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Animal Farm Chapter 10 Summary
Several years passed by, many animals attained age and died and few recall the days before the Rebellion. The animals completed a new windmill, which is used not only for generating electricity but for milling corn, a far more profitable endeavour. The farm seems to have grown richer, but only the pigs and dogs live comfortable lives. Squealer explains that the pigs and dogs do very important work-filling out farms.
The other animals largely accept this explanation, and their lives go on very much as before. They never lose their sense of pride in Animal Farm or their feeling that they have differentiated themselves from animals on the other farms. The inhabitants of Animals Farm still fervently believed in the goals of the Rebellions world free from humans, with equality for all animals.
One day, Squealer takes the sheep off to a remote spot to teach them a new chant. He informed others that he was teaching them to sing a new song. Not long afterward, the animals have just finished their day’s work when they hear the terrified neighing of a horse. It is Clover, and she summons the others hastily to the yard. There, the animals gaze in amazement at Squealer walking towards them on his hind legs. Napoleon soon appears as well, walking, upright, worse, he carries a whip. Before the other animals have a chance to react to the change, the sheep began to chant as if on cue :” Four legs good, two legs better!”
Clover whose eyes are foiling in her old age, asks Benjamin to read the writing on the barn wall where the Seven Commandments were originally inscribed. Only the last Commandment remains : “All animals are equal”. However, it now carries an addition : “But some animals are more equal than others” In the days to follow, Napoleon openly begins smoking a pipe of Jones in his mouth and wears his clothes. His favourite show was dressed in Mrs. Jones clothes, and the other pigs subscribe to human magazines, listen to the radio, and begin to install a telephone, also wearing human clothes that they have salvaged from Mr. Jones’ wardrobe.
One day, the pigs invite neighbouring human farmers over to inspect Animal Farm. The farmers praise the pigs and express, in diplomatic language, their regret for past “misunderstandings”. The other animals, led by Clover, watch through a window as Mr. Pilkington and Napoleon toast each other, and Mr Pilkington declares that the farmers share a problem with pigs : “If you have your lower animals to contend with,” he says, “We have our lower classes!”. Mr. Pilkington notes with appreciation that the pigs have found ways to make Animal Farm’s animals work harder and on less food than any other group of farm animals in the county.
He adds that he looks forward to introducing these advances on his own farm. Napoleon replies by reassuring his human guests that the pigs never wanted anything other than to conduct business peacefully with their human neighbours and that they have taken steps further to that goal. Animals on Animal Farm will no longer address one another as “Comrade”, he says, or pay homage to Old Major, nor will they salute a flag with a horn and hoof upon it. All of these customs have been changed recently by decree, he assures the men. Napoleon even announces that Animal Farm will now be known as the Manor Farm, which is, he believes, its “Correct and original name”.
The pigs and farmers return to their amiable card game, and the other animals creep away from the window. Soon the sounds of a quarrel draw them back to listening. Napoleon and Pilkington have played the ace of spades simultaneously, and each accuses the other of cheating. The animals, watching through the window, realize with a start that, as they look around the room of the farmhouse, they can no longer distinguish which of the card players are pigs and which are human beings.
Animal Farm Chapter 10 Summary Word Meanings :
- Rheumy – Watery
- Frugally – Economical in use or expenditure, not wasteful
- Taciturn – Reserved or uncommunicative in speech.
- Morose – Sullen and ill tempered.
- Stone – 14 pounds (= 6.35 Kg)
- Haughty – Arrogant
- Inebriated – Drunk
- Invariably – Always
- Stroll – To walk in a slow relaxed manner.
- To cease – To stop
Animal Farm Chapter 10 Summary Questions and Answers
Question 1.
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:
It was just after the sheep had returned on a pleasant evening when the animals had finished work and were making their way back to the farm buildings, that the terrified neighing of a horse sounded from the yard. Startled, the animals stopped in their tracks.
(i) From where did the sheep return? Under whose supervision were they? What were they taught while they were in this place?
(ii) It was the neighing of Clover – the horse, whose voice startled the animals?
(iii) How did the animals react to this sight at first? Why were they not able to protest?
