Back to: Animal Farm by George Orwell
Mollie was late for work every day, also she claimed to be sick. She spent most of her time alongside the pool. Clover took her aside and told her that she had seen her along the line with a man from an adjoining farm.
Mollie refuted the statements and ran away. She went on to check Mollie’s place and found lump sugar along with colorful ribbons. Mollie disappeared and was never to be seen again. Pigeons claimed that Mollie was seen on the other side of the line with a fat red-faced man.
Winter came, and the difficulties increased. Even a minute of work in the fields became difficult. The pigs as the leaders of Animal Farm discussed many techniques. Resolutions were passed and all the animals voted.
Snowball introduced innovative schemes to reduce the cost of maintenance. A clash between Snowball and Napoleon started to erupt as they both contradicted each other on many occasions. Their most fiery debate was the one that took place in the place of installation of the windmill.
Snowball decided the place of the windmill and read many books (One Thousand Useful Things to do About the House, Every Man His Own Bricklayer and Electricity for Beginners) that belonged to Mr. Jones.
But, Napoleon was against the windmill from the very beginning. He entered Snowball’s place, sniffed his plans (drawn with chalks), urinated upon them and left.
Now the animals were divided into two factions. One side with Snowball and the other with Napoleon. Benjamin (the donkey) was the only animal that was neutral. Different strategical plans of Napoleon and Snowball confused the animals.
After Snowball gave every plausible reason to construct the windmill, Napoleon made a sound and nine fierce-looking dogs (the puppies that Napoleon took away in chapter 3) appeared on the scene. They chased Snowball out of the farm and he was nowhere to be seen again.
Napoleon took the throne of old Major and established his governance. No one protested due to the fear of the dogs. Squealer (the talkative pig) made announcements of new laws. Boxer adopted the maxim “Napoleon is always right.”
Spring came and the new laws were a bit harder on animals than ever before. The weekly meetings were canceled and orders were given every day. On the third day of Snowball’s departure, Napoleon announced that the windmill would be made.
Animals were surprised as he announced that this extra task would take two years and the ration of all the animals would be reduced to cut the costs. None of the animals protested due to the fear of the dogs.
