ANIMAL FARM

The Seven Commandments in Animal Farm and Animalism. Three of the

pigs, Napoleon, Snowball and Squealer, set about making a formal school of
thought based on Old Major’s speech. They name the concept Animalism and
they create Seven Commandments that dictate the principles of Animalism. The
commandments are:
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.
The Animal Farm Seven Commandments represent the basic ideas underlying
Animalism. Old Major shared his beliefs that the Animals should have equality
and they should run the farm for themselves. They do not need a human master to
survive. . Humans do not produce anything on their own. The humans take
everything from the animals and yet treat them like slaves. The commandments
also act as the rules of animal farm. In short, the animals can not do anything that
is inherently human. They can only use the machinery needed for the farm work
but anything unnecessary and luxurious like clothes, beds and alcohol is banned.
CHARACTERS
NAPOLEON
Napoleon is the primary antagonist of the novel. He is a pig who is one of Old
Major’s disciples, along with Snowball. At first, Napoleon and Snowball work
together to develop the idea of Animalism and spread it among other animals of
the farm. But soon Napoleon
Proves to have very different goals than Snowball. Whereas Snowball is
relatively idealistic and wants to help others, Napoleon soon proves himself as
cruel and power hungry. When the conflict with Snowball comes head to head
over whether or not to build a windmill, Napoleon reveals that he has trained nine
puppies to build a secret patrol force, and then he chases Snowball off the farm.
Then he builds a totalitarian state at Animal Farm. He maintains his rule by
demanding unwavering loyalty and trust from the animals. He achieves his goal
through intimidation and spread of misinformation throughout his own
propaganda. Napoleon is always the one to make grand, sinister sounding
pronouncements, but always sends the pig Squealer around to convince everyone
that Napoleon is actually acting in their best interests and never for his self-
interests. Throughout the novel, Napoleon proves himself to be paranoid, self-
important and unable to accept that he is wrong. He always blames all manner of
horrible things and wrongdoings to either Snowball or neighboring farms. Soon
he becomes undistinguishable from humans, he is fat, powerful and begins to
walk on two legs and carry a whip. In his eyes, it is a good thing that all the other
animals are powerless and hungry. Napoleon ultimately changes Animal Farm’s
name back to Manor Firm in a bid to make it more relatable to farmers. By doing
this, he proves himself to be as corrupt, cruel, unfaithful and power hungry as his
human companions. Napoleon represents Stalin, who led the Soviet Union from
1930 until his death in 1953.
SNOWBALL
At first, Snowball is a friend of Napoleon’s. Together, Snowball and Napoleon
develop the theory of Animalism from the ideas of Old Major’s speech, and later
they distill those ideas down into Seven Commandments. Snowball is responsible
for creating the maxim, “Four legs good, two legs bad” which he teaches the
sheep and other less intelligent animals to give them some idea about the seven
commandments. As time goes by, the two pigs develop an intense rivalry
between them. Snowball is somewhat idealistic
Individual; he proposes that all the animals in the farm should work together to
build a windmill in order to generate electricity, which will help reduce their
work to three days a week. He also comes up with other schemes and ideas aimed
at improving animals lives and educate them and spread the news of the rebellion
far and wide. Beside this, Snowball still seems to exploit other animals for his
own good, as when he says nothing about taking the milk and apples for the pigs
only. On the day when the animals vote to build the windmill, Napoleon exiles
Snowball by setting his nine dogs on him. After this Snowball disappears as a
character from the novel, yet Napoleon continues to invoke him as a nefarious
figure who conspires against Animal Farm and involved with the humans to
destroy the farm. Through this Napoleon discredits Snowball’s bravery and
actions in the Battle of the Cowshed. Snowball symbolizes Trotsky, a rival of
Stalin exiled from Russia and assassinated on Stalin’s orders in Mexico in 1940
OLD MAJOR
A revered old boar who, at the beginning of the novel, gathers the animals
together to speak to them about what is wrong with their world. He proposes that
humanity is their one true enemy, as humans profit off what animals produce and
humans themselves don’t produce anything. He mentions that humans like Mr.
Jones are cruel, unfeeling and abuse those below them. Old Major dies a few
months before the revolution and so he never gets to see his ideas play out in the
real world. Old major’s speech forms the basis of Animalism, a theory that
Napoleon and Snowball develop in the next three months after Old Major’s death.
Napoleon eventually disinter Old Major’s head so that the animals can walk past
it and pay respect. Old Major symbolizes both Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin, the
fathers of communism.

SQUEALER
Squealer is a fat pig who is a skilled orator. Squealer works closely with
Snowball and Napoleon at first, later just Napoleon- to interpret what the pig’s
plan is for the animals. Squealer is wonderfully able to convince animals of
anything, and he is very effective in his job. Sometimes he is affective because of
the way he is able to manipulate language and other times, he is effective because
of Napoleon’s nine guard dogs. Squealer benefits from Napoleon’s rule, as
Squealer is often tasked with addressing the animals during the Sunday meetings
and gets the same extensive rations as the rest of the pigs. To maintain control,
his most used phrase is, “You don’t want Jones back?” By saying this, he
manipulates the animals into believing him. Squealer revises history, changing
Snowball from a hero to a coward. At the end of the novel, squealer learns to
walk on two legs and teaches the sheep his new maxim “Four legs good, two legs
better”. Squealer represents the Soviet press, which Stalin controlled throughout
his life.
BOXER
Boxer is a huge, gentle carthorse. Boxer is the backbone of the farm. He is strong,
hard working and loyal. Boxer isn’t especially intelligent, he only learnt the first
four letters of alphabet – but Old Major’s speech and the Seven Commandments
appeal to his generous nature. Because of this, he becomes Napoleon and
Snowball’s biggest disciples. Everyone looks up to Boxer because of his hard
work and willingness to sacrifice his sleep and leisure time to volunteer at the
windmill. Never feeling discouraged, his response to every problem is, I will
work harder” or “Napoleon is always right”. In the Battle of Cowshed, Boxer
proves to be a great asset to the animals due to his unimaginable strength. As
such an hardworking and loyal member of the farm, the other animals are
shocked when at a meeting, three of Napoleon’s attack dogs come after Boxer.
Boxer is easily able to defend himself by kicking the dogs away. Despite all these
events, Boxer continues to trust
Napoleon. In the end, Boxer gets sent of to humans to slaughter by Napoleon and
his death goes to benefit the ruling class of pigs on Animal Farm.