ANIMAL FARM – IN SUMMARY
The story is set on the Manor Farm, owned and operated by Mr. Jones.
One night the prize boar, Old Major, tells all the other farm animals he has realized that the
misery of their daily lives is all due to the tyranny of human beings, and that if they work to
overthrow the humans their lives will become easy and comfortable.
After Old Major dies, the pigs (led by the two boars Snowball and Napoleon) start teaching
his ideas (which they develop into a system of thought called Animalism) to the other
animals. A few months later, Mr. Jones gets drunk and forgets to feed the animals, who
become so hungry that they rebel and drive the human beings off the farm. They rename
the farm 'Animal Farm' and write the Seven Commandments of Animalism up on the wall of
the barn. Jones comes back with a group of armed men and tries to recapture the farm, but
the animals, led by Snowball, defeat the men.
Snowball and Napoleon argue constantly over plans for the future of the farm, never able to
agree - especially over a windmill which Snowball wants to build to provide the farm with
electric power, and which Napoleon ridicules. Napoleon calls in nine dogs whom he has
specially trained and they chase Snowball off the farm. Squealer, the very persuasive pig
who relays most of Napoleon's decisions to the other animals, tells them that Snowball was
a traitor in league with Jones, and that the windmill was really Napoleon's idea anyway and
will go ahead.
The animals work hard - work on the windmill is slow and they rely heavily on Boxer the
cart-horse, who is very strong and hard-working. Napoleon begins trading with nearby
farms, and the pigs move into the farmhouse and sleep in the beds there - even though
sleeping in beds like humans was forbidden by the original principles of Animalism.
The winter is difficult - the animals have little food. Napoleon and Squealer blame Snowball
for everything that goes wrong on the farm, from bad crops to blocked drains. Then
Napoleon's dogs attack four pigs, who then confess to plotting with Snowball and start a
series of confessions of various 'crimes' from other animals - all of those who confess are
slaughtered by the dogs, leaving the survivors shaken and miserable.
The windmill is finally completed and to get money to buy the machinery for it, Napoleon
decides to sell a pile of timber - after wavering between the two neighbouring farmers
Pilkington and Frederick, he sells it to Frederick only to discover that he has been paid with
worthless forged banknotes. Frederick and his men then come on to the farm and blow the
windmill to pieces with explosives, although the animals manage to drive them off the farm
again after a bloody battle. A few days later the pigs find a case of whisky in the farmhouse
cellar and get drunk.
Boxer is injured while working on repairs to the windmill, and Benjamin notices that the van
Napoleon calls to send him to the vet, has 'Horse Slaughterer' painted on the side. After
Boxer has 'died in hospital' under care of the vet, the pigs mysteriously find money to buy
another case of whiskey.
After many years, life is just as hard as it ever was. The pigs start walking on two legs. None
of the old Commandments are left on the barn wall. A group of human farmers come to see
the farm, they quarrel with the pigs over a game of cards - and the animals discover they
can no longer tell which is human and which is pig.
