What to Know Before Reading Animal Farm

"All animals are equal ... simply some animals are more equal than others."

A Beast Fable past George Orwell satirizing the evolving Russian communism, every bit well every bit a book with 2 adaptations that have an understandably misplaced demographic.

In the book, Orwell tells, allegorically, how the Russian Revolution would become if its participants were animals, and if you reduced Russia to the expanse of a typical English language country farm. When you get what the point of the volume is — existence a satire of Stalinism written during Globe War 2 — it's non hard to guess where the plot is going.

The animalist state of Animate being Subcontract is founded by Sometime Major's philosophy of peace and equality among animals and a deep hatred for humans. To confirm their stance, the animals create a system of constitutional laws collectively chosen "Animalism" that are painted on the side of the barn:

• Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy.
• Any goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend.
• No fauna shall wear clothes.
• No fauna shall sleep in a bed. (With sheets.)
• No animal shall drink booze. (To backlog.)
• No animal shall impale any other fauna. (Without crusade.)
• All animals are equal.

But every bit Napoleon'south reign grows corrupt, the laws are eventually violated past the pigs and rewritten entirely to one famous phrase ("All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others"), with the maxim "4 legs good, two legs bad" inverse to the too-iconic "Four Legs Expert, Two Legs Ameliorate".

Brute Subcontract was strictly outlawed by Josef Stalin as it technically depicted Stalin and other Soviet leaders as evil pigs (Stalin as Napoleon, Leon Trotsky as Snowball, and Vyacheslav Molotov every bit Squealer. As well, Karl Marx as Old Major, though that ane technically wasn't evil). The inspiration for the book came about when Orwell saw a male child leading a cart-horse, whipping it all the while. Orwell thought that if animals realized just how strong they are, they could defeat the man race and end up running the world.

In 1954, the British blitheness studio Halas & Batchelor produced an Animated Adaptation, which was widely heralded equally a milestone of British animation, ^note It was the first British animated feature to accomplish worldwide release. though it came under heavy criticism for its Lighter and Softer approach to Orwell's fable, including a (somewhat) Happy Ending in which the farm animals rising up against their new overlords. (It appears that the U.s.' CIA had a manus in providing funding for the film, though information technology seems uncertain whether the motion-picture show's writers and directors were aware of the fact.) Tropes for that film should get here.

It besides inspired Pink Floyd'south Concept Anthology Animals, though that criticizes capitalism instead of communism. John Reed's Affectionate Parody aptly named Snowball's Chance also rips on both capitalism and Fauna Farm itself, portraying Snowball returning and condign a George W. Bush-league Expy. In Animal Farm, things become horribly wrong; in Snowball's Chance, things go horribly right.

A live-action version, starring Patrick Stewart as the vocalism of Napoleon and Kelsey Grammer equally Snowball, was produced in 1999. A stage adaptation, cartoon heavily from another Orwell classic, Homage to Catalonia, was first produced in 2008. Andy Serkis is prepared to directly a new film version using Serkis Folk.

Nerial, programmer of Reigns, partnered with the Orwell Estate in 2020 to develop a Video Game Adaptation for PC and mobile chosen Orwells Animal Farm.

All spoilers below are unmarked.

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All tropes are equal, simply some are more than equal than others:

