Animal FarmChapter 8-10

Chapter 8

THE WINDMILLCentral motif of this chapter

The animals work, starve, praise, fight, are defeated

Napoleon separates, cheats/is cheated, negotiates, drinks, alters

Squealer orders, convinces, paints, absents himself, falls

The humans cheat, destroy, are chased

SUMMARY

“No animal shall kill any other animal without cause.”

Reading of statistics, prove food production is better.

Napoleon’s ego.Poem“Napoleon mill”N sells timber to Frederick.Attack AF and windmill blown up.Barley…

POWER AND CORRUPTION

Napoleon glorifies himself

More concerned with own importance.Creates a cult.

EGOMANIAC

Hardly appears in

public

Lives apart from other pigs

Gun fired on his birthday

Pinkeye tastes his food

Names the mill after himself

Minimus’s poem of flattery

written on barn wall

Eats only from the Crown Derby dinner

service

Animals flatter him

Animals file past him on a bed of straw

Poem by Minimus

Orwell makes fun of the poem by using:Religious referencesFormal use of wordsWeak rhymesLast line of stanzas

The animals are cheated

“The animals deserve to be cheated”Do you agree or disagree with this

statement?Motivate.

Battle of the windmill

The animals win at a terrible cost (wounded or killed).

Windmill is blown up.Pigs cannot admit this, S explaining away the

price the animals have to pay.Boxer cannot believe him (Thanks to N they won

back the ground).“Then we have won back what we had before”Windmill previously – symbolised animals’ hopes.Windmill now – dream has become a nightmare.

Incident of alcohol

Betray principles of Animalism.Squealer alters Commandment.Plant barley in paddock – implications for

Boxer.

Chapter 9

Boxer continues to work hard, wants to see windmill completed before he retires when he is 12.

So far no animal has been allowed to retire.Rations “readjusted” – “reduced”, Squealer

still uses statistics to make them believe they are better off.

The piglets

31 piglets, N is their father and – other animals will have

to build a school for them.Not allowed to play with the other animals

and get special privileges.

Ruthlessness of the pigs

Pigs get a ration of beer every day.Other animals are kept busy with special

celebrations – take minds off hardships they are suffering.

Farm is a Republic, N only candidate for president.

Moses returns… Sugarcandy Mountain.Boxer collapses and taken away by horse

slaughterer’s wagon.Squealer convinces animals that he had been with

Boxer when he died “happily and with dignity”.

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“Napoleon is always right”Special banquet to celebrate B’s life.Money to order a case of whiskey.

Sattire on the birth of a totalitarian state

Pigs who are the ruling class get special privileges.

Language is misused e.g. “readjusted” and “spontaneous”.

Squealer continues to use propaganda, lies, false statistics, distortion of history to deceive the masses.

Wrath of the pigs

Lower animals’ sacrifices have been in vain.Propaganda can make the biggest lie sound

convincing.N hopes that the animals will be prepared to

endure their sufferings in hope of a better life after death.

CLIMAX – N ELECTION AS PRESIDENTAnimals under oppression of the new ruling

class – THE PIGS.

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Animals do not realise that they have new rulers.

They think they are free of mankind’s domination.

Chapter 10

Farm is prosperous.Windmill has been finished, not used for

power and to make life easier.Mill corn and make m0ney for the pigs,

others don’t get share and still work hard.Type up reports and burn them.Still believe they are free and proud to be

part of the only farm run by animals.

Changing of the pigs into humans

Pigs are carrying whips and walking upright on two legs.

Wear clothes, install a telephone, get a radio and newspapers.

“Four legs good, two legs better”One commandment left: “All animals are

equal but some animals are more equal than others”

Neighbouring farmers come for a tour of AF.

…

New rules: banning of Sunday marches past Old Major’s skull, the horn and hoof on the flag and the word “Comrade”.

Manor Farm Animal Farm Manor Farm

No difference between a pig and a human.

In conclusion

Destruction of Major’s dream of an animal utopia.

