ANIMAL FARM

The Seven Commandments in Animal Farm and Animalism.

Three of the pigs, Napoleon, Snowball and Squealer, set about
making a formal school of thought based on Old Major’s speech.
They name the concept Animalism and they create Seven
Commandments that dictate the principles of Animalism. The
commandments are:
1. Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy.
2. Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend.
3. No animal shall wear clothes.
4. No animal shall sleep in a bed.
5. No animal shall drink alcohol.
6. No animal shall kill any other animal.
7. All animals are equal.
The Animal Farm Seven Commandments represent the basic ideas
underlying Animalism. Old Major shared his beliefs that the Animals
should have equality and they should run the farm for themselves.
They do not need a human master to survive. . Humans do not
produce anything on their own. The humans take everything from
the animals and yet treat them like slaves. The commandments also
act as the rules of animal farm. In short, the animals can not do
anything that is inherently human. They can only use the machinery
needed for the farm work but anything unnecessary and luxurious
like clothes, beds and alcohol is banned.
CHARACTERS
NAPOLEON
Napoleon is the primary antagonist of the novel. He is a pig who is
one of Old Major’s disciples, along with Snowball. At first, Napoleon
and Snowball work together to develop the idea of Animalism and
spread it among other animals of the farm. But soon Napoleon
Proves to have very different goals than Snowball. Whereas
Snowball is relatively idealistic and wants to help others, Napoleon
soon proves himself as cruel and power hungry. When the conflict
with Snowball comes head to head over whether or not to build a
windmill, Napoleon reveals that he has trained nine puppies to build
a secret patrol force, and then he chases Snowball off the farm.
Then he builds a totalitarian state at Animal Farm. He maintains his
rule by demanding unwavering loyalty and trust from the animals.
He achieves his goal through intimidation and spread of
misinformation throughout his own propaganda. Napoleon is
always the one to make grand, sinister sounding pronouncements,
but always sends the pig Squealer around to convince everyone
that Napoleon is actually acting in their best interests and never for
his self-interests. Throughout the novel, Napoleon proves himself to
be paranoid, self-important and unable to accept that he is wrong.
He always blames all manner of horrible things and wrongdoings to
either Snowball or neighboring farms. Soon he becomes
undistinguishable from humans, he is fat, powerful and begins to
walk on two legs and carry a whip. In his eyes, it is a good thing that
all the other animals are powerless and hungry. Napoleon
ultimately changes Animal Farm’s name back to Manor Firm in a bid
to make it more relatable to farmers. By doing this, he proves
himself to be as corrupt, cruel, unfaithful and power hungry as his
human companions. Napoleon represents Stalin, who led the Soviet
Union from 1930 until his death in 1953.
SNOWBALL
At first, Snowball is a friend of Napoleon’s. Together, Snowball and
Napoleon develop the theory of Animalism from the ideas of Old
Major’s speech, and later they distill those ideas down into Seven
Commandments. Snowball is responsible for creating the maxim,
“Four legs good, two legs bad” which he teaches the sheep and
other less intelligent animals to give them some idea about the
seven commandments. As time goes by, the two pigs develop an
intense rivalry between them. Snowball is somewhat idealistic
Individual; he proposes that all the animals in the farm should work
together to build a windmill in order to generate electricity, which
will help reduce their work to three days a week. He also comes up
with other schemes and ideas aimed at improving animals lives and
educate them and spread the news of the rebellion far and wide.
Beside this, Snowball still seems to exploit other animals for his
own good, as when he says nothing about taking the milk and
apples for the pigs only. On the day when the animals vote to build
the windmill, Napoleon exiles Snowball by setting his nine dogs on
him. After this Snowball disappears as a character from the novel,
yet Napoleon continues to invoke him as a nefarious figure who
conspires against Animal Farm and involved with the humans to
destroy the farm. Through this Napoleon discredits Snowball’s
bravery and actions in the Battle of the Cowshed. Snowball
symbolizes Trotsky, a rival of Stalin exiled from Russia and
assassinated on Stalin’s orders in Mexico in 1940
OLD MAJOR
A revered old boar who, at the beginning of the novel, gathers the
animals together to speak to them about what is wrong with their
world. He proposes that humanity is their one true enemy, as
humans profit off what animals produce and humans themselves
don’t produce anything. He mentions that humans like Mr. Jones
are cruel, unfeeling and abuse those below them. Old Major dies a
few months before the revolution and so he never gets to see his
ideas play out in the real world. Old major’s speech forms the basis
of Animalism, a theory that Napoleon and Snowball develop in the
next three months after Old Major’s death. Napoleon eventually
disinter Old Major’s head so that the animals can walk past it and
pay respect. Old Major symbolizes both Karl Marx and Vladimir
Lenin, the fathers of communism.
 SQUEALER
Squealer is a fat pig who is a skilled orator. Squealer works closely
with Snowball and Napoleon at first, later just Napoleon- to
interpret what the pig’s plan is for the animals. Squealer is
wonderfully able to convince animals of anything, and he is very
effective in his job. Sometimes he is affective because of the way he
is able to manipulate language and other times, he is effective
because of Napoleon’s nine guard dogs. Squealer benefits from
Napoleon’s rule, as Squealer is often tasked with addressing the
animals during the Sunday meetings and gets the same extensive
rations as the rest of the pigs. To maintain control, his most used
phrase is, “You don’t want Jones back?” By saying this, he
manipulates the animals into believing him. Squealer revises
history, changing Snowball from a hero to a coward. At the end of
the novel, squealer learns to walk on two legs and teaches the
sheep his new maxim “Four legs good, two legs better”. Squealer
represents the Soviet press, which Stalin controlled throughout his
life.
BOXER
Boxer is a huge, gentle carthorse. Boxer is the backbone of the
farm. He is strong, hard working and loyal. Boxer isn’t especially
intelligent, he only learnt the first four letters of alphabet – but Old
Major’s speech and the Seven Commandments appeal to his
generous nature. Because of this, he becomes Napoleon and
Snowball’s biggest disciples. Everyone looks up to Boxer because
of his hard work and willingness to sacrifice his sleep and leisure
time to volunteer at the windmill. Never feeling discouraged, his
response to every problem is, I will work harder” or “Napoleon is
always right”. In the Battle of Cowshed, Boxer proves to be a great
asset to the animals due to his unimaginable strength. As such an
hardworking and loyal member of the farm, the other animals are
shocked when at a meeting, three of Napoleon’s attack dogs come
after Boxer. Boxer is easily able to defend himself by kicking the
dogs away. Despite all these events, Boxer continues to trust
Napoleon. In the end, Boxer gets sent of to humans to slaughter by
Napoleon and his death goes to benefit the ruling class of pigs on
Animal Farm.