"And so the tales of confessions and executions went on, until there was a pile of corpses lying before Napoleon’s feet and the air was heavy with the smell of blood, which had been unknown there since the expulsion of Jones. When it was all over, the remaining animals, except for the pigs and dogs, crept away in a body." ― Chapter 7
Napoleon is the main antagonist in George Orwell's Animal Farm.
Napoleon is the leader of Animal Farm and governs his society with his dictatorship and power. He is based on Joseph Stalin (1878-1953), the leader of the Soviet Union from 1922 to 1953.
Description[]
Napoleon is a Berkshire boar who is one of the three pigs of Manor Farm who adopt Old Major’s ideas into Animalism. However, it is evident that he never desires a revolution and turns Animal Farm into a totalitarian regime, where he abuses his power to make the animals work hard for him and respect him. He could become a new embodiment of Mr. Jones, but his power is much harsher than how the former farmer treated his livestock.
His character and name are loosely based on several historical figures. He is mostly inspired by the infamous Russian dictator Joseph Stalin, who was one of the most ruthless and evil men in history, as his reign of terror cost the lives of 11-12 million people. Napoleon’s reign of terror is very similar to Stalin’s as he had the animals work hard labour and would execute them if they dared to revolt against him. His name is derived from the French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, infamous for leading campaign military wars across Europe. The name has many meanings, but the pig’s name stands for evil and darkness in Animal Farm.
Like Stalin, who ruled the Soviet Union with an iron fist, Napoleon used a similar leadership style to shape Animal Farm into his ideal vision. However, the stark contrast between his lavish lifestyle and the starving, overworked animals he ruled over reveals his hypocrisy. This contrast powerfully critiques totalitarian regimes, keeping the reader's attention on the underlying themes of the text.
Storyline[]
Old Major’s Speech[]
One night, the owner of Manor Farm, Mr. Jones, is too drunk to close the animal enclosures and goes to bed.[1] When the light inside Mr. Jones’s house goes out, all the animals head to the big barn. They had heard rumours that the old prized Middle White boar, Old Major, had a strange dream last night and wanted to share it with the animals, who decided to meet in the barn when Jones was out of their way.
Inside the barn, Old Major sits on a straw bed platform, and the animals gather at the platform. The animals include the cart horses, Boxer and Clover, the old donkey Benjamin, and the dogs Bluebell, Jessie and Pincher. As soon as all the animals are comfortable, Old Major announces that he is old and may die soon, and he now wants his final chance to describe his dream. He starts by describing how they live miserable lives by being worked relentlessly as slaves and then slaughtered when they are no longer useful. He says that all animals in England have never experienced freedom or happiness. He views humans, or “Man,” as their enemy, and they have always consumed all the animals’ products, such as the cows’ milk and chickens’ eggs, and sold their young to other farms, such as all of Clover’s foals. He says he’s one of the few lucky animals, as he has lived a long life and had over 400 children. He warns the animals that they will all be slaughtered, even the horses and dogs. He then urges the animals to rebel against their owner and all humans so they’ll be free from their tyranny. He doesn’t know when the rebellion will happen, but he hopes it will happen soon. He encourages the animals to pass on his message to the younger generation so they will participate until they succeed. He considers all animals to be comrades and humans the enemy.
There is an uproar in the barn, and some rats appear to listen to his speech but quickly disappear into their holes when the dogs see them. Old Major asks for a vote if they consider other animals, such as rats, as comrades. The vote is made immediately, and they agree that the rats are considered allies. Old Major declares that anything that walks on four legs or has wings is an ally. But anything that walks on two legs is an enemy. He next makes a rule that the animals must not resemble humans, such as sleeping in a bed, wearing clothes or drinking alcohol. Afterward, he says that animals cannot kill one another and that all animals are equal.
Old Major then describes his dream. He dreamt that he lived in a world where there were no humans. The dream also reminded him of a song his mother used to teach him when he was young. He had forgotten it then but now remembers it. He calls the song “Beasts of England” and sings the lyrics, with all the animals singing along with him. The animals become excited and wild, singing the song before Old Major finishes. However, the uproar awakens Mr. Jones, who shoots his gun at the barn from his bedroom window. The meeting abruptly breaks up, and the animals return to sleep.