• Ace of Spades: The initially cordial human-pig dinner political party at the cease ends in anarchy when during a game of cards, Napoleon and Mr. Pilkington simultaneously play an ace of spades. Most critics view this as Orwell'south estimation of the Tehran Conference, ostensibly meant to establish a unified forepart amidst the allies but in actuality setting upwardly the future conflict between the Soviet Union and the West.
• Adaptation Expansion: The new endings of both motion picture versions. Plus the focus on Jessie in the alive-action version.
• Adaptational Alternate Ending: The volume concluded as badly as the real-life events it's based on, while the 1954 blithe movie changes it to a more uplifting ending in which the animals defection confronting their new overlords. The 1999 alive-activity picture show expanded the catastrophe based on the existent-life collapse of the Soviet Union by showing Napoleon's empire eventually falling apart.
• Adaptational Heroism: The 1999 picture shows Farmer Frederick equally existence primarily concerned about the poor welfare of the other animals nether the leadership of the pigs, in contrast to Farmer Pilkington, who sees the animal subcontract situation as an opportunity to brand a tidy turn a profit swindling the financially naive pigs.
• Adaptational Karma: The pigs get what'due south coming to them in both film adaptations, either overthrown past the animals they'd oppressed for so long (1954) or seeing all their efforts come to nothing every bit the farm collapses effectually their ears (1999).
• Adaptational Villainy: The 1999 motion-picture show presents Farmer Pilkington every bit the Greater-Scope Villain of the whole situation, existence the unreasonable debt holder over Farmer Jones. In a case of a Surprisingly Realistic Event, the motion-picture show also presents Napoleon as a Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond completely ignorant of how to run a farm or manage finances, with Pilkington "partnering" up with him to essentially swindle him.
• Adapted Out:
  • Mrs. Jones in the 1954 film.
  • Mr. Whymper, the solicitor who acted as the prime liaison between humans and the pigs of Animate being Farm, is absent-minded from the 1999 motion picture; Mr. Pilkington takes up his part when he establishes his business human relationship with Napoleon.
• Adult Fearfulness: Jessie's puppies. In the live-activeness film, she desperately looks for her puppies and fifty-fifty asks Napoleon for them. However, he claims that information technology'south "for the best" that they're with him. When she does finally meet her puppies all grown-up, she's horrified to encounter what Napoleon has washed to them. Multiple times, she tries to reason with them and control them, but they don't realize who she is nor do they care.
• Ever Chaotic Evil: The pigs, especially Napoleon, tend to exist power-hungry and Selfish Evil. Those who aren't decadent end up dead: the genuinely idealistic Old Major dies before the revolution even happens, and any pigs who oppose Napoleon get purged along with all the other dissidents. The Ambiguously Evil Well-Intentioned Extremist Snowball gets run off the farm pretty rapidly one time Napoleon decides he's a threat.
• And Then John Was a Zombie: The pigs end up adopting human being ways to the indicate where, in the end, the other animals find it impossible to tell the pigs from the humans.
• And You Idea It Would Neglect: In-Universe, the rival human being farmers were expecting the whole idea of a subcontract run past animals to plummet in no time. Played with in both film adaptations, where it ultimately does, simply it was more from the pigs getting Drunk with Power rather than gross incompetence like the farmers expected.
• Aroused Baby-sit Dog: Napoleon has nine of these, which he reared by taking Jessie the dog'due south newest litter before long after their nascence and rearing them exclusively to get his own personal soldiers.
• Fauna Motifs:
  • The increasingly dictatorial and oppressive Communist Political party of the Soviet Union is represented by an upper degree of pigs. Now, what animal are greedy capitalists commonly personified as?
  • Consider also that the loudest voices of fawning subservience towards the pig regime are provided by the sheep.
• Animal Talk: All animals can talk to each other, and, eventually, the pigs at least can talk to the humans besides.
• Blithe Adaptation: The 1954 film.
• Ape Shall Never Kill Ape: Ane of the original Seven Commandments forbade animals to kill animals, conveniently discarded when Napoleon convinced the other animals that in that location were potential or actual pro-Snowball traitors in his midst, and began property bear witness trials.
• Asshole Victim: After having ruined the reconstructed windmill, several of Frederick'southward men were brutally killed in the Battle of the Windmill past the angry animals.
• The Bad Guy Wins: In the original story, the pigs become just as oppressive and cruel equally the humans always were, never facing any repercussions for their totalitarian ways if not even rewarded for that. The movie adaptations feature bittersweet endings of varying sweetness.
• Bad People Abuse Animals: Jones and his farmhands are fell and neglectful towards the animals before they get driven out, and Mr. Frederick is rumored to outright torture his livestock.
• Beam Me Up, Scotty!: In-Universe — Boxer'due south motto "Napoleon is always right" is really derived from "If Comrade Napoleon says it, information technology must be right."
• Animal Fable: A critique of authoritarian communism falling from its lofty ideals, with Boxer the equus caballus every bit the overworked proletariat, the sheep as the state-run media bleating propaganda, the dogs equally brutal state police force removing opposition, and the pigs at the height reaping the fruits of the workers' labor. Every bit, it applies as a critique of commercialism, with the humans representing the capitalists and being and then similar to the pigs that they cannot exist told autonomously from each other.
• Big Bad: Napoleon is the leader of the pigs and the one responsible for corrupting the ideals of the revolution.
• Bittersweet Ending: Both motion picture versions qualify. The 1954 version has the animals become fed up with the pigs, rise upward, and overthrow all of them, taking back control of the subcontract. The 1999 alive-activity film has Napoleon's empire somewhen collapse in on itself, reflecting the real-life downfall of the Soviet Union. However, in both versions, Boxer is still expressionless, the farm is completely ruined, and the animals all wasted years of their lives and endured countless suffering, all of which ultimately amounted to nothing, even if there is some hope for a meliorate tomorrow.
• Blackness Comedy Burst: The purge, of all scenes, gets this handling in the 1954 version when the pigs are shown to have amended the relevant commandment using the claret of the executed animals.
• Blatant Lies: Everything Hog says, but he words it and then that disagreeing with him sounds pro-homo or pro-Snowball. "You don't want Jones to come back, do you?"
• Blind Obedience: Towards the finish of the novel, most of the animals default to this regarding the pigs' leadership.
• Bookends: The farm is titled Estate Subcontract while Jones runs it. The animals rename it Animal Subcontract after the uprising. After Napoleon's corruption and hypocrisy is complete, the farm is renamed Manor Farm again.
