Animal Farm

Boxer slowly recovers from the split hoof he suffered in the Battle of the Windmill and looks forward to the day when he can retire on the pension provided by Animal Farm. Once healed, he works harder than ever on the various building projects on the farm, including the windmill and a schoolhouse for young pigs.

The animals suffer through another harsh winter, as diminished food production leads to reduced rations for everyone except for the pig leaders and dogs. Squealer convinces the animals that the rationing policies are just and that they are better off now than they had been under Jones.

The pigs abuse their power by hoarding rations for themselves, distilling beer from barley, and forcing other animals to pay special courtesies to them. Animal Farm is proclaimed a Republic, and Napoleon is unanimously elected president. He holds public ceremonies glorifying his person and accomplishments while vilifying Snowball and spreading new rumors about his treachery against Animal Farm.

Moses, the raven, returns to Animal Farm after an absence of several years and continues telling stories about a better world on Sugarcandy Mountain. The pig leaders allow him to stay on the farm even though he does no work.

Boxer has weakened since his injury and with the onset of age. One day he collapses while hauling stones to the windmill. Squealer says that he will arrange to have Boxer treated at the hospital in Willingdon. In the meantime, Boxer’s close friends, Clover and Benjamin, nurse him.

A few days later, a van comes to take Boxer away. To their horror, the animals realize that the side of the van reads “Horse Slaughterer.” Boxer is being transported to his death, and the animals can do nothing to stop it. The pig leaders later lie that Boxer died in the hospital in Willingdon and that the van transporting him was a former slaughterer’s van that a veterinarian now uses. The animals hold a memorial banquet in Boxer’s honor, at which the pigs consume a new case of whiskey.

Years pass, a new generation grows up, and memories of the times before the Rebellion fade. Jones has died, as have many of the older animals on the farm. Napoleon and his fellow leaders are now old and fat. The rising generation of animals accepts the doctrines of Animalism without questioning them and has no conception of what life was like in former times.

The farm is larger and more prosperous, with the windmill completed and new machinery installed. But the animals—except for the pigs and dogs—do not benefit from the new prosperity and their lives continue as usual in “hunger, hardship, and disappointment” (93). The leading class does little work beyond filing papers. With misleading or doctored statistics, they convince the other animals that things on the farm are getting better and better. Despite all this, the animals continue to be proud and loyal citizens of Animal Farm—the only farm in the world owned and operated by animals—and look forward to the day when animals will rule all of England.

One day in early summer, the animals are shocked to see the pig leaders walking on hind legs and to learn that a new Animalist precept has been instituted: “Four legs good, two legs better” (95). Then, examining the side of the barn, Clover and Benjamin discover that the Seven Commandments have now been reduced to one: “All animals are equal. But some animals are more equal than others” (96).

After this, the pigs start to behave like human beings—carrying whips, reading magazines, using telephones, smoking pipes, and even wearing human clothes. The reason for this soon becomes clear. One afternoon, a delegation of humans arrives to inspect the farm. They are impressed by the animals’ up-to-date working methods and frugal lifestyle. That night, the pigs hold a party in the farmhouse for the delegation, after which, the pigs and humans announce a new peaceful cooperation between the animals of Animal Farm and their human neighbors, since “their struggles and their difficulties were one” (98). Napoleon declares that the animals will no longer address themselves as “comrade” and that Animal Farm will from now on be called Manor Farm—its original name.

From outside the farmhouse, the animals gaze in astonishment: As the pigs and humans quarrel over a card game they had been playing, they look the same.