Rise of Animal Farm[]
Old Major dies in his sleep 3 days later and is buried in the orchard.[2] It is early March, but within 3 months, the animals make secret preparations. They don't know when the Rebellion will take place and if it will take place during their lifetime, but they know that they must prepare for it to happen. The pigs are among the most intelligent animals on the farm, and teaching and organizing them falls on them. Napoleon and Snowball are two young boars Mr. Jones raised and planned to sell. Napoleon is the only Berkshire boar on the farm. He is a fierce, quiet boar who is used to getting his own way. Snowball, on the other hand, is a lively, talkative boar with a creative mind. Along with another pig, Squealer, who is well-known to be a brilliant speaker and persuader, they elaborate on Old Major’s teachings into a system of ideas called “Animalism.” For several nights a week, after Mr. Jones was asleep, the pigs held secret meetings in the barn where they explained the principles of Animalism to the others. Initially, the animals are reluctant, as they view Mr. Jones as their master and will starve if he is gone. They also question why they should care about what happens after they die, if a rebellion is necessary, and if they should do it or not. The pigs struggle to tell them that this is the opposite of Animalism, but one of the mares, Mollie, asks the silliest questions, with her first one being if there will still be some sugar left after the rebellion. Snowball firmly tells her they don’t plan on producing sugar on the farm and that she should eat other foods, such as hay and oats. Mollie then asks if she can wear her ribbons in her mane. Snowball tells her that her ribbons symbolize slavery, and she agrees but isn’t convinced.
The pigs also can’t resist the lies told by Mr. Jones’ pet raven, Moses, who acts as a spy and tale-bearer. Moses claims that there is a place called Sugarcandy Mountain, where all the animals would go after they die. According to Moses, it is located in the sky, where it’s Sunday every day, clover blooms all year, and linseed and lump sugar grow on the hedges. The animals hate Moses because they believe his stories are lies, but some believe Sugarcandy Mountain is real. Again, the pigs struggle to persuade them that Sugarcandy Mountain doesn’t exist. Boxer and Clover are among the most loyal animals to the pigs, and even though they are slow-witted, they quickly learn everything from the pigs and pass on their knowledge to the other animals. They always attended the secret meetings in the barn, and the meetings would end with the animals singing “Beasts of England.”
The rebellion occurs earlier than anyone expected. After losing his money in a lawsuit, Mr. Jones becomes a heavy drinker and spends his time lazing in the kitchen, reading the newspapers, drinking, and feeding Moses crusts of bread soaked in beer. His men have become lazy and dishonest, neglecting their farm animals and fields.
June arrives, and the hay is ready to be harvested. On Midsummer’s Eve, Mr. Jones goes into town to get drunk and doesn’t return until midday, forgetting to feed the animals. Following his negligence, the animals can’t take it anymore, and one of the cows breaks open the door to the store shed. The animals help themselves to any food they can find. At that moment, Mr. Jones awakens, and he and his men break into the store shed and whip the animals. The animals then attack the men until they run towards the main road, and when Mrs. Jones sees what is happening, she gathers her belongings and leaves, too.
After the animals chase Mr. Jones and his men off the farm, they are astonished that they have successfully driven Mr. Jones away and now own Manor Farm. They first check everywhere on the farm to ensure no humans are left before they rush to the farm buildings to get rid of Mr. Jones’ tools and symbols of their bondages, such as bits, nose rings and halters, and toss them down the well. The rest are burned in a fire pit, including the whips. The animals rejoice as they watch the whips burn, and Snowball even burns the horses’ ribbons, saying that animals wearing clothing symbolize the humans’ cruelty. When Boxer hears this, he also burns his straw hat. After all the evidence of Mr. Jones’s cruel regime is destroyed, Napoleon leads the animals back to the store shed, where he serves them a double ration of corn and two biscuits for the dogs. After they sing “Beasts of England” seven times, they fall asleep.
The next morning, the animals rush to the pasture and atop a hill, where they get a great view of Manor Farm and frolic around excitedly. After they inspect the rest of the farm they haven’t seen before, they stop in front of the farmhouse, too nervous to enter. But Napoleon and Snowball open the door with their shoulders, and all the animals enter in a single file. They explore the house and find Mollie taking a blue ribbon from Mrs. Jones’s dressing table and admiring herself in the mirror, where the animals scold her sharply. Some hams are taken out for burial while Boxer kicks a barrel of beer in the scullery. The animals decide to preserve the house as a museum and agree that none of the animals will ever live there.