• Brainy Pig: This book features a decidedly night take on this trope. The pigs, as the nearly intelligent animals on the farm, declare themselves to be the new government after boot out their erstwhile human masters. Over the course of the story, however, 1 particular sus scrofa named Napoleon (a stand up-in for Josef Stalin) becomes a power-hungry dictator who rules the farm with an fe fist.
• Brilliant, only Lazy: Benjamin is a deconstruction of this; he's smart enough to realize that things probably won't be equally rosy as the pigs say they are, he sees correct through their various deceptions, and he'southward ane of the few animals other than the pigs who tin read, but he can't be bothered to spell information technology out for the other animals, who are more gullible than he is. In the end, this ways Boxer obliviously works himself to about-death from exhaustion, and and so meekly goes to his death because he trusts Napoleon's merits that he is being sent to a vet instead, and though Benjamin (who figures out the truth because he can read) tells the other animals, information technology's too late to save him. All considering Benjamin couldn't exist bothered to try and brand his fellow animals realize what a tyrant Napoleon had become. Even later this, when Napoleon tricks the others into thinking Boxer actually was sent to a vet, Benjamin doesn't try to oppose him.
• Broken Aesop: The 1999 moving picture tries to business relationship for Soviet plummet past irresolute the ending then that Napoleon'southward empire becomes unsustainable and collapses on itself. Off-white plenty, just then the moving picture concludes with a smiling human family driving onto the farm as the sun comes dorsum out and Jessie happily explains, "At present we have new owners!" Which pretty much negates the entire meaning of the allegory.
• Bus Crash: The ultimate fate of Jones. At some point in the book, it is mentioned that he left the area, and lost interest in his lost farm. And afterward, they took the fourth dimension to mention that years later he died.
• The Caligula: Napoleon, specially in the 1999 motion picture where we actually run across his empire ultimately but plummet from his despotic incompetence.
• Can't Hold His Liquor: Sus scrofa and Napoleon, when waking upward the next morning after ending up completely plastered while rewriting the subpoena that forbade alcohol to forbid drinking in backlog (ironically) in the 1990s motion picture, end up with an intense hangover with Napoleon and Squealer remarking that they're dying, showing why animals shouldn't drink alcohol, and thus leading to Napoleon's later paranoia. ^note This is a Truth in Television, as pigs actually can't concord their liquor or any booze for that matter.
• Catchphrase:
  • Boxer has ii: "I will piece of work harder" and "Napoleon is always correct".
  • Pig: "You don't want Jones to come back, practise yous?"
  • Benjamin: "Donkeys live a long time. None of you lot has ever seen a expressionless donkey."
• Cardinal Theme: The corruption of movements that start out with the best of intentions. Information technology's also a satirical/symbolic have on the rise of Stalin.
• Chekhov'due south Army: The dogs in the live-action film. They showtime get mentioned as Napoleon taking Jessie'south pups to rear and brainwash. Then they announced merely when Napoleon needs their muscle as huge, powerful, vicious dogs.
• Chekhov's Skill: Benjamin is the only non-sus scrofa on the farm who can read just like a human. Guess who finds out that Boxer's beingness sent to the knacker instead of the vet.
• The Commandments: The Principles of Lust (see main entry). While founded on an platonic and noble crusade, they gradually become more and more corrupted. Eventually, the pigs unveil "All animals are equal, only some animals are more equal than others."
• Counterfeit Cash: Mr. Frederick buys a load of timber from Napoleon using false banknotes. When Napoleon learns nearly the swindle, he declares a death penalty on Frederick.
• The Insurrection: Napoleon takes power this way, using his attack dogs to drive Snowball off the farm and and so replacing the previously democratic governing methods with the top-down control of an unelected special committee of pigs led past himself.
• Covers Always Lie: The comprehend for the 1999 film makes it wait like a cute, Disneyesque motion picture for kids. No. The volume itself is likewise labelled "a fairy story", but it's really a mature and blatant political satire on Blood-red Oct and Bolshevism.
• Crocodile Tears: Squealer tearfully gives a eulogy for Boxer subsequently the latter gets sent to the knacker, professing that he was at Boxer'due south side during his final moments. At one point, still, he suspiciously glances sideways to check if the other animals are seeing through the lie.
• Crowd Chant: "Four legs practiced, two legs baaaaaad!" And at the stop of the volume, information technology's "four legs good, two legs better!"
• Crowd Song: "Beasts of England" is one; its change to "Brute Farm" and later "Comrade Napoleon" reflects the change of Soviet canticle from "The Internationale" to the "Anthem of the Soviet Matrimony", which itself reflected the change from socialist internationalism to Stalin'southward "socialism in one country". It's sung to a tune that is said to be a cross between "La Cucaracha" and "My Darling Clementine". Indeed, the lyrics fit with both tunes. Yet, the USSR didn't ban "The Internationale", unlike how Animal Farm treated "Beasts of England".
• Cyanide Pill: By proxy. Ane gander confesses to working for Snowball and eats some nightshade berries, which are deadly to geese, to kill himself.
• Darker and Edgier: The 1954 pic's version of Napoleon'southward takeover. Instead of chasing Snowball away, Napoleon has the audacity to kill Snowball with the canis familiaris's pups. If the dogs chasing Snowball into a corner wasn't clear what they did, then the growling and squealing should make information technology more axiomatic.
• Expressionless Guy on Display: Subsequently his death, Former Major'due south skull is dug up and put out on display to inspire the other animals. Napoleon eventually has it removed.
• Deadpan Snarker: Benjamin the donkey. When asked by the other animals whether or non he feels life has improved after the revolution, he says, "Donkeys live a long time. None of yous has ever seen a expressionless donkey."
• Expiry by Adaptation: Several examples in the 1954 Animated Adaptation:
  • In the book, Jones simply left the expanse and lost interest in his lost farm, dying in a home for alcoholics. In the movie, information technology is implied that he died in the explosion that destroyed the windmill.
  • Napoleon and the other pigs have a Bolivian Army Ending, confronting a second animal revolution.
  • A more subtle case is a dog near the starting time, who dies during the offset battle instead of the book's original sole casualty being a sheep — this sets up where Napoleon gained the pups he trained into his personal guard.
  • Whereas Snowball escaped to an ambiguous fate in the novel, in the animated flick, he gets an off-screen death at the jaws of Napoleon'south assail dogs.
  • In the 1999 live-activeness adaptation, the pigs meet a more cryptic finish, the subcontract showing to have just fallen apart from Napoleon'southward despotic rule (much like the Soviet Union had past this time). However, a dead hog is shown in the rubble that is heavily unsaid to be Napoleon.
