Animal Farm
by George Orwell
Table of Contents
Chapter 7-Chapter 10
Chapter Seven
Chapter seven helps highlight the impact of outside forces on a political system. The winter is a very difficult one, which places Animal Farm under serious distress. However, Napoleon has placed himself in a position in which he cannot be honest with the animals about the conditions the farm is facing. If everything is better under his control, which is the position that he has steadfastly maintained since evicting Snowball from the farm, then the farm should have abundant resources to feed and care for all of the animals. A lack of such resources would reveal that Napoleon is not capable of leading the farm without difficulties. While such a question may seem reasonable in the face of something so outside of one’s control as the weather, this type of question would completely undermine Napoleon’s role as a dictator. Therefore, he maintains an image of abundance to the animals, while scrambling behind the scenes to arrange for the resources needed to sustain the animals on the farm.
Despite Napoleon’s machinations, the animals begin to feel the threat of the harsh winter. There is not enough food to keep the animals at their current ration levels. Therefore, food rations are cut, which places many of the animals at risk of starvation. Of course, the pigs are never threatened with starvation, leading many of the animals to examine the inequities between the treatment of the various animals. However, Napoleon uses this impending starvation as a way to introduce another type of exploitation to the farm. Napoleon informs the animals that he intends to sell eggs to the neighbors. On the one hand, eggs are eggs, and it would be overreaching to suggest that Orwell meant the eggs as an analogy for forced child labor or actual slavery. On the other hand, eggs are not simply a product created by the hens; they are the means by which the chickens procreate, so it is important to examine those implications when considering whether Napoleon had the right to sell the eggs. The hens do protest Napoleon’s action and...
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