After the animals eat their breakfast, Snowball and Napoleon call them together, where Snowball announces that they will begin the hay harvest but have other things to deal with first. For the past 3 months, the pigs have taught themselves to read from an old spelling book that belonged to Mr. Jones’s children before it was thrown away on a heap of trash. Napoleon orders some pots of black and white paint to be brought to the five-barred gate that leads onto the main road. Snowball then uses his trotter to hold a brush, paints “MANOR FARM” on the gate, and rewrites “ANIMAL FARM” over it. They return to the farm, where Snowball and Napoleon order a ladder to be placed at the barn’s side. They explain that from their studies during the past 3 months, they reduced the principles of Animalism into the Seven Commandments, inscribed onto the side of the barn that forms an unalterable law all the animals must follow and obey. Snowball then writes the Seven Commandments on the tarred barn wall. The Commandments explain that anything that walks on two legs is an enemy, but anything with four legs or has wings is a friend. No animals shall wear clothes, drink alcohol, or kill any other animal, and the final Commandment says, “All animals are equal.”
Snowball then announces that the animals will go into the hayfield for a harvest. However, the cows haven’t been milked for 24 hours, and the animals wonder what will happen to all of the milk. Napoleon stands in front of the milk buckets and insists they will be taken care of, as the harvest is more important, and he’ll join them in a few minutes. But when the animals return to the farm that evening, they discover the milk is missing.
The animals worked hard on the harvest while the pigs directed and supervised them.[3] Within less than 2 days, the harvest is complete, and it has been the biggest the farm has ever seen. They manage to finish it in less time than the humans. The harvesting continued throughout the summer; without the humans, there was plenty of food to eat. Boxer is the most hardworking of the animals, always willing to work hard labour and adopting “I will work harder!” as his personal motto. Even the smaller animals, such as the hens and ducks, participate by picking up stray bits of hay to avoid any waste. Nobody stole or grumbled about the rations, and hardly anyone experienced signs of jealousy and resentment. The cat would mysteriously disappear during working hours and only reappear in the evening. The old donkey, Benjamin, is the only animal who doesn’t recognize any changes in the rebellion.
On Sundays, the animals have a day off work, and after breakfast, they hold a ceremony where they hoist a green flag up the flagstaff in the farmhouse garden. The flag was Mrs. Jones’s green tablecloth, and Snowball painted on it a hoof and horn in white. He explains that the colour green represents the fields of England, and the hoof and horn represent the future Republic of the Animals, where the human race has been finally overthrown. After the flag is raised, the animals retreat into the barn for a general assembly called “The Meeting,” where they make working plans for the following week and debate some strategies. Napoleon and Snowball are mostly active during the debates, even though they cannot agree on some suggestions they make. The Meeting then ends with the animals singing “Beasts of England,” followed by an afternoon of recreation.
The pigs turned the harness room into their headquarters, where they would spend their evenings studying blacksmithing, carpentering, and other subjects in books they took from the farmhouse. Snowball arranges some committees for the animals in an attempt to tame them, but to no avail. However, the pigs successfully taught the animals to read and write, and by the time autumn arrived, almost all the animals were literate, with the pigs fluent in reading and writing. The dogs learned to read fairly well but weren’t interested in books except for reading the Seven Commandments. Muriel, the goat, reads somewhat better than the dogs and used to read to the other animals from newspaper scraps. Benjamin reads just as well as the pigs but says there’s nothing worth reading. Clover learns the whole alphabet but cannot put any words together, while Boxer can’t make it past the letter D. Mollie refuses to learn any letters except the letters that spell her name. All the other animals are still illiterate, and the sheep, hens, and ducks are unable to memorize the Seven Commandments, so Snowball reduces the principles to one maxim: “Four legs good; two legs bad.” The birds are offended that they are considered “bad” because they have two legs until Snowball explains that their wings count as legs, and they accept his explanation.
Napoleon isn’t interested in Snowball’s committees and insists that the younger animals should be educated first, rather than the adult animals. The dogs, Jessie and Bluebell, gave birth to a litter of 9 puppies, but as soon as they are weaned, Napoleon takes them away from their mothers, saying that he will make himself for their education. He brings the puppies into a loft that can only be reached by a ladder in the harness room. They are kept in seclusion afterward, and the rest of the farm soon forgets about them.
The pigs take the ripened apples and milk, which are mixed into their food. The animals assume they will have their fair share of the milk and apples until they learn they will be taken to the harness room and only the pigs will have them. Squealer explains to the animals that while he and the pigs hate milk and apples, they need to eat them to preserve their brainwork, and Squealer hints that without the milk and apples, Mr. Jones might come back. The prospect of Mr. Jones’s return frightens the animals, so they keep quiet and allow the pigs to have the milk and apples all to themselves for their benefit.