• Demoted to Extra: Mr. Frederick has a much smaller role in the 1999 pic, with his attack on the windmill being given to Jones. He does become a minor Adaptational Heroism, in which he is disgusted past the treatment of the animals under the pigs. Also in the 1999 flick, Clover'south office as the signal of view character is given to Jessie; Clover herself appears, but has no speaking lines and virtually zero focus.
• Diligent Draft Animal: Boxer the draft horse represents the working-class men of Russia during the rise of Communism. Despite Boxer's low intelligence, he'due south a hard worker and dismissive of the threats the pigs impose since he believes the other animals aren't working hard enough. Which makes it rather tragic that he'south euthanised near the stop of the story after overworking himself to a betoken of injury.
• Dirty Coward:
  • Napoleon and Pig never take part in any of the actual battles, openly voice their fear of getting killed, and ultimately hibernate while the other animals practice all the fighting.
  • Averted when Mr. Frederick dynamites the windmill; Orwell rewrote the scene to accept Napoleon standing tall later the explosion, every bit a reference to how Stalin remained in Moscow when the Sixth Panzer Army was less than v miles away.
• Disneyfication: Both motion-picture show adaptations changed the catastrophe to exist more uplifting. The live-action version was made after the Soviet Marriage collapsed, making it one of the more justified uses.
• Disproportionate Retribution: At the first evidence trial, Napoleon has animals mauled to death for crimes as minor as urinating in drinking h2o.
• The Domestic dog Bites Back: In both the film adaptations.
  • In the climax of the 1954 film, the animals appoint in a Full-Circle Revolution of their own by overthrowing the pigs and taking back control of the farm.
  • In the 1999 film, the animals simply escape and go out the pigs to their fate.
  • Also in the 1999 motion picture, Jessie attacks farmer Jones and bites onto the wooden stick Jones was using trying to whip the other animals.
• Downer Ending: This volume is a satire of the Russian Revolution. Obviously, things go desperately.
• The Dragon: Squealer effectively serves equally Napoleon's voice. He is just as evil as his boss, and mayhap even more repulsive due to his constant toadying.
• Dumb Is Practiced: Played straight with Boxer, who is i of the dimmest animals on the subcontract, simply also has a huge heart, a pronounced gentle streak, and massive loyalty to his fellows, which is why Napoleon ultimately is able to work him to death — Boxer is so adamant to help the others on the farm nonetheless he can that he forgoes looking after himself.
• Dumb Musculus: Boxer, while incredibly strong, isn't exactly the brightest bulb in the box.
• The Eeyore: The ever-cynical Benjamin, a donkey just like the Trope Namer; "Windmill or no windmill, he said, life would continue as it had always gone on — that is, badly."
• Escaped Fauna Rampage: Subcontract animals pause loose and — unprecedented in the animal earth — take over the identify and establish a revolutionary community.
• Eunuchs Are Evil: Grunter is a porker, ^note A male pig that has been gelded to make him less temperamental and to ensure he produces more meat. and serves as the mouthpiece for the rest of the pigs. Averted, even so, with iv other porkers who protestation Napoleon's decision to give the pigs all the ability and eventually get killed for it.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • In the 1999 film, Mr. Frederick criticizes Pilkington for opening up merchandise with Napoleon while the other animals on the farm are starving.
  • In the 1954 motion picture, the crow that had watched the dogs kill Snowball is horrified enough to plough his head away as the dogs kill the other animals.
• Evil Is Petty: Napoleon expresses his contempt for Snowball past literally pissing on his windmill plans; an overall pointless, lowly, and spiteful human activity that does nil but show what a downright rotten person Napoleon is.
• Exact Words: When Clover questions Muriel well-nigh the animals violating one of the commandments (the 1 nigh sleeping on the beds), Muriel responds that the commandments just state that the animals shouldn't sleep in beds "with sheets".
• Excrement Argument: When Snowball proposes edifice a windmill, he starts drawing upwardly plans on the flooring of the incubator shed over the course of several weeks. At one point, Napoleon comes into the shed, looks over the plans, then urinates on them. Of course, later Napoleon goes alee with building the windmill and says it was his idea all forth.
• Face–Heel Turn: Napoleon, likewise as most of the other pigs, begin oppressing their fellow animals and become horrible villains. Information technology could be argued, nonetheless, that Napoleon better fits Evil All Along. After all, he begins raising his regular army of dogs only a chapter after the revolution. This could betoken that he was planning to betray the revolution from the very first. The other pigs better fit this trope.
• Fat Bastard: Hog, who grows so fatty that he tin barely see near the cease of the novel. Justified since a) he'southward Napoleon'southward mouthpiece and thusly getting all of the rich, fattening food he can ask for, and b) as a porker, he has no real desires to sate besides eating, which is 1 of the reasons porkers are fabricated.
• V-Aces Cheater: At the end of the volume, a previously friendly card game between pigs and humans turns sour when Napoleon and Pilkington simultaneously play an ace of spades. While it'south obvious at to the lowest degree 1 of them is adulterous, it's never made clear whether it's Pilkington, Napoleon or both; of class, the main point is to institute that for all their claims of friendship, Pilkington and Napoleon aren't actually acting in good faith with each other and both are willing to cheat the other if they call back they tin get away with it.
• Foreshadowing: The Face up–Heel Turn of the pigs, particularly Napoleon and Squealer, is quite obvious in accelerate.
• Iv Legs Adept, 2 Legs Ameliorate: The Trope Namer, as this is one of the "laws" installed by Napoleon and the pigs towards the end. It's the central concept of the story: as Napoleon (a squealer) becomes more tyrannical and corrupt, he ultimately abandons 1 of the most important characteristics that the animals took pride in because of how it fabricated them dissimilar from the humans — the notion that iv legs are skilful and two legs are bad — and decides to walk on ii legs, like a human.
• Total-Circle Revolution: The Key Theme of the novel. Most of the pigs end upwards simply as oppressive and greedy as the humans they drove out. The pigs use propaganda, lies, and deceit to get their fashion. The rest of the animals end upward even worse off than before, the proper noun of the subcontract is inverse dorsum to what it was earlier the revolution, and they tin can no longer tell apart the pigs and the humans.
• Fun with Acronyms: One of Orwell's suggested titles for its French translationinvoked was Wedlock des républiques socialistes animales, which roughly acronyms equally URSA — Latin for "bear", the symbol of Russian federation (not to mention referencing Union des républiques socialistes soviétiques, acronymed as URSS, which is the French equivalent to USSR).

