II
THREE nights later old Major died peacefully in his sleep. His body
was buried at the foot of the orchard.
This was early in March. During the next three months there was much

secret activity. Major’s speech had given to the more intelligent animals
on the farm a completely new outlook on life. They did not know when
the Rebellion predicted by Major would take place, they had no reason
for thinking that it would be within their own lifetime, but they saw
clearly that it was their duty to prepare for it. The work of teaching and
organising the others fell naturally upon the pigs, who were generally
recognised as being the cleverest of the animals. Pre-eminent among
the pigs were two young boars named Snowball and Napoleon, whom
Mr. Jones was breeding up for sale. Napoleon was a large, rather
fierce-looking Berkshire boar, the only Berkshire on the farm, not much
of a talker, but with a reputation for getting his own way. Snowball was
a more vivacious pig than Napoleon, quicker in speech and more
inventive, but was not considered to have the same depth of character.
All the other male pigs on the farm were porkers. The best known
among them was a small fat pig named Squealer, with very round
cheeks, twinkling eyes, nimble movements, and a shrill voice. He was a
brilliant talker, and when he was arguing some difficult point he had a
way of skipping from side to side and whisking his tail which was
somehow very persuasive. The others said of Squealer that he could
turn black into white.
These three had elaborated old Major’s teachings into a complete
system of thought, to which they gave the name of Animalism. Several
nights a week, after Mr. Jones was asleep, they held secret meetings in
the barn and expounded the principles of Animalism to the others. At
the beginning they met with much stupidity and apathy. Some of the
animals talked of the duty of loyalty to Mr. Jones, whom they referred
to as “Master,” or made elementary remarks such as “Mr. Jones feeds
us. If he were gone, we should starve to death.” Others asked such
questions as “Why should we care what happens after we are dead?” or
“If this Rebellion is to happen anyway, what difference does it make
whether we work for it or not?”, and the pigs had great difficulty in
making them see that this was contrary to the spirit of Animalism. The
stupidest questions of all were asked by Mollie, the white mare. The
very first question she asked Snowball was: “Will there still be sugar
after the Rebellion?”
“No,” said Snowball firmly. “We have no means of making sugar on
this farm. Besides, you do not need sugar. You will have all the oats
and hay you want.”
“And shall I still be allowed to wear ribbons in my mane?” asked

Mollie.
“Comrade,” said Snowball, “those ribbons that you are so devoted to
are the badge of slavery. Can you not understand that liberty is worth
more than ribbons? “
Mollie agreed, but she did not sound very convinced.
The pigs had an even harder struggle to counteract the lies put about by
Moses, the tame raven. Moses, who was Mr. Jones’s especial pet, was a
spy and a tale-bearer, but he was also a clever talker. He claimed to
know of the existence of a mysterious country called Sugarcandy
Mountain, to which all animals went when they died. It was situated
somewhere up in the sky, a little distance beyond the clouds, Moses
said. In Sugarcandy Mountain it was Sunday seven days a week, clover
was in season all the year round, and lump sugar and linseed cake grew
on the hedges. The animals hated Moses because he told tales and did
no work, but some of them believed in Sugarcandy Mountain, and the
pigs had to argue very hard to persuade them that there was no such
place.
Their most faithful disciples were the two cart-horses, Boxer and
Clover. These two had great difficulty in thinking anything out for
themselves, but having once accepted the pigs as their teachers, they
absorbed everything that they were told, and passed it on to the other
animals by simple arguments. They were unfailing in their attendance
at the secret meetings in the barn, and led the singing of Beasts of
England, with which the meetings always ended.
Now, as it turned out, the Rebellion was achieved much earlier and
more easily than anyone had expected. In past years Mr. Jones,
although a hard master, had been a capable farmer, but of late he had
fallen on evil days. He had become much disheartened after losing
money in a lawsuit, and had taken to drinking more than was good for
him. For whole days at a time he would lounge in his Windsor chair in
the kitchen, reading the newspapers, drinking, and occasionally feeding
Moses on crusts of bread soaked in beer. His men were idle and
dishonest, the fields were full of weeds, the buildings wanted roofing,
the hedges were neglected, and the animals were underfed.
June came and the hay was almost ready for cutting. On Midsummer’s
Eve, which was a Saturday, Mr. Jones went into Willingdon and got so
drunk at the Red Lion that he did not come back till midday on Sunday.

