ANIMAL FARM
ANIMAL FARM
Chapter One: Summary
As the story opens on Mr. Jones's farm, the farm animals are preparing to meet after Mr. Jones goes to sleep, to hear the words that the old and well-respected pig, Old Major, wants to say to them. The animals gather around as Old Major tells them that he had a dream the previous night and senses that he will not live much longer. As the animals prepare for his speech, the narrator identifies several of the animals which will become more important in the story: the cart-horses Boxer and Clover, the old donkey Benjamin, and Mollie the pretty mare. Before he dies, he wants to tell the animals what he has observed and learned in his twelve years. Old Major goes on to …show more content…
The first two and last two commandments are aimed at reinforcing the unity of the animal world and establishing some basic beliefs for the animals to share. Commandments 3-5, which explicitly forbid the animals to engage in human activities such as sleeping in beds, wearing clothes, or drinking alcohol, are fundamentally different. With these Commandments, the animal society attaches a significance and prestige to these vestiges of human life that they might have not developed otherwise. With no taboos against wearing the Jones's clothes, for example, one can imagine a scenario where the animals wear the clothes briefly as a curiosity, with no harm done. By forbidding these acts, the Revolutionary leaders turn the items into signifiers of prestige and social standing, making the pigs' eventual adoption of human habits particularly …show more content…
By saying that Snowball was a traitor from the beginningthat he was never truly concerned with the animals' welfare and was fooling them all alongNapoleon attempts to discredit the entire early history of the revolution. By convincing the animals to go along with this toughest ideological shift, Squealer and Napoleon pave the way for their future changes.
This ideological departure is further symbolized by the decision to abolish the singing of "Beasts of England." When the animals' traditional anthem is replaced by a tune praising Animal Farm as the ideal society, the animals never quite embrace the new song in the same way. This reluctance to accept the new song, especially when compared with the animals' relative ease at accepting new laws, work schedules, and ideologies, is a telling commentary on the enduring power of culture, and the difficulties faced by regimes that attempt to subvert a society's low-level cultural
Chapter One: Summary
As the story opens on Mr. Jones's farm, the farm animals are preparing to meet after Mr. Jones goes to sleep, to hear the words that the old and well-respected pig, Old Major, wants to say to them. The animals gather around as Old Major tells them that he had a dream the previous night and senses that he will not live much longer. As the animals prepare for his speech, the narrator identifies several of the animals which will become more important in the story: the cart-horses Boxer and Clover, the old donkey Benjamin, and Mollie the pretty mare. Before he dies, he wants to tell the animals what he has observed and learned in his twelve years. Old Major goes on to …show more content…
The first two and last two commandments are aimed at reinforcing the unity of the animal world and establishing some basic beliefs for the animals to share. Commandments 3-5, which explicitly forbid the animals to engage in human activities such as sleeping in beds, wearing clothes, or drinking alcohol, are fundamentally different. With these Commandments, the animal society attaches a significance and prestige to these vestiges of human life that they might have not developed otherwise. With no taboos against wearing the Jones's clothes, for example, one can imagine a scenario where the animals wear the clothes briefly as a curiosity, with no harm done. By forbidding these acts, the Revolutionary leaders turn the items into signifiers of prestige and social standing, making the pigs' eventual adoption of human habits particularly …show more content…
By saying that Snowball was a traitor from the beginningthat he was never truly concerned with the animals' welfare and was fooling them all alongNapoleon attempts to discredit the entire early history of the revolution. By convincing the animals to go along with this toughest ideological shift, Squealer and Napoleon pave the way for their future changes.
This ideological departure is further symbolized by the decision to abolish the singing of "Beasts of England." When the animals' traditional anthem is replaced by a tune praising Animal Farm as the ideal society, the animals never quite embrace the new song in the same way. This reluctance to accept the new song, especially when compared with the animals' relative ease at accepting new laws, work schedules, and ideologies, is a telling commentary on the enduring power of culture, and the difficulties faced by regimes that attempt to subvert a society's low-level cultural