73 pages • 2 hours read
George OrwellA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Published in 1945, Animal Farm by George Orwell (1903-1950) achieved immediate success and remains one of Orwell’s most popular works. A political satire in the guise of a moving and whimsical animal fable, the novella is about a group of farm animals who overthrow their owner, Mr. Jones, and establish animal rule. Although the animals start with high hopes for Animal Farm as a harmonious and just utopia where “all animals are equal” (19), it soon descends into tyranny and despotism under a pig named Napoleon. In the end, the animals’ lives are just as miserable, if not more so, than they had been under Jones, and the farm comes under the joint management of humans and pigs. The revolution has come full circle.
Frequently read in schools and regarded as an English classic, Animal Farm has been adapted twice for the screen, in 1954 as an animated feature and 1999 as a live-action/CGI animated film. This guide uses the edition of Animal Farm published by Harcourt Brace.
Plot Summary
Major, an old boar, stirs up his fellow animals on Manor Farm to revolt against their human masters, pointing out that if human beings were gone, animals would enjoy a happy and free life. Inspired by this appeal, the overworked and underfed animals chase their drunken and incompetent owner, Mr. Jones, from the farm. Two pigs, Snowball and Napoleon, emerge as rival leaders of the newly established Animal Farm. They argue constantly about the direction Animal Farm should take. Snowball advocates building a windmill to bring electricity. Napoleon trains several dogs to chase Snowball away from the farm and seizes total power.
Animal Farm quickly descends into tyranny; the ruling class of pigs exploits the labor of the other animals, systematically lies to them, and creates a cult-like status for the leader, Napoleon. The animals work in slave-like conditions and are constantly hungry, while the leaders live in the farmhouse and enjoy generous rations. The corruption on the farm reaches its nadir when the pigs arrange to have Boxer, an old cart horse who has collapsed from exhaustion, transported away to be slaughtered so that they can buy whiskey.
Economic necessity forces Napoleon to ally with human outsiders. The book ends with the humans and the pigs enjoying a party in the farmhouse, as the other animals notice that they can no longer distinguish the pigs from the humans by appearance or behavior. The original principles upon which Animal Farm was founded have crumbled, and the conditions in which the animals end are worse than those under Mr. Jones.
By George Orwell
1984
George Orwell
A Hanging
George Orwell
Burmese Days
George Orwell
Coming Up for Air
George Orwell
Down and Out in Paris and London
George Orwell
Homage To Catalonia
George Orwell
Keep the Aspidistra Flying
George Orwell
Politics and the English Language
George Orwell
Shooting an Elephant
George Orwell
Such, Such Were the Joys
George Orwell
The Road to Wigan Pier
George Orwell
Why I Write
George Orwell
Allegories of Modern Life
View Collection
Animals in Literature
View Collection
Audio Study Guides
View Collection
Banned Books Week
View Collection
British Literature
View Collection
Challenging Authority
View Collection
Community
View Collection
Equality
View Collection
European History
View Collection
Fantasy
View Collection
Fantasy & Science Fiction Books (High...
View Collection
Goodreads Reading Challenge
View Collection
Philosophy, Logic, & Ethics
View Collection
Politics & Government
View Collection
Power
View Collection
Satire
View Collection
Science Fiction & Dystopian Fiction
View Collection
SuperSummary Staff Picks
View Collection