By late summer, news of Animal Farm had quickly spread throughout the county.[4] Napoleon and Snowball would send out pigeons to visit neighbouring farms to tell the other animals the story about Animal Farm and teach them to sing Beasts of England. But before long, the animals at Animal Farm start to act out, such as the bulls becoming savage and the sheep breaking down the hedges to eat the clover. Beasts of England became widespread and well-known quickly; even the birds sang it, which started to infuriate the humans who didn’t understand how the animals were able to sing such a rebellious song.
In early October, while the corn is being harvested, a bunch of pigeons arrive and inform the animals that Mr. Jones, along with his men and half a dozen others from the nearby farms Foxwood and Pinchfield, are approaching the farm. All of them are carrying sticks except for Mr. Jones, who is armed with a gun, in an attempt to take back the farm. All the preparations are quickly made, with Snowball in charge of the defensive operations. Within minutes, all the animals are at their posts and ready for battle. As the men arrive, Snowball launches the first attack, with the pigeons dive-bombing and the geese pecking at their legs. After the men drive the geese off with their sticks, the second attack is launched. Muriel, Benjamin, and the sheep attack the men by butting and kicking them. At the sound of Snowball’s sudden squeal, the animals quickly retreat, with the men rejoicing in triumph. The remaining animals charge into the barnyard towards Mr. Jones and the men.
Mr. Jones shoots at Snowball but only grazes his back, and a sheep is killed. Snowball kicks Mr. Jones, who lands in a pile of dung and loses his gun. Boxer brutally kicks a stable-boy, which causes several men to drop their sticks and attempt to flee. The animals chase them around the yard, goring, kicking, biting, and trampling on them. Even the cat leapt onto one of the men and scratched his neck. In five minutes, all the men flee from the barnyard and down the main road.
Boxer inspects the stable boy he kicked lying in the mud and notices that he is dead. He insists he didn’t mean to kill him and forgot he was wearing iron horseshoes. Snowball insists that the boy is better off dead and that he had the right to do it. The animals then notice that Mollie is missing, and they fear that the men may have harmed her or even abducted her. They find her hiding in her stall when the gun was fired, and when they return to the barnyard, they discover that the stable-boy wasn’t dead and he took off.
The animals become wild with excitement, and they celebrate their victory by raising the flag and singing Beasts of England. The sheep killed in battle was given a proper burial, with a hawthorn bush planted on the grave. Snowball gives an empathic speech that the animals must be willing to die for Animal Farm. A military honour was then created, consisting of a brass medal worn on Sundays and holidays. Boxer and Snowball are given the honour of Animal Hero, First Class, while the dead sheep was posthumously honoured as Animal Hero, Second Class. The battle that was fought today was now called the Battle of the Cowshed, and Mr. Jones’s gun was placed at the foot of the flagstaff and would be fired twice in a year: on October 12th, the anniversary of the Battle of the Cowshed, and the anniversary of the rebellion.
Napoleon Overthrows Snowball[]
As winter passes, Mollie becomes more burden and troublesome.[5] She shows up late for work and has received treats from men from nearby farms. Soon afterwards, Mollie disappears, and one of the pigeons reports seeing her happily pulling a dogcart at Willingdon, and the animals never mention her name again.
January arrives, bringing a harsh, bitter winter. Many meetings are held in the barn, and the pigs spend time planning work for the coming season. However, Napoleon and Snowball constantly disagree on some suggestions, and sometimes their debates turn violent. During the meetings, Snowball is good at making speeches, while Napoleon is good at canvassing for support between meetings. Snowball has studied many of Mr. Jones’s books and plans to innovate and improve the farm. Napoleon has no schemes of his own but quietly says that Snowball’s schemes are worthless. Their biggest dispute comes when Snowball proposes that they build a windmill on the pasture near the farm buildings. The windmill would operate a dynamo and provide the farm with electrical power, lighting the stalls and keeping the animals warm in winter. Additionally, the windmill will also operate farming machinery that intrigues the animals.
Within a few weeks, Snowball completes his plans for the windmill. He had sketched the machinery to be built inside the windmill, and the animals would occasionally view his drawings inside Snowball’s shed. Napoleon declares that he has been against building the windmill from the start, but one day, he examines the drawings carefully before urinating on them and leaving.
