Animal Farm Study Guide
You should be able to answer the following questions relating to the 6 excerpts from the text.
★ What is the context of each passage?
★ What was going on before and after each passage?
★ Who are the characters involved with each passage?
★ Are there any symbols used in each passage?
★ What are the historical connections for each passage? Think about the non-fiction texts we read and
connected to Animal Farm.
★ Do any of the passages represent major shifts/changes in the story?
★ Is Orwell comparing/contrasting characters in any passage?
★ Is Orwell showing cause/effect relationships in any passage?
★ Can you summarize each passage?
★ Do you notice any propaganda techniques in any passage?
★ What is the author’s purpose for each passage?
★ What conclusions can you draw from each passage?
★ Be sure that you are familiar with the terms and background info from both the PREFACE and in the
ANIMAL FARM INTRO SLIDESHOW. Here is a link to the entire ANIMAL FARM TEXT.
★ Also consider the following BIG IDEAS found in Animal Farm. Which one is most supported in each
passage?
○ Propaganda
○ Equality
○ Conformity
○ Power
○ Ignorance
○ Vice/Virtue
○ Leadership
★ Understand how Animal Farm is a fable, allegory, and satire
The following 6 excerpts/passages will be on your Animal Farm assessment.
From Chapter 1
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:
(1)
Beasts of England, beasts of Ireland,
Beasts of every land and clime,
Hearken to my joyful tidings
Of the golden future time.
(2)
Soon or late the day is coming,
Tyrant Man shall be o’erthrown,
And the fruitful fields of England
Shall be trod by beasts alone.
(3)
Rings shall vanish from our noses,
And the harness from our back,
Bit and spur shall rust forever,
Cruel whips no more shall crack.
(4)
Riches more than mind can picture,
Wheat and barley, oats and hay,
Clover, beans, and mangel-wurzels
Shall be ours upon that day.
(5)
Bright will shine the fields of England,
Purer shall its waters be,
Sweeter yet shall blow its breezes
On the day that sets us free.
(6)
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.
(7)
Beasts of England, beasts of Ireland,
Beasts of every land and clime,
Hearken well and spread my tidings
Of the golden future time.
From Chapter 2
During the past three months they had taught themselves to read and write from an old spelling book which had belonged
to Mr. Jones’s children and which had been thrown on the rubbish heap. Napoleon sent for pots of black and white paint
and led the way down to the five-barred gate that gave on to the main road. Then Snowball (for it was Snowball who was
best at writing) took a brush between the two knuckles of his trotter, painted out MANOR FARM from the top bar of the
gate and in its place painted ANIMAL FARM. This was to be the name of the farm from now onwards. After this they
went back to the farm buildings, where Snowball and Napoleon sent for a ladder which they caused to be set against the
end wall of the big barn. They explained that 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. With some
difficulty (for it is not easy for a pig to balance himself on a ladder) Snowball climbed up and set to work, with Squealer a
few rungs below him holding the paint-pot. 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.
From Chapter 3
Napoleon took no interest in Snowball’s committees. He said that the education of the young was more important than
anything that could be done for those who were already grown up. It happened that Jessie and Bluebell had both whelped
soon after the hay harvest, giving birth between them to nine sturdy puppies. As soon as they were weaned, Napoleon
took them away from their mothers, saying that he would make himself responsible for their education. He took them up
into a loft which could only be reached by a ladder from the harness-room, and there kept them in such seclusion that the
rest of the farm soon forgot their existence.
The mystery of where the milk went to was soon cleared up. It was mixed every day into the pigs’ mash. 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! Yes, 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?”
From Chapter 5
At last the day came when Snowball’s plans were completed. At the Meeting on the following Sunday the question of
whether or not to begin work on the windmill was to be put to the vote. When the animals had assembled in the big barn,
Snowball stood up and, though occasionally interrupted by bleating from the sheep, set forth his reasons for advocating
the building of the windmill. Then Napoleon stood up to reply. He said very quietly that the windmill was nonsense and
that he advised nobody to vote for it, and promptly sat down again; he had spoken for barely thirty seconds, and seemed
almost indifferent as to the effect he produced. At this Snowball sprang to his feet, and shouting down the sheep, who had
begun bleating again, broke into a passionate appeal in favour of the windmill. Until now the animals had been about
equally divided in their sympathies, but in a moment Snowball’s eloquence had carried them away. In glowing sentences
he painted a picture of Animal Farm as it might be when sordid labour was lifted from the animals’ backs. His
imagination had now run far beyond chaff-cutters and turnip-slicers. Electricity, he said, could operate threshing
machines, ploughs, harrows, rollers, and reapers and binders, besides supplying every stall with its own electric light, hot
and cold water, and an electric heater. By the time he had finished speaking, there was no doubt as to which way the vote
would go. But just at this moment Napoleon stood up and, casting a peculiar sidelong look at Snowball, uttered a
high-pitched whimper of a kind no one had ever heard him utter before.
At this 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.
He was running as only a pig can run, but the dogs were close on his heels. Suddenly he slipped and it seemed certain that
they had him. Then he was up again, running faster than ever; then the dogs were gaining on him again. One of them all
but closed his jaws on Snowball’s tail, but Snowball whisked it free just in time. 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.
From Chapter 7
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 pigs’ ears were bleeding, the dogs had tasted blood, and for a few moments they appeared to go quite mad. To the
amazement of everybody, three of them flung themselves upon Boxer. Boxer saw them coming and put out his great hoof,
caught a dog in mid-air, and pinned him to the ground. The dog shrieked for mercy and the other two fled with their tails
between their legs. Boxer looked at Napoleon to know whether he should crush the dog to death or let it go. Napoleon
appeared to change countenance, and sharply ordered Boxer to let the dog go, whereat Boxer lifted his hoof, and the dog
slunk away, bruised and howling.
Presently the tumult died down. 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, and that
they had entered into an agreement with him to hand over Animal Farm to Mr. Frederick. 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.
From Chapter 10
And yet the animals never gave up hope. More, they never lost, even for an instant, their sense of honour and privilege in
being members of Animal Farm. They were still the only farm in the whole county — in all England! — owned and
operated by animals. Not one of them, not even the youngest, not even the newcomers who had been brought from farms
ten or twenty miles away, ever ceased to marvel at that. And when they heard the gun booming and saw the green flag
fluttering at the masthead, their hearts swelled with imperishable pride, and the talk turned always towards the old heroic
days, the expulsion of Jones, the writing of the Seven Commandments, the great battles in which the human invaders had
been defeated. None of the old dreams had been abandoned. The Republic of the Animals which Major had foretold, when
the green fields of England should be untrodden by human feet, was still believed in. Some day it was coming: it might
not be soon, it might not be with in the lifetime of any animal now living, but still it was coming. Even 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.
One day in early summer Squealer ordered the sheep to follow him, and led them out to a piece of waste ground at
the other end of the farm, which had become overgrown with birch saplings. The sheep spent the whole day there
browsing at the leaves under Squealer’s supervision. In the evening he returned to the farmhouse himself, but, as it was
warm weather, told the sheep to stay where they were. It ended by their remaining there for a whole week, during which
time the other animals saw nothing of them. Squealer was with them for the greater part of every day. He was, he said,
teaching them to sing a new song, for which privacy was needed.
It was just after the sheep had returned, on a pleasant evening when the animals had finished work and were
making their way back to the farm buildings, that the terrified neighing of a horse sounded from the yard. Startled, the
animals stopped in their tracks. It was Clover’s voice. She neighed again, and 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.