• Glad I Thought of It: Napoleon appropriates Snowball's windmill idea after the latter's exile.
• Gone Horribly Wrong: The animals install a new system afterward overthrowing Jones. Not merely does it not go as planned, but the pigs' corruption ends up making things even worse.
• Practiced Is Dumb: Deconstructed. At least when compared to the pigs, the rest of the animals are rather simple-minded and easy for the pigs to manipulate as they rarely question the pigs' say-so. Even at times when they fifty-fifty consider the subcontract'due south state to have become worse than when Jones was in charge, they don't consider to have a change of authority and instead just make up excuses for the pigs' ruthlessness which allows them to go along their dictatorship with nobody to finish them.
• Gullible Lemmings: Well-nigh animals, but particularly sheep, are easily convinced by anything that Grunter says.
• Detest Sink:
  • Farmer Jones, who is presented equally an Allegorical Character for the exploitative practices of commercialism and conservatism in his hold of the farm, but only relevant to the story for the first portion of the book.
  • It doesn't take long before Napoleon becomes this also, given how he treats the other animals.
• The Hedonist: The pigs in general. They usually spend their fourth dimension living in luxury while all the other animals do the difficult work.
• He'south Dead, Jim: The reader is told that some characters die off towards the end of the book in a very off-handed way — including Jones, who is said to die in an inebriates' habitation.
• He Who Fights Monsters: At the cease of the story, is there really any deviation for the animals betwixt the rule of the pigs and the rule of the humans? Whips, bare minimal rations, piece of work from sun to lord's day while others accept the fruits of it, decease when not useful anymore, masters walking on ii legs and in a comfortable house while they endure the common cold exterior... they rebelled against all those things, and all those things eventually returned with the pigs.
• The Horseshoe Effect: The pigs merits to exist ideologically opposed to the humans running the farm, simply by the end of the novel, they're scarcely distinguishable from them in appearance or behavior. Notably, Napoleon chooses to return the farm's name to the Manor Farm just because it fits better in his eyes.
• Humans Are the Real Monsters:
  • Part of Old Major'south philosophy is that humans are fell parasites without whom the animals who serve them would be meliorate off. Nonetheless, as bad equally the humans were, the pigs finish up becoming just every bit bad, showing that Old Major failed to account for animals possibly interim greedy, petty and cruel as well.
  • In contrast with the humans, the animals are generally portrayed positively in the book. Later on the revolution, the animals all work together 'according to their capacity' and no animal steals 'so much as a mouthful'. Napoleon and his fellow hog followers (after he exiles Snowball and does abroad with whatever form of democracy on the farm) are an exception since they correspond the emerging ruling form of Russia (which Orwell despised). Another exception is Mollie, who represents the middle form.
• Humans Are Special: The pigs transport forth the pigeons to announce the coming of the revolution to all the other farms. Animals that were well looked after and loved by their caretakers were utterly mortified to hear the call. Others that were mistreated and abused, listened and were intrigued.
• Hypocrite: The pigs, merely peculiarly Napoleon who hoards sugar for himself, not even sharing it with the other pigs, because information technology will make them fat. Even before Snowball is driven off, the pigs already hoard milk and apples for themselves.
• Detestable Genius: Snowball acts much nicer than most other pigs, merely he also has a very patronizing attitude towards the other animals and generally ignores any criticism of his ideas.
• Internal Retcon: The existent truth of the revolution keeps getting this treatment until no one really remembers the original facts except those smart enough to go along their mouth shut. The Seven Commandments in particular are stealthily amended on multiple occasions, before eventually being removed entirely and replaced with the slogan "All animals are equal, just some animals are more equal than others".
• Ironic Name: Guess who Napoleon is named subsequently.
• Irony: To Humans Are the Real Monsters entry above. Past the finish of the story, cheers to Napoleon, the pigs first emulating the very humans Former Major inspired them to overthrow.
• Kangaroo Court: One later another, many animals "admit" to helping Snowball demolition the farm and get immediately killed. (This cites Stalin's purges and show trials of the late 1930s.)
  • In the live-action film, there were actual trials.
• Karma Houdini: In the novel, Napoleon and the pigs get everything they want and keep oppressing the other animals. No punishment at all. This changes in all the subsequently adaptations.
• Large Ham: Snowball and Sus scrofa both love making long and animated speeches (fitting, because they're both pigs). This makes sense because they were based on Trotsky and Molotov, respectively, both of whom were known for beingness very over-the-summit.
• Bottom of Ii Evils: Exploited by the pigs. "Yous don't want Jones to come up back, practice you?"
• Mature Creature Story: Animal Farm is labelled as "a fairy story", but this is no whimsical fairy tale book for kids, only rather a political satire on the troubles of Ruddy October and the rule of Joseph Stalin, with all the purging and totalitarian antics it entails.
• Meaningful Name: Snowball (as in the snowball outcome), Napoleon (as in the dictator), and Moses (equally in the 1 talking virtually Sugarcandy Mountain, a "promised land").
• Meet the New Boss: The ending of the novel is the animals' slow realization that they can no longer tell the difference between the pigs and the humans. Metaphorically, this is Orwell's proclamation that Stalinism is merely as bad every bit commercialism in its exploitation of the working classes (or the non-hog animals) it claims to champion.
• Mirroring Factions: More or less the moral; the final line of the volume sees the animals look from their pig rulers to the humans they are meeting with and being no longer able to tell the deviation.
• Mood Whiplash:
  • What was supposed to exist a tragic moment in the live-action film, as Sometime Major dies getting accidentally shot in the head by Farmer Jones right before his cause is fulfilled, becomes pure narm when he falls off the roof of the barn, does a triple backflip, and crashes dead in a haystack.invoked
