside through pigeons that Snowball and Napoleon send out. The song "Beasts of England" is picked up by animals on neighboring farms, causing alarm among human farmers. Mr. Jones spends most of his time at the Red Lion pub, complaining about his misfortune and the injustice of being expelled from his own property. The neighboring farmers, Mr. Pilkington of Foxwood and Mr. Frederick of Pinchfield, are initially sympathetic but privately worry that their own animals might rebel. In early October, Jones and a group of men from the neighboring farms mount an attack to retake Animal Farm, armed with sticks and a gun. Snowball, who has studied Julius Caesar's military campaigns, has prepared for this eventuality. He has organized the animals into defensive formations and planned a strategy involving successive waves of attack. The pigeons and geese harass the humans first, followed by a charge from Muriel, Benjamin, and the sheep. When this first wave appears to retreat, the humans pursue them into the farm yard, where they fall into Snowball's ambush. The horses, cows, and pigs attack from three sides. Snowball himself leads the charge directly at Jones, who fires his gun and grazes Snowball's back with pellets, while killing a sheep. Boxer rears up on his hind legs and strikes a stable boy with his iron-shod hooves, knocking the boy unconscious. The humans are routed and flee in panic. The animals celebrate their victory, which they name the Battle of the Cowshed. They create military decorations—"Animal Hero, First Class" for Snowball and Boxer, and "Animal Hero, Second Class" for the dead sheep. They agree to fire Jones's gun on the anniversaries of the Battle of the Cowshed and the Rebellion. This chapter represents the high point of unity on Animal Farm before the power struggle between Napoleon and Snowball tears it apart.

Chapter 5 is the novel's turning point. The power struggle between Napoleon and Snowball reaches its crisis over the question of the windmill. Snowball has spent weeks studying a book on electricity and drawing up plans for a windmill that would generate power for the farm, reducing the animals' work to three days a week. Napoleon opposes the project, urinating on Snowball's plans to show his contempt. The farm divides into two factions: those who support Snowball's windmill ("Vote for Snowball and the three-day week") and those who support Napoleon ("Vote for Napoleon and the full manger"). Only Benjamin remains indifferent, saying life will go on as it always has—badly. Meanwhile, Mollie, the vain white mare who loves ribbons and sugar lumps, has been spotted being petted by men from a neighboring farm. When confronted, she denies it, but soon afterward disappears from Animal Farm altogether. She is later seen pulling a dogcart, with a human stroking her nose and feeding her sugar. The animals never speak of her again. At the decisive Sunday meeting, Snowball delivers a brilliant speech in favor of the windmill. Napoleon rises and gives a brief response against it. As the animals are about to vote—and it is clear Snowball will win—Napoleon gives a high-pitched whimper, and nine enormous dogs wearing brass-studded collars burst into the barn. They are the puppies Napoleon took from Jessie and Bluebell, now grown into fierce, loyal enforcers. The dogs chase Snowball at full speed across the farm and off the property. Snowball squeezes through a hole in the hedge and is never seen again. Napoleon announces the abolition of Sunday meetings and debates. All policy decisions will now be made by a special committee of pigs, with Napoleon presiding. When some animals voice objections, the dogs growl menacingly, and all protest ceases. Three weeks later, Napoleon announces that the windmill will be built after all. Squealer explains that Napoleon was never actually against the windmill—it was, in fact, Napoleon's own idea, which Snowball had stolen from Napoleon's papers. The rewriting of history has begun.

Throughout the following year, the animals work like slaves to build the windmill. They work a sixty-hour week, and in August Napoleon announces that the animals will also work on Sunday afternoons, which is technically voluntary but results in halved rations for any animal who does not participate. Boxer is the driving force behind the construction, hauling loads of stone from the quarry through sheer physical strength. His "I will work harder" motto becomes more poignant as the toll on his body becomes visible. Napoleon announces that Animal Farm will begin trading with neighboring farms—a development that troubles some of the older animals, who vaguely remember resolutions against engaging in trade or using money. Squealer assures them that no such resolution was ever passed and that this is merely a figment of Snowball's propaganda. Napoleon hires Mr. Whymper, a sly-looking solicitor from Willingdon, to act as intermediary between Animal Farm and the outside world. The animals feel uncomfortable seeing Napoleon dealing with humans on their hind legs but are silenced by the dogs. The pigs move into the farmhouse, sleeping in the beds. When Clover, who thinks she remembers a commandment against sleeping in beds, asks Muriel to read the commandment, it now reads: "No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets." Squealer explains that a bed is simply a place to sleep, and that the pigs need proper rest because they do the farm's brain work. He asks whether the animals want Jones to come back. In November, a violent storm strikes the farm and destroys the half-built windmill, scattering the stones across the ground. Napoleon immediately blames Snowball for the destruction, claiming that the exiled pig crept onto the farm under cover of darkness and deliberately knocked the windmill down. He pronounces a death sentence on Snowball and offers a reward for his capture. The animals accept Napoleon's explanation and begin rebuilding the windmill from scratch, working through the bitter winter.