The men had milked the cows in the early morning and then had gone
out rabbiting, without bothering to feed the animals. When Mr. Jones
got back he immediately went to sleep on the drawing-room sofa with
the News of the World over his face, so that when evening came, the
animals were still unfed. At last they could stand it no longer. One of
the cows broke in the door of the store-shed with her horn and all the
animals began to help themselves from the bins. It was just then that
Mr. Jones woke up. The next moment he and his four men were in the
store-shed with whips in their hands, lashing out in all directions. This
was more than the hungry animals could bear. With one accord, though
nothing of the kind had been planned beforehand, they flung
themselves upon their tormentors. Jones and his men suddenly found
themselves being butted and kicked from all sides. The situation was
quite out of their control. They had never seen animals behave like this
before, and this sudden uprising of creatures whom they were used to
thrashing and maltreating just as they chose, frightened them almost out
of their wits. After only a moment or two they gave up trying to defend
themselves and took to their heels. A minute later all five of them were
in full flight down the cart-track that led to the main road, with the
animals pursuing them in triumph.
Mrs. Jones looked out of the bedroom window, saw what was
happening, hurriedly flung a few possessions into a carpet bag, and
slipped out of the farm by another way. Moses sprang off his perch and
flapped after her, croaking loudly. Meanwhile the animals had chased
Jones and his men out on to the road and slammed the five-barred gate
behind them. And so, almost before they knew what was happening, the
Rebellion had been successfully carried through: Jones was expelled,
and the Manor Farm was theirs.
For the first few minutes the animals could hardly believe in their good
fortune. Their first act was to gallop in a body right round the
boundaries of the farm, as though to make quite sure that no human
being was hiding anywhere upon it; then they raced back to the farm
buildings to wipe out the last traces of Jones’s hated reign. The
harness-room at the end of the stables was broken open; the bits, the
nose-rings, the dog-chains, the cruel knives with which Mr. Jones had
been used to castrate the pigs and lambs, were all flung down the well.
The reins, the halters, the blinkers, the degrading nosebags, were
thrown on to the rubbish fire which was burning in the yard. So were
the whips. All the animals capered with joy when they saw the whips

going up in flames. Snowball also threw on to the fire the ribbons with
which the horses’ manes and tails had usually been decorated on market
days.
“Ribbons,” he said, “should be considered as clothes, which are the
mark of a human being. All animals should go naked.”
When Boxer heard this he fetched the small straw hat which he wore in
summer to keep the flies out of his ears, and flung it on to the fire with
the rest.
In a very little while the animals had destroyed everything that
reminded them of Mr. Jones. Napoleon then led them back to the
store-shed and served out a double ration of corn to everybody, with
two biscuits for each dog. Then they sang Beasts of England from end
to end seven times running, and after that they settled down for the
night and slept as they had never slept before.
But they woke at dawn as usual, and suddenly remembering the
glorious thing that had happened, they all raced out into the pasture
together. A little way down the pasture there was a knoll that
commanded a view of most of the farm. The animals rushed to the top
of it and gazed round them in the clear morning light. Yes, it was
theirs-everything that they could see was theirs! In the ecstasy of that
thought they gambolled round and round, they hurled themselves into
the air in great leaps of excitement. They rolled in the dew, they
cropped mouthfuls of the sweet summer grass, they kicked up clods of
the black earth and snuffed its rich scent. Then they made a tour of
inspection of the whole farm and surveyed with speechless admiration
the ploughland, the hayfield, the orchard, the pool, the spinney. It was
as though they had never seen these things before, and even now they
could hardly believe that it was all their own.
Then they filed back to the farm buildings and halted in silence outside
the door of the farmhouse. That was theirs too, but they were frightened
to go inside. After a moment, however, Snowball and Napoleon butted
the door open with their shoulders and the animals entered in single
file, walking with the utmost care for fear of disturbing anything. They
tiptoed from room to room, afraid to speak above a whisper and gazing
with a kind of awe at the unbelievable luxury, at the beds with their
feather mattresses, the looking-glasses, the horsehair sofa, the Brussels
carpet, the lithograph of Queen Victoria over the drawing-room
mantelpiece. They were lust coming down the stairs when Mollie was

discovered to be missing. Going back, the others found that she had
remained behind in the best bedroom. She had taken a piece of blue
ribbon from Mrs. Jones’s dressing-table, and was holding it against her
shoulder and admiring herself in the glass in a very foolish manner. The
others reproached her sharply, and they went outside. Some hams
hanging in the kitchen were taken out for burial, and the barrel of beer
in the scullery was stove in with a kick from Boxer’s hoof,-otherwise
nothing in the house was touched. A unanimous resolution was passed
on the spot that the farmhouse should be preserved as a museum. All
were agreed that no animal must ever live there.
The animals had their breakfast, and then Snowball and Napoleon
called them together again.
“Comrades,” said Snowball, “it is half-past six and we have a long day
before us. Today we begin the hay harvest. But there is another matter
that must be attended to first.”
The pigs now revealed that during the past three months they had
taught themselves to read and write from an old spelling book which
had belonged to Mr. Jones’s children and which had been thrown on the
rubbish heap. Napoleon sent for pots of black and white paint and led
the way down to the five-barred gate that gave on to the main road.
Then Snowball (for it was Snowball who was best at writing) took a
brush between the two knuckles of his trotter, painted out MANOR
FARM from the top bar of the gate and in its place painted ANIMAL
FARM. This was to be the name of the farm from now onwards. After
this they went back to the farm buildings, where Snowball and
Napoleon sent for a ladder which they caused to be set against the end
wall of the big barn. They explained that by their studies of the past
three months the pigs had succeeded in reducing the principles of
Animalism to Seven Commandments. These Seven Commandments
would now be inscribed on the wall; they would form an unalterable
law by which all the animals on Animal Farm must live for ever after.
With some difficulty (for it is not easy for a pig to balance himself on a
ladder) Snowball climbed up and set to work, with Squealer a few
rungs below him holding the paint-pot. The Commandments were
written on the tarred wall in great white letters that could be read thirty
yards away. They ran thus:
THE SEVEN COMMANDMENTS

Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy.

Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend.

No animal shall wear clothes.

No animal shall sleep in a bed.

No animal shall drink alcohol.

No animal shall kill any other animal.

All animals are equal.

It was very neatly written, and except that “friend” was written “freind”
and one of the “S’s” was the wrong way round, the spelling was correct
all the way through. Snowball read it aloud for the benefit of the others.
All the animals nodded in complete agreement, and the cleverer ones at
once began to learn the Commandments by heart.
“Now, comrades,” cried Snowball, throwing down the paint-brush, “to
the hayfield! Let us make it a point of honour to get in the harvest more
quickly than Jones and his men could do.”
But at this moment the three cows, who had seemed uneasy for some
time past, set up a loud lowing. They had not been milked for
twenty-four hours, and their udders were almost bursting. After a little
thought, the pigs sent for buckets and milked the cows fairly
successfully, their trotters being well adapted to this task. Soon there
were five buckets of frothing creamy milk at which many of the
animals looked with considerable interest.
“What is going to happen to all that milk?” said someone.
“Jones used sometimes to mix some of it in our mash,” said one of the
hens.
“Never mind the milk, comrades!” cried Napoleon, placing himself in
front of the buckets. “That will be attended to. The harvest is more
important. Comrade Snowball will lead the way. I shall follow in a few
minutes. Forward, comrades! The hay is waiting.”
So the animals trooped down to the hayfield to begin the harvest, and
when they came back in the evening it was noticed that the milk had
disappeared.

Chapter 2 of George Orwell’s “Animal Farm” delves into the aftermath of Old Major’s stirring speech and the subsequent rebellion of the animals against Mr. Jones, the human owner of the farm. The chapter highlights the period of transition as the animals establish their own governance and begin to implement the principles of Animalism.

The chapter begins with the peaceful passing of Old Major, the revered boar whose speech inspired the animals to revolt against human oppression. His death prompts the animals to organize secret meetings to prepare for the impending rebellion, as they feel a sense of duty to uphold Old Major’s teachings.

The pigs, Snowball and Napoleon, emerge as leaders among the animals, recognized for their intelligence and organizational skills. Other notable pigs include Squealer, known for his persuasive rhetoric, and a small fat pig named Squealer, who is described as a brilliant talker.

Snowball and Napoleon, with the assistance of the other pigs, elaborate on Old Major’s teachings and establish a system of thought called Animalism. They hold secret meetings to educate the other animals about Animalism and the principles of rebellion against human tyranny.

Despite initial resistance and skepticism from some animals, particularly Mollie the white mare and Moses the raven, who spreads tales of a mythical paradise called Sugarcandy Mountain, the pigs persist in promoting Animalism.

As tensions between the animals and Mr. Jones escalate, culminating in the animals’ successful rebellion, the chapter vividly depicts the chaos and excitement of the uprising. Mr. Jones and his men are driven off the farm by the animals, who seize control and declare the farm their own.

Following their victory, the animals embark on a frenzy of destruction, ridding the farm of all symbols of human oppression. They destroy whips, harnesses, and other instruments of control, vowing to preserve the farmhouse as a museum to remind them of their past suffering.

The animals then set about organizing their new society, with Snowball and Napoleon leading the way. They establish the Seven Commandments of Animalism, which are inscribed on the wall of the barn as a set of guiding principles for all animals to follow.

Despite their newfound freedom, the animals face challenges as they adjust to their new way of life. They must learn to work together and overcome their differences, all while striving to uphold the principles of Animalism and resist the temptations of human vices.

Throughout the chapter, Orwell skillfully weaves themes of power, oppression, and revolution, offering a thought-provoking commentary on the nature of governance and the complexities of social change. The characters are vividly drawn, each representing different aspects of human society and behavior.

Overall, Chapter 2 of “Animal Farm” sets the stage for the unfolding drama of the animals’ struggle for freedom and self-determination. It is a compelling and thought-provoking exploration of power dynamics and the pursuit of justice in a world fraught with inequality and injustice.