  • And so the animals are now happy and cheerful, and so they enter the farmhouse and find Major'southward butchered carcass in the kitchen (along with his severed head in a meat rack).
  • The 1954 motion-picture show's start half was cheerful and somewhat comical, which makes Napoleon's regime all the more jarring.
• Rima oris of Sauron: Squealer becomes the mouthpiece for Napoleon.
• Mundane Fantastic: Past the end of the story, about people have gotten used to the idea of a farm run past animals, to the point where human farmers are invited over to the subcontract for a card game. Information technology is a subtle sign of the extent that the pigs have left the ideals of Animalism, that they can appear presentable to human beings.
• My Local: Mr. Jones' pub is called The Red Lion, which is a real pub in the existent hamlet of Willingdon.
• A Nazi by Any Other Name: Mr. Frederick. He has a Germanic name, is noted for his efficiency and cruelty, and ends upwards invading and occupying part of Animal Farm before being driven off in a costly battle. He blatantly resembles Hitler in the 1999 pic. Ironically, he'due south more sympathetic there than he was in the novel.
• Negated Moment of Crawly: When Napoleon demands that the chickens hand over their eggs to be sold — they rebel by flying to the rafters of the coop and then laying their eggs there so they break on the ground. Napoleon merely cuts off their food supply (and threatens expiry to any animate being who dares aid them), and and so executes the ringleaders.
• Nice Guy: Boxer. He'south utterly loyal, honest to a fault, very hard-working, and ever willing to help those in demand fifty-fifty at the expense of his own health. The pigs exploit all of this ruthlessly.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Existence an allegory for the Russian Bolshevik uprising, several animals in the story serve as recognisable analogues to real-life figures to those who know the history and period.
  • Napoleon was based on Josef Stalin, Snowball on Leon Trotsky, while Old Major is based on both Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin.
  • The four immature pigs represent the Bolsheviks executed at the Moscow Trials for crimes they almost certainly didn't commit.
  • Hog is probably based on Vyacheslav Molotov, Stalin'due south propaganda principal. Alternatively, he may simply correspond the power of land propaganda in general.
  • Also, Pilkington has traits of Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Frederick is based on Adolf Hitler. Farmer Jones essentially fills the office of Tsar Nicholas II.
• No-Sell: When the pigs are purging dissidents past ridding the farm of animals who are "proven" to be conspiring with Snowball, one of the ones targeted is Boxer. Fortunately, Boxer easily overpowers the attack dog ordered to rip out his pharynx by pinning information technology under his leg, just releasing him when Napoleon requests it.
• Odd Friendship: Boxer is immensely strong, friendly, extremely trusting, but rather stupid. Benjamin is highly intelligent, extremely cynical, and rather cranky. They are best friends, and indeed information technology's unsaid that Boxer is the but animal Benjamin considers a friend. This becomes axiomatic when Boxer is taken to the glue factory. He spends the majority of the scene aimlessly braying while trying in vain to save Boxer, and the book notes that afterward Boxer's death he becomes even more miserable than earlier.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • In the 1954 film, when the animals rebel, the pigs seem to know very well what's coming to them, especially Napoleon.
  • Mr. Jones in the aforementioned film, when he sees the scarlet eyes of the animals and realizes they're much more than organized than he idea earlier.
• One Tract Mind: Many of Napoleon'south speeches cease with the dire alert that "Jones volition come back" if the animals do not obey any his latest diktat is.
• Merely Sane Man: Benjamin, who is possibly the merely animal who has any understanding of what the pigs are doing; his token gestures to speak the truth cease in vain.
• Plagiarism in Fiction: Snowball comes up with the thought to build a windmill. Napoleon steals it. What's worse, he makes things seem equally though Snowball was the one who stole the idea, and earlier having Snowball exiled, he expresses displeasure in the concept; at 1 point, he even goes so far as to urinate on the plans.
• The Power of Linguistic communication: The pigs, specially Pig, become skilled at reading and writing and utilize this ability of literacy to exert command over the other animals on the farm. I of the most obvious ways is that the farm's laws are recorded in writing on the side of the barn: just the pigs can read them, so only the pigs can interpret them — or know when they have been subtly inverse.
• The Promised Land: Sugarcandy Mountain. Played on the cynical side that information technology doesn't exist, and it'due south told only to keep the animals in line.
• Proud Beauty: Mollie was very prideful regarding her advent.
• The Purge: When Napoleon orders the four young pigs (who previously protested confronting his decisions) executed. Many other animals are then killed after being declared traitors and/or conspirators.
• Pyrrhic Victory: The Battle of the Windmill. While the animals successfully drive out Mr. Frederick and his henchmen, they suffer some pretty heavy losses and the windmill is destroyed. Napoleon and Squealer successfully downplay the "Pyrrhic" aspect to the other animals, however.
• Randomly Reversed Messages: The 7 Commandments of Animalism, as originally written on the wall by Snowball, have just two errors of penmanship, 1 of them being the reversal of one Due south. In the edition with full-colour illustrations by Ralph Steadman, the reversed S is the one in the Fifth Commandment, "No animal shall drink alcohol."
• Really Gets Around:
  • It'southward implied that Napoleon fathered many of the new pigs in the farm. This is only logical since we're told that most of the other pigs were castrated porkers.
  • By his own access, Old Major has fathered over four hundred children. Given that he was a prized show boar, this isn't unusual.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Mr. Pilkington gives Mr. Jones a few of these in the alive-action flick for not keeping his farm animals nether control.
• Recycled IN Infinite!: The Russian Revolution and rise of Josef Stalin's communist regime, WITH Barnyard ANIMALS!