Chapter 7 is the novel's darkest and most violent, depicting the descent into terror that mirrors Stalin's Great Purge of the 1930s. The winter is bitterly cold and food is scarce. The animals are near starvation, though Napoleon goes to great lengths to conceal this from the outside world, ordering the nearly empty food bins to be filled to the brim with sand and topped with a thin layer of grain and meal for Mr. Whymper to see during his visits. Napoleon announces that the hens must surrender their eggs for sale to buy grain and meal. The hens, who regard their eggs as their children, rebel—the first resistance since Snowball's expulsion. They fly up to the rafters and lay their eggs from there, smashing them on the floor rather than surrendering them. Napoleon retaliates by ordering their rations stopped entirely. Nine hens die of starvation before the remainder capitulate. Meanwhile, rumors about Snowball intensify. Napoleon claims, through Squealer, that Snowball was actually Jones's secret agent from the very beginning and was fighting on Jones's side at the Battle of the Cowshed. When Boxer objects, saying he remembers Snowball fighting bravely and being wounded, Squealer insists that Boxer's memory is faulty and that the evidence of Snowball's treachery has been found in secret documents. Boxer, troubled but loyal, falls back on his motto: "Napoleon is always right." Then comes the purge. Napoleon assembles all the animals in the yard and forces confessions. Four pigs who had protested when Napoleon abolished the Sunday meetings confess to having been in secret contact with Snowball and collaborating with him to destroy the windmill. The dogs tear their throats out instantly. Three hens who led the egg rebellion confess to having been incited by Snowball. They are slaughtered. A goose confesses to hoarding corn. He is killed. More confessions and more killings follow until there is a pile of corpses at Napoleon's feet and the air is heavy with the smell of blood. The horrified animals huddle together on the knoll where the windmill stands. Clover, who cannot express her feelings in words, knows that this was not what they envisioned when they overthrew Jones. She leads the animals in singing "Beasts of England," but Squealer arrives to announce that the song has been abolished—the rebellion is complete, and the song is no longer needed. It is replaced by a bland anthem composed by the poet pig Minimus, praising Animal Farm. That night, the commandment "No animal shall kill any other animal" is found to read: "No animal shall kill any other animal without cause."

In the aftermath of the purge, Napoleon increasingly isolates himself from the other animals. He now lives entirely in the farmhouse, eating from Jones's Crown Derby dinner service, and appears in public only with an escort of dogs. A pig named Minimus composes a poem titled "Comrade Napoleon" and inscribes it on the barn wall opposite the Seven Commandments, alongside a portrait of Napoleon painted in white by Squealer. Napoleon is awarded titles such as "Father of All Animals" and "Terror of Mankind," and Squealer regularly reads out lists of statistics showing that production of every kind of foodstuff has increased dramatically—though the animals' actual rations have decreased. Napoleon negotiates the sale of a stack of timber to Mr. Frederick of Pinchfield Farm. Frederick pays with banknotes that turn out to be forgeries. Before Napoleon can respond, Frederick and his men attack Animal Farm with guns and dynamite. The human soldiers blow up the windmill with explosives, destroying in minutes what the animals had spent years building. Enraged, the animals counterattack and eventually drive the humans off the farm, but at heavy cost. Several animals are killed, and almost all are wounded, including Boxer, who is kicked by a horse. Despite the devastation, Squealer declares the battle a great victory and Napoleon awards himself "Order of the Green Banner." That night, the pigs discover a case of whiskey in the farmhouse cellar. Loud singing and revelry can be heard from the farmhouse until late at night. The next morning, Squealer announces that Napoleon is dying. By evening, however, Napoleon has recovered. The animals later notice that the commandment about alcohol now reads: "No animal shall drink alcohol to excess." Napoleon orders that the small paddock, previously set aside as a grazing ground for retired animals, be plowed up and sown with barley for brewing.

