Animal Farm
What's covered
Key facts
Characters
Benjamin is the oldest animal on the farm, and the worst tempered; alone among the animals he never laughs, saying he sees nothing to laugh at, and he reads as well as any pig but never uses the ability (Ch.1 and 3).
Context
Bitesize maps the animals onto Russian history: Mr Jones represents Tsar Nicholas II, Napoleon represents Joseph Stalin, Snowball represents Leon Trotsky, and Boxer represents the hardworking, uneducated working class and peasants of Russia.
Key quotations: The other animals and the humans
Boxer (Ch.5), after Snowball's expulsion: "If Comrade Napoleon says it, it must be right." He then adopts the maxim "Napoleon is always right" in addition to his motto "I will work harder." Bitesize says he is too used to taking orders to fight off the pigs and dogs.
Key quotations: The pigs
Squealer (Ch.3), justifying why the pigs keep the milk and apples: "We pigs are brainworkers."
Language and form
Animal Farm is written in ten chapters that can be divided into three sections: the Dream, the Rebellion and Napoleon's regime.
Plot and structure
In Chapter 9 Boxer collapses while hauling stone, and a van marked "Horse Slaughterer and Glue Boiler" takes him away; Squealer then claims Boxer died in the hospital at Willingdon.
Themes
The pigs secretly change the Commandments, adding "with sheets" to the Fourth (Ch.6), "without cause" to the Sixth and "to excess" to the Fifth (Ch.8), and the animals are persuaded that they had remembered the wording wrongly.
Characters
Benjamin reads aloud the lettering on the van that takes Boxer away, "Horse Slaughterer and Glue Boiler", and gallops for the first time in anyone's memory to warn the others (Ch.9).
Context
One publisher accepted the book, then decided to consult the Ministry of Information, and afterwards wrote that the fable followed the progress of the Russian Soviets so completely that it could apply only to Russia.
Key quotations: The other animals and the humans
Benjamin (Ch.3), when asked whether he is happier now that Jones is gone: "Donkeys live a long time. None of you has ever seen a dead donkey."
Practice questions with answers
A taste of the 55 questions in this topic, answers marked. Sign up to practise the full set with spaced repetition.
Which pig is described as "not much of a talker, but with a reputation for getting his own way"?
- ✓Napoleon
- •Old Major
- •Snowball
- •Squealer
What did Orwell write Animal Farm to criticise?
- ✓How the Russian Revolution was corrupted by its leaders
- •The cruelty of British farmers to their animals
- •The ideals of Marxism and the Russian Revolution
- •The rise of Fascism in Germany and Italy
What does Boxer's maxim "Napoleon is always right" show about him?
- ✓He obeys Napoleon without questioning him
- •He plans to replace Napoleon as leader
- •He secretly doubts Napoleon's judgement
- •He wants Squealer to speak for him
Squealer warns that "Jones would come back!" to justify what?
- •Snowball's expulsion from the farm
- •The building of the first windmill
- ✓The pigs keeping the milk and apples for themselves
- •The pigs moving into Mr Jones's farmhouse
What does the cyclical shape of Animal Farm suggest?
- •Cruel leaders are always overthrown by the animals
- •Equality is easy to achieve once the pigs are in charge
- ✓Oppression is hard to escape and equality must be fought for
- •Revolution brings lasting freedom to those who work hardest
What finally pushes the animals to rebel against Mr Jones in Chapter 2?
- •He brings a new farmer to take over
- ✓He gets drunk and leaves them unfed
- •He locks the animals out of the barn
- •He sells Old Major to a slaughterer
Three minutes a day. Knowledge that sticks.
Practise all 55 Animal Farm questions with spaced repetition, so what you revise today is still there in the exam. Free to use, no card needed.