Animal farm notes

Animal Farm

Chapter by chapter: Key Points

CHAPTER 1

·         Mr. Jones, the owner of Manor Farm, is criticised in the very first paragraph. He is excessively “drunk” and “he lurched across the yard”.

·         This contrasts strongly with the feeling of anticipation and excitement as the animals gather to hear the dream of “old Major … a majestic-looking pig”.

·         Orwell already suggests the pigs as power-hungry, greedy monsters as they settle down “in the straw immediately in front of the platform” where old Major is ensconced. So already it appears that some animals are more equal than others.

·         To this first meeting of the animals in the barn, Orwell brings a gentle, warm quality, mixing whimsically with a dash of absurdity.

·         Major has a good point: difficult to disagree with it.

CHAPTER 2

• In the first paragraph of this chapter old Major dies. By the end of the chapter, when the pigs steal the milk for themselves, the corruption of Major’s ideal is already beginning.
• The animals, led by the pigs, hold “secret meetings in the barn” to keep Old Major’s message alive, with varying degrees of success in overcoming the animals’ “stupidity and apathy”.  (Hard words!)
• The pigs have to argue “very hard” to counter Moses’s stories of Sugarcandy Mountain. Why is his story so believable?
• When Mr Jones falls into a drunken stupor and neglects to feed the animals for days, the hungry animals rebel and expel the humans. They are united by hunger, and that is what triggers the Rebellion, not Animalism.
• To remind them of their tormentors, the farmhouse is unanimously declared a museum: “All were agreed that no animal must ever live there.” Ironically, this memorial to their former oppressors (Jones and his men) will become the home of their new oppressors (the pigs). In other words: corruption merely breeds corruption. (Think of a better line than this one to go after “In other words, the oppressed can become the oppressors / things everyone decided now will not necessarily last very long.….”)
• The principles of Animalism are painted on a wall “in great white letters” and the animals believe that these Seven Commandments form “an unalterable law by which all the animals on Animal Farm must live for ever after”. (Key word here?)

Hint: Know the Seven Commandments very well. Take special notice of those commandments that are revised and why, and those which completely disappear and why, as well as how the seventh commandment, “All animals are equal”, is changed.

CHAPTER 3 

·         The animals’ blind respect for the superiority of the pigs erodes their independence and individuality and equality. (Was there any genuine independence and individuality and equality?)  (Is “blind respect” an accurate description?)

• Orwell snidely comments: “The pigs did not actually work, but directed and supervised the others.” No hard words here and he doesn’t give the sentence any prominence or emphasis – why…