At a Glance:Full TitleAnimal Farm: A Fairy Story AuthorGeorge Orwell (pseudonym of Eric Arthur Blair) Type Of WorkNovella GenreDystopian animal fable; satire; allegory; political roman à clef (French for “novel with a key”—a thinly veiled exposé of factual persons or events) LanguageEnglish Time And Place Written1943–1944, in London Date Of First Publication1946 PublisherHarcourt Brace & Company

Summary & Key Facts

NarratorAnimal Farm is the only work by Orwell in which the author does not appear conspicuously as a narrator or major character; it is the least overtly personal of all of his writings. The anonymous narrator of the story is almost a nonentity, notable for no individual idiosyncrasies or biases.Point Of ViewThe story is told from the point of view of the common animals of Animal Farm, though it refers to them in the third person plural as “they.”

ToneFor the most part, the tone of the novel is objective, stating external facts and rarely digressing into philosophical meditations. The mixture of this tone with the outrageous trajectory of the plot, however, steeps the story in an ever-mounting irony.

Setting (Time) As is the case with most fables, Animal Farm is set in an unspecified time period and is largely free from historical references that would allow the reader to date the action precisely. It is fair to assume, however, that Orwell means the fable to be contemporaneous with the object of its satire, the Russian Revolution (1917–1945). It is important to remember that this period represented the recent past and present at the time of writing and that Orwell understands the significance of the story’s action to be immediate and ongoing rather than historical.

Setting (Place)An imaginary farm in England ProtagonistThere is no clear central character in the novel, but Napoleon, the dictatorial pig, is the figure who drives and ties together most of the action. Major ConflictThere are a number of conflicts in Animal Farm—the animals versus Mr. Jones, Snowball versus Napoleon, the common animals versus the pigs, Animal Farm versus the neighboring humans—but all of them are expressions of the underlying tension between the exploited and exploiting classes and between the lofty ideals and harsh realities of socialism.

Rising ActionThe animals throw off their human oppressors and establish a socialist state called Animal Farm; the pigs, being the most intelligent animals in the group, take control of the planning and government of the farm; Snowball and Napoleon engage in ideological disputes and compete for power.ClimaxIn Chapter V, Napoleon runs Snowball off the farm with his trained pack of dogs and declares that the power to make decisions for the farm will be exercised solely by the pigs.

Falling ActionSquealer emerges to justify Napoleon’s actions with skillful but duplicitous reinterpretations of Animalist principles; Napoleon continues to consolidate his power, eliminating his enemies and reinforcing his status as supreme leader; the common animals continue to obey the pigs, hoping for a better future. ThemesThe corruption of socialist ideals in the Soviet Union; the societal tendency toward class stratification; the danger of a naïve working class; the abuse of language as instrumental to the abuse of power SymbolsAnimal Farm; the barn; the windmill

ForeshadowingThe pigs’ eventual abuse of power is foreshadowed at several points in the novel. At the end of Chapter II, immediately after the establishment of the supposedly egalitarian Animal Farm, the extra milk taken from the cows disappears, and the text implies that Napoleon has drunk it himself. Similarly, the dogs’ attack on Boxer during Napoleon’s purges, in Chapter VII, foreshadows the pigs’ eventual betrayal of the loyal cart-horse.

Animal Farm is a novel about a group of animals who take control of the farm they live on. The animals get fed up of their master, Farmer Jones, so they kick him out. ... The novel ends with the pigs behaving and even dressing like the humans the animals tried to get rid of in the first place.

The animals of Manor Farm have revolted and taken over. Upon the death of Old Major, pigs Snowball and Napoleon lead a revolt against Mr. Jones, driving him from the farm. The animals embrace the Seven Commandments of Animalism and life carries on, but they learn that a farm ruled by animals looks more human than ever. Intended as a critique of Stalinist-era Russia, Orwell’s satirical novella Animal Farm is one of his greatest literary achievements. Animal Farm was chosen as one of Time magazine’s 100 best English-language novels, and won a Retrospective Hugo Award in 1996. HarperPerennialClassics brings great works of literature to life in digital format, upholding the highest standards in ebook production and celebrating reading in all its forms. Look for more titles in the HarperPerennial Classics collection to build your digital library.

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