Snowball says constructing the windmill will be physically difficult and estimates it could be completed within a year. He declares that the animals only need to work 3 days a week to save labour, but Napoleon argues that building the windmill wastes time. He says that the animals need to focus on food production, and if they spend all their time on the windmill, they will run out of food and starve. As a result, two slogans were created: “Vote for Snowball and the three-day week”, and “Vote for Napoleon and the full manger”. Aside from the debate on building the windmill, the animals’ question provides more defence to Animal Farm since Mr. Jones and the humans may try to recapture the farm again, especially when news of their victory spreads across the countryside and makes animals in neighbouring farms more restless.
Napoleon and Snowball again disagree about defending the farm. Napoleon wants the animals to obtain firearms and train to use them, while Snowball wants to send pigeons to the nearby farms to stir up a rebellion. The animals first listen to Napoleon’s argument and then Snowball, but they can’t decide who is right.
The following Sunday, the animals meet at the barn to vote on whether they should build the windmill. Snowball explains why the windmill should be built, and Napoleon quietly retorts that building the windmill is nonsense and advises that nobody should vote for its construction. Snowball then gives a passionate speech about how the windmill’s electricity could improve life on Animal Farm. Shortly afterwards, Napoleon gives a strange whimper nobody has heard before, and 9 large, fierce dogs burst into the barn and charge toward Snowball. The animals watch in amazement and horror as the dogs chase Snowball around the pasture until he disappears through a hole in the hedge and is never seen again.
The animals silently return to the barn, and the dogs return. Initially, nobody knows where the dogs came from, but then they realize they were the 9 puppies that Napoleon took away from their mothers and trained them privately. Napoleon then announces that there will be no more Sunday meetings, as he considers them a waste of time. From now on, all questions and debates about the farm would be settled by the special committee of pigs, with Napoleon taking charge. They will meet privately to discuss the decisions and pass them on to the others. However, the animals will still gather on Sundays to sing “Beasts of England”, receive their orders and salute the flag. Several animals are shocked and disturbed, and even 4 young pigs start protesting. The dogs start growling at them, and the pigs remain silent. The sheep start bleating, “Four legs good, two legs bad,” for a quarter of an hour.
Squealer then explains to the animals that Napoleon is making a great sacrifice for leadership responsibilities and firmly believes that all animals are equal. He mentions that Snowball was a traitor and criminal all along, until one of the animals mentions that he fought bravely at the Battle of the Cowshed. Squealer replies that Snowball’s role in the Battle of the Cowshed will be greatly exaggerated, and they must ensure their enemies won’t be upon them, even asking them if they want Mr. Jones back on the farm. The animals eventually accept the new version of events, with Boxer even adopting a new motto, “Napoleon is always right.”
Around this time, spring arrives. The shed where Snowball had drawn his plans for the windmill has been shut up, and it’s assumed that the plans had been scrapped. Every Sunday morning at 10 o’clock, the animals assemble in the barn to receive their orders for the week. Old Major’s skull has been disinterred and placed on the flagstaff’s stump, next to the gun. After the flag is hoisted, the animals must pay their respects to the skull before entering the barn. Napoleon and Squealer, along with another pig named Minimus, sit on the front of the raised platform. The nine dogs sit in a semicircle, and the other pigs sit behind them. All the animals sit facing the platform in the main part of the barn. After Napoleon reads the week's orders aloud, the animals sing “Beasts of England” before dispersing.
On the third Sunday after Snowball is driven out of Animal Farm, Napoleon surprises the animals by announcing that the windmill will be built after all. He doesn’t explain why he changed his mind but warns the animals that building the windmill will be hard work and may even reduce their rations. But the plans have all been prepared, as a special committee of pigs worked on them for the past 3 weeks. The windmill is expected to take 2 years to complete. Squealer later explains to the animals that Napoleon was never opposed to building the windmill; he had been supporting it since the beginning, and Snowball’s sketched plans had been stolen from Napoleon’s papers. Therefore, the windmill was Napoleon’s idea. When one animal asks why Napoleon is strongly against the windmill, Squealer says it’s because Napoleon is cunning and despises the windmill as a scheme to get rid of Snowball, who he views as dangerous and a bad influence. Now that Snowball is gone, the construction will go as planned, which Squealer refers to as tactics.
Napoleon’s Regime[]
Throughout the year, the animals work hard like slaves.[6] They are still happy that they are working for their own benefit and not for the humans. During the spring and summer, they work 60 hours a week, and in August, Napoleon announces that they will work on Sundays, which will be voluntary. Any animal who skipped work that day will have their rations reduced. The harvest was less successful than last year, and the animals didn’t plant the crop early enough, meaning the upcoming winter will be difficult. There is a quarry of limestone on the farm for the windmill, but the animals struggle to break the limestone into manageable sizes as they are unable to use crowbars or pickaxes. They ultimately solve the problem by raising the boulders with tied ropes and then dropping them, causing them to break into pieces. By late summer, there are enough broken stones to start constructing the windmill.