Boxer's split hoof takes a long time to heal, but he refuses to take even a day off work. He is determined to see the windmill completed before he reaches his retirement age of twelve. The animals' rations are reduced again—all animals except the pigs and dogs now receive less food than they had under Jones. Squealer explains with his statistics that rations have actually increased, reading out lists of figures while the animals' stomachs growl. The farm is declared a Republic, and Napoleon is elected President unanimously—he is the only candidate. More stories about Snowball's treachery surface, and Squealer claims that Snowball was always working with Jones and that the wound he supposedly received at the Battle of the Cowshed was actually inflicted by Napoleon's teeth. Moses the raven, who had disappeared after the rebellion, suddenly returns and resumes his stories about Sugarcandy Mountain, the paradise to which animals go when they die. The pigs declare his tales nonsense but allow him to remain on the farm, giving him a daily allowance of beer—recognizing, perhaps, that his stories of a heavenly afterlife help keep the overworked animals docile. One spring day, Boxer collapses while hauling stone for the windmill. He has given everything to the farm and can give no more. Napoleon announces that Boxer will be sent to the veterinary hospital in Willingdon for treatment. A few days later, a van arrives to collect Boxer. Benjamin, who has never shown much emotion, suddenly becomes agitated and calls the animals to look at the writing on the side of the van. It reads: "Alfred Simmonds, Horse Slaughterer and Glue Boiler, Willingdon." The animals cry out in horror and try to warn Boxer, but the van drives away with Boxer inside, his hooves drumming weakly against the walls. Three days later, Squealer announces that Boxer died peacefully in the hospital, with the best medical care money could buy, and that his last words were "Long live Comrade Napoleon! Napoleon is always right." He explains that the van had previously belonged to the horse slaughterer but had been bought by the veterinary surgeon who had not yet repainted it. The animals are relieved by this explanation. Not long after, the pigs acquire enough money to buy a case of whiskey, and a banquet is held in Boxer's honor—attended only by the pigs.

Years pass, and the farm has changed dramatically. Many of the animals who participated in the rebellion have died—Snowball is long gone, Jones has died in an inebriates' home, and only Clover, Benjamin, Moses, and a number of pigs remain from the original generation. The farm is more prosperous and better organized than ever, but the prosperity benefits only the pigs and dogs. The other animals work just as hard as they did under Jones, on the same meager rations, and the promises of heated stalls, electric light, and reduced work hours have never materialized. Yet the animals still take pride in Animal Farm. It remains the only farm in England owned and operated by animals—that knowledge, Squealer assures them, should be enough. More pigs have been bred, and there is now a clear hierarchy. The pigs and dogs enjoy privileges entirely separate from the other animals, and the pigs have learned to brew beer from the barley grown in the field that was once earmarked for retired animals' grazing. One evening, Squealer takes the sheep to a secluded part of the farm for a week of "special instruction." When they return, the animals are stupefied to see Squealer walking on his hind legs. Then the pigs emerge from the farmhouse, all walking upright on two legs. The sheep, on cue, burst into a deafening chant: "Four legs good, two legs better!" Before anyone can respond, the commandments on the barn wall are found to have been replaced by a single maxim: "ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS." After this, everything escalates quickly. The pigs begin carrying whips. They buy a radio, install a telephone, take out subscriptions to newspapers and magazines, and Napoleon is seen walking in the garden smoking a pipe. One evening, a group of neighboring farmers is invited to the farmhouse for dinner. The other animals, drawn by curiosity, creep to the windows and watch. Mr. Pilkington delivers a speech congratulating the pigs on running a farm where the lower animals do more work and receive less food than any farm in the county. Napoleon responds by announcing that the farm's name will be changed back to Manor Farm and that all revolutionary customs are abolished. As the evening wears on, the pigs and humans begin playing cards. A quarrel breaks out when Napoleon and Pilkington each simultaneously play an ace of spades. The animals outside look through the window at the table. They look from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again—but already it is impossible to say which is which.