Animal Farm - Neoteric

George Orwell

If you need to read up on the movement this work belongs to you can click the following link: Postmodernism

Book beginning: page 1

The words of Beast of England were known everywhere regardless of the fact that there was no overall rebellion (p25). The words were nearly forgotten once, and revived from old Major’s distant memory, against all odds, managing to survive. Was the secret wide scale singing of the song in chapter X its way of keeping it from being forgotten once more, so that it lived on for the next rebellion? The song was felt by the humans as a prophecy of their future doom (p26).

When the pigs said something it was usually so general that it was actually true, even though the reasons for both parties would be different. For example, when Napoleon says no one will need to make contact with the humans for trading purposes, he says it would be “most undesirable” (p43). This is true because the animals dreaded the thought of contact, but for Napoleon it was undesirable because he wanted to keep them shut off from any outside influences.

Although it is a lie that Squealer was there in Boxer’s last moments, it was true that Boxer wanted the animals to finish the windmill and have courage (p83). In a way Squealer was honouring Boxer’s memory, just for the wrong reasons.

The pigs introduced ideas in their ideal state and then slowly put them into action. Such as with the flag to represent the “Republic of the Animals which would arise when the human race had finally been overthrown” (p19). Here, the animals had understandably mistaken “overthrown” for the original dream’s “vanished” (p6), and willingly worked towards the cause, not realising Napoleon’s cause was now a different one.
The reader can see that the animals do not have very well-rounded lives, since all Boxer’s problems can be answered with two maxims: the first, I will work harder; and the second, Napoleon is always right (p41).
To a certain point, Napoleon delegated responsibilities to Boxer. Napoleon did not take an ongoing interest in motivating the animals whilst building the windmill, however, he knew that Boxer was there to take care of the issue (p80).

The new seating set up once Napoleon is leader is somewhat war-like: “Napoleon, Squealer and Minimus […] sat on the front of the raised platform, with the nine young dogs forming a semicircle round them, and the other pigs sat behind. The rest of the animals sat facing them” (p38).
When the windmill was finished Napoleon came to congratulate the animals himself, and after all of their hard work name it Napoleon Mill (p66). Should the name perhaps have been in dedication to the animals?
When Napoleon decided to sell the timber to Frederick, he sent insulting messages to Mr Pilkington (p66), was there any need for this? He then had to apologise to Mr Pilkington to mend ties after Napoleon was cheated out of the money by Frederick.
Why would the pigs be in ecstasies because their leader was cunning, dealing through lies and trusted no one? (p67).
What was the point of the Battle of the Windmill from the humans’ point of view, was it just to destroy it? (p70).
By letting Mr Pilkington finish his toast before correcting him on the farm’s name change, means everyone gets to drink double the amount (p94).

Snowball spoke in the long term when he announced his plan for the windmill, and Napoleon spoke in the short term when talking of the food they needed now (p33). Of course, no one was to know that this was so Napoleon could take baby steps towards a different plan.

Old Major asks “is this simply part of the order of Nature?” (p3) when talking of the misery and slavery of animals, he answers “no, [it is] because nearly the whole of the produce of our labour is stolen from us by human beings” (p4). Later on, however, it is said that it was natural that the pigs with their superior knowledge should assume leadership (p17), meaning that misery and slavery is a natural system because there would always be one species with intellectual superiority, and they would always use it to exploit.
The animals knew what they were doing when it came to farming, so when the potatoes were ruined because they were not properly covered, where was the error? Not enough materials to cover them properly or not enough time to do so? (p49).
Napoleon never sacrificed his privileges he just made everyone else work harder and longer hours, giving them less in return (p76). If Napoleon could not afford those things, then he should have learnt to go without them.
Mr Pilkington asked “was not the labour problem the same everywhere?” (p92), by which he means the wish for the lower class to work without enough to survive on and doing so quietly, while the upper class becomes richer.

The animals believed that everything they did was for their own benefit (p40), however, this was not the case. It was clear that the pigs were taking all of the profit, a system of deception which worked because there was so much built-in hate towards the humans.
The animals knew about all of the luxuries that the pigs had but never did anything to receive some themselves. Not even when they thought they might be getting hot mash for their supper but then none appeared (p76).

Once Napoleon starts trading, the animals are not only losing time for ploughing and harvesting the fields to build the windmill, but now are also selling off some of the stored food that they do have, setting themselves up for a very hard winter (p42).
Everyone believing that Benjamin was a complete cynic shows how things can always go further, by the end he was “more morose and taciturn than ever” (p85).

How long could the pigs keep lying to the other animals? Is this why they knew that only “iron discipline” would suffice? (p37).
At the end, there was supposedly equality between animals and humans, but in reality it was between pigs and humans (p91). Technically humans are animals, they are simply labled separatly from the rest of the species by their capabilities and customs. Simply put, what this novella shows is another species crossing over into a dominant class, which in time will most likely not be considered an animal either, shown by the fact that it is no longer known as "Animal" Farm.

Orwell, George. Animal Farm. Penguin Books, 2008.