The animals experience strenuous work building the windmill. Boxer works tirelessly, carting the stones from the quarry to the windmill. Despite Clover warning him not to overwork himself, Boxer doesn’t complain and dedicates himself to Animal Farm by stating, “I will work harder,” and “Napoleon is always right.” While the animals experience strenuous labour throughout the summer, they don’t suffer much when they have Mr. Jones. There is enough food for them to eat, and they can easily maintain the farmland than the humans. However, the farm needs products they can’t produce on their own, such as paraffin oil, nails, dog biscuits and iron for the horses’ shoes. They will also need seeds and machinery.
One Sunday, during an assembly, Napoleon announces that Animal Farm will start trading with neighbouring farms to maintain the supplies and materials they need, but materials for the windmill are the top priority. He has made arrangements to sell a stack of hay and wheat from this year’s harvest. If Animal Farm should make more money, they would sell the eggs at a market at Willingdon. Napoleon informs the hens that they must make this sacrifice to contribute to the windmill. The animals are uneasy about Napoleon engaging in trade with humans following Mr. Jones’s expulsion. Four young pigs protest against Napoleon’s plans but are promptly silenced by the dogs growling and the sheep bleating, “Four legs good! Two legs bad!”. Napoleon announces that the animals won’t need any contact with the humans, as he will handle it all himself. A solicitor named Mr. Whymper from Willingdon has agreed to conduct trade with Napoleon.
Every Monday, Mr. Whymper visits Animal Farm to receive orders from Napoleon. The animals fear Mr. Whymper and avoid him as much as possible. Before long, the humans would meet in local pubs and theorize that Animal Farm would either go bankrupt or the windmill would fail, even referring to Animal Farm by its original name, Manor Farm. Mr. Jones has given up trying to retake his farm and moves to a different part of the county. Rumours start spreading that Napoleon is about to do trading partnerships with either Mr. Pilkington of Foxwood or with Mr. Frederick of Pinchfield.
The pigs then break one of the Seven Commandments when they suddenly move into the farmhouse and start eating their meals in the kitchen, spending their free time in the drawing room, and even sleeping in the beds, which shocks the animals. Squealer insists that the pigs, especially Napoleon, simply need a quiet place to work and live in.
By autumn, the animals are tired but happy. The food stores for the winter are low from selling the hay and corn, and the windmill is half complete. After the harvest, the animals work harder than before, and even Boxer would work alone for an hour or two at night. The animals will occasionally admire the windmill’s strength and the shapes of its walls and marvel that they could build a difficult project. In November, the animals had to stop working when the cement became too wet to mix. One night, a violent windstorm occurs at the farm. The next morning, the animals awaken to find the flagstaff toppled over but are horrified to see the windmill destroyed by the storm. After Napoleon surveys the damage, he declares that Snowball is responsible for the windmill’s destruction, and he secretly returned to the farm at night to destroy it. He passes a death sentence to Snowball and will reward a bushel of apples to anyone who kills him or captures him alive.
The animals are shocked that Snowball could be the culprit, and even spot pig footprints leading to a hole in a hedge. Napoleon sniffs the footprints and pronounces them as Snowball’s, and thinks he came here from the route of Foxwood Farm. He then declares that the windmill must be rebuilt immediately and that the construction will continue throughout the winter.
A bitter winter arrives, and the animals struggle to rebuild the windmill.[7] The humans refuse to believe that Snowball destroyed the windmill, and think it’s the windmill’s thin walls that caused its destruction. The animals deem the explanation false, but decide to build thicker walls by collecting more quantities of stone. But it was a difficult process as the animals are too fatigued and hungry to progress further. Only Clover and Boxer manage to keep up the animals’ spirits, and Squealer gives speeches on the glory of sacrifices.
In January, Animal Farm experiences a food shortage, which is the result of a poor potato harvest, and corn and potato rations were reduced. But for days, the animals eat chaff and mangel, and struggling against starvation. The humans spread lies that the animals of Animal Farm are dying from disease and famine, and are resorting to cannibalism to survive. Napoleon is aware of the false rumours and decides to devise a strategy with Mr. Whymper to ensure that Animal Farm’s food rations are still high.