Animal Farm Summary

George Orwell’s Animal Farm is a short novel first published in 1945. It is a satirical allegory set on Manor Farm, which the animals rename Animal Farm after driving out its human owner, Mr. Jones. The pigs, led by Napoleon and Snowball, organize the rebellion around a philosophy they call Animalism, summarized in the principle that all animals are equal. The novel traces how this ideal erodes as the pigs gradually claim privileges, rewrite the farm’s commandments, and use the threat of the exiled Jones to justify tightening control. Orwell modeled the story directly on the Russian Revolution and the rise of Stalinism, with Napoleon corresponding to Stalin and Snowball to Trotsky. Key episodes include the animals’ early collective labor, the windmill project that becomes a recurring source of conflict, and the executions of animals accused of disloyalty. The book’s central argument is about how revolutionary movements can be betrayed from within by a new ruling class. Its famous closing line, in which the pigs become indistinguishable from humans, underscores that point. The narrative is delivered in plain, fable-like prose, and the animals include Boxer, a loyal draft horse, and Benjamin, a cynical donkey. Because it works as both a children’s story and a political critique, Animal Farm remains Orwell’s most widely read work alongside Nineteen Eighty-Four.