---
title: "Animal Farm"
author: "George Orwell"
category: "Philosophy"
url: "https://himanshuat.com/books/animal-farm"
---
# Animal Farm

*George Orwell, 1945*

## Summary

The animals of Manor Farm, inspired by Old Major's dying vision of an equal society free from human exploitation, drive out Mr. Jones and rename the farm Animal Farm. The pigs, led first by Snowball and Napoleon, take charge of organization and literacy. Within a generation, Napoleon expels Snowball, rewrites the history of the revolution, works the other animals harder than the farmer ever did, and trades with the humans he once called enemies.

Orwell's allegory maps closely to Soviet history (Old Major is Marx/Lenin, Snowball is Trotsky, Napoleon is Stalin, Squealer is the propaganda apparatus), but the fable works without the historical key. The mechanics are the part that lasts: language is manipulated first ("Four legs good, two legs bad" becomes "Four legs good, two legs better"), then history is rewritten, then violence is normalized, and eventually the original commandments are erased so quietly that the animals aren't sure what they once said.

Boxer, the draft horse who believes absolutely in Napoleon and works himself to death, is the most tragic figure. His loyalty is genuine and his destruction is mundane. He's sold to the knacker when he can no longer work.

The final scene, in which the other animals look through the farmhouse window at pigs and humans playing cards and can no longer tell which is which, ends the book without a line of commentary.

## Quotes

> "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others."

> "The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which."

---

Source: https://himanshuat.com/books/animal-farm