Animal Farm Chapter 2 Summary
Animal Farm by George Orwell
Setting
Chapter 2 of animal farm is set in the Manor Farm.
Main Characters
Old Major- he is an old white boar that gives the other animals inspiration for a revolution.
Snowball- he is napoleon’s rival and the original leader of the farm after Mr. Jones is overthrown.
Squealer- he is a small porker who acts as napoleon’s right-trotter pig.
Napoleon- he is a large Berkshire boar with a reputation for getting his own way. Napoleon is the main villain in animal farm.
Mr. Jones- he is the original owner of an animal farm and a heavy drinker.
Mollie – he is a vain, white horse who, prior to the rebellion, pulls Mr. Jones’s cart.
Boxer- he is a loyal and dedicated horse but quite naïve and gullible.
Clover – she is A gentle, motherly, and powerful carthorse.
Moses – he is a tame raven and Mr. Jones’s special pet. The animals dislike him because he doesn’t work, but many of them do believe his stories about Sugar candy Mountain, a wonderful place where animals go when they die.
Plot Summary
After the death of old Major, the animals spend their days secretly planning the rebellion, although they are unsure when it will occur. Because of their intelligence, the pigs are placed in charge of educating the animals about Animalism, the name they give to the philosophy expounded by Major in Chapter 1. Among the pigs, Snowball and Napoleon are the most important to the revolution. Despite Mollie's concern with ribbons and Moses' tales of a place called Sugar candy Mountain, the pigs are successful in conveying the principles of Animalism to others.
The rebellion occurs when Jones again falls into a drunken sleep and neglects to feed the animals, who break into the store-shed in search of a meal. When Jones and his men arrive, they begin whipping the animals but soon find themselves being attacked and chased off the farm. The triumphant animals then destroy all traces of Jones, eat heartily, and revel in their newfound freedom. After a tour of Jones' house, they decide to leave it untouched as a museum. Snowball changes the sign reading "Manor Farm" to "Animal Farm" and paints the Seven Commandments of Animalism on the wall of the barn. The cows then give five buckets of milk, which Napoleon steals.
Themes
- Language and power. From the beginning of the popular revolution on Manor Farm, language, both spoken and written, is instrumental to the animals’ collective success, and later to the pigs’ consolidation of power. Through Animal Farm, Orwell illustrates how language is an influential tool that individuals can use to seize power and manipulate others via propaganda, while also showing that education and one’s corresponding grasp of the language are what can turn someone into either a manipulative authority figure or an unthinking, uneducated member of the working class.
- Class warfare. One of the main ideologies of Animalism, the ideology that Napoleon and Snowball develop, is that all animals are equal. However, it does not take long for the pigs to begin to refer to themselves as "mind workers†to distinguish themselves from the other animals, who work as physical laborers. Through this, Animal Farm shows how differences in education and occupation lead to the development of a class hierarchy, which leads inevitably to class warfare, in which one class seeks to dominate the other.
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