• Released to Elsewhere: The fate of Boxer, whom Napoleon betrays and sells to the knacker.
• Repressive, but Efficient:
  • While Mr. Jones was always a harsh taskmaster, he used to be a capable farmer before a lawsuit caused him to develop a drinking problem.
  • The titular farm is said to be the most efficient subcontract at exploiting, subduing, and disciplining animals... by Mr. Pilkington, whose sincerity is dubious.
• Ret-Canon: The 1999 film makes a collie named Jessie from the novel the chief grapheme of the film.
• Retirony: Boxer was injured when he was due for retirement. He then ends up "sent to the vet" (he's actually being sent to the knackers).
• Roman à Clef: Of a sort. Granted, the people are by and large replaced past animals.
• Rule of Symbolism: Loaded with this.
  • Snowball is Leon Trotsky.
  • Napoleon is Josef Stalin due to the style he ran Animal Farm.
  • Squealer is Molotov, who was Stalin'due south propaganda minister.
• The Scapegoat: Afterwards being driven from the subcontract, Snowball is routinely blamed for annihilation that goes incorrect. Somewhen, Napoleon declares that some of the animals are traitors working for him and fifty-fifty that Snowball personally sneaks back in at night to commit acts of sabotage. In the same way, equally the Soviet regime's economic planning failed, Russia suffered under a surge of violence, fear, and starvation. Stalin used his former opponent Trotsky every bit a tool to placate the population, claiming Trotsky'south followers were subverting and sabotaging the land. Trotsky became a common national enemy and a source of negative unity. He was a frightening specter used to conjure horrifying eventualities, in comparison with which the electric current misery paled.
• Screw the Rules, I Brand Them!: The pigs repeatedly rewrite the Seven Commandments to fit their deportment, finally replacing them outright with "All animals are equal, only some animals are more than equal than others."
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here!:
  • Mollie runs away and gets a new chore every bit a railroad vehicle equus caballus. Smarter than she looks, all correct!
  • Information technology is unsaid that the True cat (who vanished) recognized what was going on and got out.
  • The 1999 film shows that a large group of animals fled the subcontract earlier information technology collapsed.
• Seven Deadly Sins: Napoleon and the residual of the pigs come up to embody them.
  • The pigs help themselves to the food at the expense of their fellow animals (Gluttony).
  • The pigs trade Boxer for some alcohol, and they too force the chickens to paw over their eggs (Forehandedness).
  • Napoleon slaughters his enemies without remorse (Wrath).
  • Napoleon believes himself to be greater and more deserving of power than Snowball or any other animal on the farm (Pride).
  • Napoleon sires many piglets (Animalism).
  • Napoleon hates Snowball for his good ideas and runs him off the subcontract (Envy).
  • The pigs laze around, while the other animals do the hard piece of work (Sloth).
• Shout-Out: "I will piece of work harder," Boxer's motto, was plant in the rima oris of Jurgis Rudkus from Upton Sinclair's The Jungle.
• Sinister Minister: Moses, Farmer Jones' pet raven, who fled the farm when Jones was overthrown and returned years later on to tell the animals about Sugarcandy Mount. His position is kind of analogous to that of religion; his claims are officially denied by the pigs, but they keep him around to go on the animals in line. This was very similar to how the Soviet Matrimony usually dealt with organized religion, though downplayed it if anything. In the existent life Soviet Spousal relationship, while the instance can be argued that the Soviet Matrimony used the Russian Orthodox Church building to go on their people in line even though they never actually believed it, the truth is that that was only if the religious people were actually lucky. Most of the time, the Soviets were attempting to eliminate religion outright, and fifty-fifty had the KGB endeavor to investigate locations of churches, sometimes fifty-fifty tricking people into helping them locate a church and so they could abort the occupants for practicing organized religion, and the penalty was either execution or being placed in a work camp. Moses' reinvigorated status under the pigs' dominion might have been inspired by the fact that later the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, Josef Stalin pragmatically revived the Russian Orthodox Church to intensify patriotic support for the war attempt.
• Sliding Scale of Animal Communication: The animals can talk to each other, but only the pigs seem able to talk to humans, and and so only later they take over the farm and substantially become honorary humans themselves.
  • In the film, the humans hear the animals' voices over the radio; at start grunts and squeaks, then words, ending with an animals' Triumph of the Will complete with actual "goose-steppers".
• Sliding Calibration of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Brute Farm is a cautionary tale. Even if you successfully revolt to remove a hated tyrant, y'all won't change the world — you will merely accept that tyrant'due south place, and possibly become even worse.
• Smug Snake: Squealer, especially in the 1999 picture show. He really loves to rub the pigs' superiority in the other animals' faces, even while he'south actively deceiving them.
• Spell My Proper name with an "S": Is it Mollie or Molly? The book itself tends to use the first, while some other references (including u.s.a.) utilize the second.
• Straw Hypocrite: The pigs have this in spades.
  • When Squealer changes one of the laws from "Animals shall not drink" to "Animals shall not drink to backlog", he's still in violation of the law, as he's completely boozer at the fourth dimension he'due south adding the extra words. This was unsaid in the novel, since the animals hear a loud crash and run out in time to see Squealer stumbling around most the befouled with a ladder and pot of white pigment, but they're non smart enough to realize what he was doing. In the films, it was explicit.
  • A human being took the aged and injured Boxer abroad. According to the pigs, he was a vet, not a knacker; he had a knacker'due south vehicle because he'd recently bought it from a knacker and hadn't gotten around to changing the writing on it yet. The book mentions that, somehow, afterwards the human left, the pigs got money to buy some bottles of whiskey.
• Surprisingly Realistic Upshot: When winter comes around, it becomes harder to constitute and harvest food. This makes the animals starve, thus forcing them to eat only chaff and mangels. The atmospheric condition besides makes information technology hard for the animals to build the windmill due to the unworkable weather-induced conditions. The 1999 film as well shows what happens when a pig with no existent financial feel runs a subcontract, equally Manor Farm is left in ruins.
• Talking Animal: Past the finish, the pigs are capable of talking with humans fluently. No other creature can do this.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Benjamin the donkey becomes more sympathetic to the other animals in both film adaptations, mostly by existence less lazy.
• Totalitarian Commonsensical: The pigs start out like this. As the story progresses, some pigs are lost, while others are corrupted by their ability (unless they were really Straw Hypocrites all along). By the end of the story, the remaining pigs take become what they once rebelled against.
• Tyrant Takes the Helm: Napoleon plays information technology deadly straight by condign the farm'south new leader (afterward driving Snowball into exile) and becoming at to the lowest degree as bad as Mr. Jones.
• Undying Loyalty: A cynical interpretation with Boxer, who represents Stalin's most dedicated and hardworking supporters in the proletariat (people like the Stakhanovites). His solution to any confusion is "Napoleon is always correct" and his solution to any problem is working harder.
• Unperson: Mollie is rendered into this subsequently she flees the farm under Napoleon's dominion and takes up with another man owner.

