Animal Farm
Chapter VI
by Orwell, GeorgeThe animals toiled relentlessly throughout the year, driven by the belief that their labor benefited their own community rather than exploitative humans. Despite grueling hours, including voluntary Sunday work enforced by ration cuts, they fell behind on tasks like sowing crops, foreshadowing a harsh winter. The windmill construction posed unexpected challenges, particularly breaking limestone boulders without human tools. Through collective ingenuity, they devised a method using gravity—dragging boulders uphill and toppling them to shatter—showcasing their perseverance and teamwork under the pigs’ supervision.
Boxer emerged as the backbone of the windmill project, his unmatched strength and dedication inspiring the others. Despite Clover’s warnings, he pushed himself relentlessly, embodying his mottos: “I will work harder” and “Napoleon is always right.” His extra efforts, like hauling stone alone, highlighted his unwavering loyalty. While the animals managed basic sustenance, shortages of manufactured goods like nails, oil, and tools began to strain their self-sufficient ideals, exposing the farm’s reliance on human-produced materials.
Napoleon announced a controversial shift in policy: trading with neighboring farms to acquire essential supplies for the windmill. This decision unsettled the animals, who recalled early resolutions against human interaction and commerce. Skeptical murmurs were silenced by the dogs and sheep’s chants, while Squealer later manipulated their memories, claiming such resolutions never existed. Napoleon assured them that Mr. Whymper, a human solicitor, would handle all trade, distancing the animals from direct contact.
The chapter underscores the erosion of the animals’ original ideals under Napoleon’s rule. Their hard work is overshadowed by manipulation, as the pigs rewrite history to justify compromises with human systems. Boxer’s blind devotion and the animals’ collective exhaustion contrast with the leadership’s hypocrisy, foreshadowing deeper exploitation. The windmill, once a symbol of progress, becomes a pretext for bending principles, revealing the fragility of their revolution.
FAQs
1. How did the animals solve the problem of breaking up the limestone for the windmill construction, and what does this reveal about their collective problem-solving abilities?
Answer:
The animals initially struggled because they couldn’t use human tools like picks and crowbars due to their inability to stand on hind legs. After weeks of failed attempts, they devised an ingenious solution using gravity: they lashed ropes around massive boulders and collectively dragged them uphill (with cows, horses, sheep, and even pigs helping), then toppled them over the quarry edge to shatter below. This demonstrates their adaptive, collaborative intelligence—leveraging diverse physical strengths to overcome biological limitations. The pigs’ later supervision of the building process (paragraph 3) also foreshadows their emerging leadership role in directing communal labor.2. Analyze the contradictions between Napoleon’s new trade policy and the farm’s original principles. How does Squealer manipulate the animals’ perception of this change?
Answer:
Napoleon’s decision to trade with human farms (selling hay, wheat, and eggs via solicitor Mr. Whymper) directly violates the early resolutions to avoid human dealings, trade, and money—principles the animals vaguely recall (paragraph 7). Squealer gaslights them by claiming these resolutions never existed, attributing the “false” memory to Snowball’s lies. His rhetorical questions (“Is it written down anywhere?” paragraph 9) exploit the animals’ illiteracy and unreliable memories, reinforcing Napoleon’s authority. This highlights the regime’s erosion of revolutionary ideals through psychological manipulation and historical revisionism.3. What dual purpose does Boxer’s character serve in this chapter, both practically and symbolically?
Answer:
Practically, Boxer is the farm’s physical cornerstone—his immense strength saves boulder-hauling efforts (paragraph 4), and his self-sacrifice (working earlier, hauling stone alone) compensates for labor shortages. Symbolically, he embodies blind loyalty to the regime: his slogans (“I will work harder,” “Napoleon is always right”) mirror propaganda absorption. Clover’s warnings about overwork (paragraph 4) contrast his devotion, foreshadowing his eventual exploitation. His heroism masks the system’s unsustainable demands, illustrating how authoritarian regimes rely on such figures to sustain oppressive workloads while discouraging critical thought.4. Evaluate the animals’ economic situation under Napoleon’s leadership compared to Jones’ era. What trade-offs does the chapter highlight?
Answer:
While food rations haven’t decreased from Jones’ era (paragraph 5), the animals now endure grueling 60+ hour workweeks (paragraph 2) with voluntary-but-coerced Sunday labor (ration cuts enforce compliance). Advantages include eliminating human exploitation (“not having to support five extravagant humans”) and efficiency gains (e.g., thorough weeding, no need for theft-prevention fences). However, shortages of manufactured goods (paraffin, nails, horse shoes—paragraph 6) reveal the farm’s unsustainable isolation. The trade policy (paragraph 7) emerges from these deficits, showing how ideological purity conflicts with practical needs—a tension Napoleon resolves by quietly abandoning principles while maintaining rhetorical absolutism.5. How does the chapter use the sheep’s chant “Four legs good, two legs bad!” as a political tool? Provide specific examples.
Answer:
The sheep’s chant serves as a thought-terminating cliché—a simplistic slogan that disrupts dissent. When young pigs timidly oppose the trade policy (paragraph 7), the dogs growl, and the sheep’s chant drowns out debate, “smoothing over” awkwardness. This reflects how authoritarian systems use repetitive, binary rhetoric to short-circuit critical discussion. The chant’s reductionist morality (“good” vs. “bad”) also re-frames complex policy shifts (like human trade) as inherently virtuous if endorsed by leaders. By conditioning animals to associate opposition with ideological betrayal, it entrenches groupthink, as seen when the animals dismiss their own doubts after Squealer’s speech (paragraph 9).
Quotes
1. “All that year the animals worked like slaves. But they were happy in their work; they grudged no effort or sacrifice, well aware that everything that they did was for the benefit of themselves and those of their kind who would come after them, and not for a pack of idle, thieving human beings.”
This opening passage establishes the animals’ initial revolutionary zeal and their belief in collective sacrifice for a greater good. It contrasts their current labor with their former exploitation under humans, showing how ideology motivates their hard work.
2. “His two slogans, ‘I will work harder’ and ‘Napoleon is always right,’ seemed to him a sufficient answer to all problems.”
This quote about Boxer encapsulates the blind devotion and work ethic that Napoleon’s regime exploits. It shows how simplistic mantras replace critical thinking, with Boxer’s personal maxims mirroring the farm’s propaganda.
3. “Never to have any dealings with human beings, never to engage in trade, never to make use of money — had not these been among the earliest resolutions passed at that first triumphant Meeting after Jones was expelled?”
This rhetorical question highlights the animals’ growing unease as Napoleon breaks fundamental commandments of Animalism. It marks a key turning point where the pigs begin openly revising the revolution’s original principles.
4. “He assured them that the resolution against engaging in trade and using money had never been passed, or even suggested. It was pure imagination, probably traceable in the beginning to lies circulated by Snowball.”
Squealer’s gaslighting demonstrates the regime’s manipulation of history and memory. This quote shows how the pigs maintain control by convincing animals to distrust their own recollections in favor of the party line.
5. “The needs of the windmill must override everything else, he said.”
Napoleon’s declaration illustrates how the windmill project becomes a justification for increasing authoritarianism and policy reversals. This utilitarian argument foreshadows how the pigs will continue to prioritize projects over principles.