3.2.1.9The text at a glance
The animals of Manor Farm drive out the farmer and establish their own rule under Seven Commandments. The pigs take charge; Napoleon expels Snowball using dogs he has raised in secret. The commandments are altered one by one, Boxer is sold to the knacker, and by the end the pigs are indistinguishable from the humans.
Published in 1945. Orwell was a democratic socialist who regarded the Soviet Union as a betrayal of socialism rather than its fulfilment. Publishers refused the book while the USSR was a wartime ally.
- allegory
- a narrative whose characters and events stand for real ones
- propaganda
- information shaped to control belief, which Squealer supplies
- the knacker
- the slaughterer to whom Boxer is sold, the novella's emotional centre
3.2.1.9Characters
Napoleon works in private while Snowball debates in public, so power accrues away from scrutiny, and his increasing invisibility makes him harder to contradict.
Squealer's rhetorical questions close down debate and his statistics are impressive and unverifiable.
Boxer's two mottoes reduce him to slogans, showing loyalty operating without judgement. Benjamin understands everything and says nothing, which Orwell presents as its own failure.
3.2.1.9Themes
The corruption of the revolution is tracked through a single running device, the altered commandments. Language is the primary instrument of power: qualifying clauses change meaning while preserving the appearance of continuity. Equality is redefined out of existence one privilege at a time.
Common mistake
Reading the book as being only about Russia. Orwell's target is the mechanism by which any revolution is captured, which is why the allegory still applies.
3.2.1.9The writer's methods
The flat, fable-like narration reports the changes without comment, so the reader performs the judgement. Animal characters allow types to be presented economically. The milk disappears in chapter two, placing the betrayal at the very beginning rather than at a crisis.
Worked example
Answer:
- The altered commandments track the corruption
- The milk vanishes in chapter two, before any crisis
- Squealer's rhetoric is the machinery of control
- Benjamin's silence is a failure too
AO1-AO4How this text is examined
This text is examined in Paper 2, Section A. The question is worth 34 marks and two essay questions are offered on your text and you answer one; no extract is printed, so quotations must come from memory. Allow about 45 minutes.
The marks are divided as AO1 12 marks, AO2 12 marks, AO3 6 marks, AO4 4 marks. AO1 rewards a clear argument supported by well-chosen references. AO2 rewards analysis of how the writer achieves an effect, which means writing about choices rather than about events. AO3 rewards context used to deepen a reading of the text.
Common mistake
Retelling the plot. Narrative summary earns nothing under any assessment objective, however accurate it is. Every paragraph should be making a point about how or why, not about what happens.
Four of the marks are for AO4: vocabulary and sentence structures used to control meaning, and accurate spelling and punctuation. These are the cheapest marks on the paper and the easiest to lose by rushing the final paragraph.