  "None of the animals e'er mentioned Mollie again."

• Unusual Animal Alliance: At to the lowest degree at outset, all the farm animals are unified against humans. They even pass a resolution stating that wild fauna similar rats are comrades besides.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: No one seems to think it's weird that animals are running a farm by themselves, something that would most likely depict large crowds in real life. People even remember the animals volition just starve to death by themselves. Hell, no one seems bothered that they can TALK AND WRITE.
• Verbal Tic: "Four legs good, 2 legs bad!" is all the sheep ever say. And at the climax of the story, "Four legs good, two legs improve!"
• Villainous Glutton: Napoleon, Hog, and the rest of the pigs reserve all the milk and apples for themselves. This is their showtime sign of villainy. Eating the food their fellow animals take worked and then hard to make is possibly the least awful thing they do.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Napoleon in Chapter 8 of the novel (information technology was hard to come across an animal without hearing how Napoleon's way of running things has improved his/her life). Not so much in the film adaptations, though, which shows the animals seeing him as the monster he is.
• Wham Line:
  • "It was a pig walking on its hind legs."
  • "He carried a whip in his trotter." (Describing Napoleon)
  • "All animals are equal... merely some animals are more than equal than others."
• What Happened to the Mouse?:
  • In the volume, the cat simply stops appearing after the starting time few chapters, and later isn't mentioned in the list of animals who've died, whilst but Snowball and Mollie are ever acknowledged to have left the farm.
  • It's mentioned that she didn't show upwardly to the meeting where Napoleon killed a agglomeration of the animals, and so she probably ran away into the wild. Equally any cat owner tin tell you, cats are smart.
  • Besides, what happens to Snowball in the novel and the live-activity motion picture accommodation. In the animated film, he's killed by the dogs, but in the other versions, it's open up to interpretation because he never actually gets caught and manages to escape from the farm. It's normally assumed he met a similar fate to his real-life counterpart, Trotsky (i.e. assassination).
  • The live-action adaptation also makes clear that Napoleon's rule savage apart after a curt time (mirroring the Soviet Union's fate by the time this accommodation was made). How this occurred and what became of the pigs is not shown, it merely implied the whole empire self-destructed from the pigs' incompetence and self-indulgence.
• Wild Carte Alibi: Over time, any mishap or malfunction on the farm is credited to Snowball's interference.
• Wretched Hive: Animal Subcontract becomes this during the wintertime under Napoleon'south ruling. There was barely any food and the animals were aroused, miserable, and fighting amongst themselves. It's widely rumored that they also resorted to cannibalism and infanticide to continue their stomachs full.
• Yous Have Outlived Your Usefulness: The final fate of Boxer. He works himself until his trunk breaks downward for the sake of the subcontract'due south prosperity, and Napoleon has him sold to a knacker since he can't work anymore. Old Major cited this tendency amongst humans as one of the very worst of their evils confronting animals, and sure enough, this is the moment in the story where Napoleon is shown to be no better than the animals' original oppressor.

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"What? Not enough tropes? If Comrade Napoleon says information technology, it must be right. I will work harder!"

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Source: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Literature/AnimalFarm

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