Narrator’s p.o.v sympathetic towards the common animals.

The revolutionary leaders become just like those that they originally rebelled against.

ANSWERS CHAPTER 8 PLOT

1. The animalsThe animals work even harder than in the previous year; eat no more than they had done in Jones’ day; praise Napoleon for ever-successful achievement, however trivial; are cheated by Frederick in the timber deal; fight the humans after they blow up the windmill.

2. NapoleonHe separates himself from the other animals; approves of the poem composed by Minimus, negotiates with Frederick and Pilkington about selling the farm’s timber to them; cheats by playing one human off against the other; is cheated by Frederick who pays with forged banknotes; gets drunk on whisky; alters the Fifth Commandment to ”No animal shall drink alcohol to excess”.

3. SquealerHe orders the animals to do what Napoleon decrees; convinces the animals that they are better off than they were in Jones’s day; paints Napoleon’s portrait on the barn wall; absents himself from the Battle of the Windmill; falls off the ladder while changing the Fifth Commandment.

4. The humansThey cheat the animals out of the timber, destroy the windmill; are chased off the farm.

Napoleon glorifies himself

This is when the animals file past him as he reposes, wearing his decorations, on a bed of straw.

The poem by Minimus

1. The religious references give it a (false) holy quality.

2. The old-fashioned words try to make the subject matter seem more important than it is.

3. The weak rhymes lack poetic quality and make the poem childish and simple.

4. The last line is predictable.All these devices have a satirical function; we laugh at the way Napoleon is praised to excess.

The incident of the alcohol

1. It breaks the Fifth Commandment. The pigs have adopted the humans’ (and especially Jones’) bad habits and have become like the enemy they overthrew.

2. He was suffering from a hangover and at that stage felt as though he was going to die.

3. In spite of the fact that the animals see Squealer altering the Fifth Commandment, they still continue to follow blindly.

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4. The pigs betray the principles of animalism and pursue their own pleasures.

5. Boxer will never be allowed to retire. This foreshadows his cruel death.

ANSWERS CHAPTER 9

14. rations 11. readjustment

4. figures 7. green

19 DOWN. mill 18. Willingdon 15. end 16. maxim1. fourteen 6. knackers 5. whisky 19 ACROSS.

Moses2. Sugarcandy 20. mountain 10. beer 17. Clover3. Benjamin 12. Napoleon 9. oration 8. loyal13. TT

THE BRAINWASHING OF THE ANIMALS

What the pigs say/do What the reality is3. Napoleon is elected president. 4. Pigs’ decision only, no elections.7. Snowball’s wounds were caused by Napoleon’s teeth.

5. They welcome him because he gives the animals hope of a better life.

9. Squealer stayed with Boxer to the end.

6. Snowball fought against Jones.

12. The pigs will hold a memorial banquet in Boxer’s honour

8. Boxer is sent to the knacker’s.

10. The sign “Horse Slaughterer” is correct.11. Boxer had no grave; there was no laurel wreath.

CHAPTER 10 ANSWERS

1. Nobody is left to remind the animals of the rebellion.

2. They will unquestioningly obey the pigs and will not constitute a threat.

3. All the animals were supposed to benefit; the reality is that only the pigs and the dogs are better off.

4. Orwell is using satire. It is humorous as it imitates and mocks the actions of humans, and shows how effort is wasted.

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5. Orwell agrees with this opinion because he is not positive about a situation where too much power is held by a few.

6. It drowns out any criticism the animals were about to voice.

7. If all animals are equal, there can be no degrees of equality. This is the contradiction. Orwell wanted to show the abuse of power. By making the pigs “more equal” he is pointing out how the pigs have taken advantage of their power.

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8. They carry whips, walk on hind legs, buy themselves a wireless set, install a telephone, drink an play cards. They imitate the very beings whom they initially overthrew and rejected.

9. The pigs have turned into humans and are just as corrupt and oppressive as Jones was. The qualities they both share are evil and vile.