(iv) Why did Clover lead Benjamin gently to the end of the barn immediately after this? What did they find written on the wall?
(v) What strange and disturbing change did the animals observe in the pigs when they peered in at the dining room window later that evening? Comment on the irony of situation.
Answer:
(i) The sheep returned from a piece of waste ground at the other end of the farm.They were under the supervision of Squealer, a small, white, fat porker, who served as Napoleon’s second-in¬command and minister to spread propaganda among the other animals. There they were taught a new song by squealer, “Four legs good, tivo legs better.”
(ii) The animals ran to Clover after hearing her cries. The sight that their eyes met shook them totally. They saw a pig walking on his hind legs. The pig was none other than Squealer. Then came other pigs, some were able to walk with a bit of difficulty while others had no problem at all. Then Napoleon also came walking like a human being.
(iii) The animals were in utter shock at seeing the pigs walk like the human beings on their hind legs. They were terrified and were about to protest.
Before the other animals have a chance to protest, as of a signal, the sheep started bleating out loudly, “Four legs good, two legs better.”
(iv) Clover’s eyes are foiling due to old age, so she took Benjamin gently along to the barn wall where the Seven Commandments were originally inscribed.
On the wall only the last Commandment remained. “All animals are equal.” However, it now carried an addition : “But some animals are more equal than others.”
(v) When later in the evening the animals peered in at the dining room window, they saw that the pigs had made friendship with the human beings. They were all sitting at a table, drinking beer and playing a game of cards. They also heard how the humans ridiculed the hard working animals of the farm and how Napoleon again rechristened the Animal Farm to ‘Manor Farm’.
The irony here is that, it was the pigs who started the rebellion and changed the name of the farm to ‘Animal Farm’ and developed the belief system known as ‘Animalism and The Seven Commandments’. The animals later realized that after moving out of the tyranny of the humans they would soon fall under the despotic rule of the pigs and be exploited, deceived, cheated and slaughtered by them.
Question 2.
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow.
One day in early summer, Squealer ordered the sheep to follow him, and led them out to a piece of waste ground at the other end of the farm, which had become overgrown with birch saplings. The sheep spent the whole day there browsing at the leaves under Squealer’s supervision.
(i) Who is Squealer ? What are we told immediately after the extract ?
(ii) What happens on a pleasant evening when the animals, after completion of their work, are returning to the farm ?
(iii) Narrate briefly the sight that is seen by the animals in the yard.
(iv) What is the effect of what they see on the animals ? What do the sheep suddenly bleat out ?
(v) ‘That evening loud laughter and bursts of singing came from the farmhouse’. Describe the scene that was seen by the wonder-struck animals.
Answer:
(i) Squealer was one of the pigs living in the Animal Farm. He was a devotee of Napoleon and had the duty of spreading his lies and deceit. Immediately after the extract, it is told that the sheep remained in the waste ground for about a week and Squealer was teaching them a new song.
(ii) It was a pleasant evening and all the animals were returning to the farm after a hard day’s labour. Then suddenly, they heard a loud neighing of a horse. They were startled and stopped immediately. Then again the sound came, it was Clover’s. They run to see what the matter was.
(iii) The animals ran to Clover after hearing her cries. The sight that their eyes met totally shook them. They saw a pig walking on his hind legs. The pig was none other than Squealer. Then came other pigs. Some were able to walk with a bit of difficulty while others had no problem at all. Then Napoleon also came walking like a human being.
(iv) The animals were in utter shock at seeing the pigs walk like the human beings on their hind legs. They were terrified and were about to protest. Just then, as a signal, the sheep started bleating out loudly, “Four legs good, two legs better.”
(v) The animals were looking through the window. The pigs had made friendship with the human beings. They were all sitting at a table, drinking beer and playing a game of cards. They also heard how the humans ridiculed the hard working animals of the farm and how Napoleon again rechristened the Animal Farm to ‘Manor Farm’. All the fights, the rebellion, the sacrifices everything else was same.
Question 3.
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow.
‘If you have your lower animals to contend with,’ he said, ‘we have our lower classes!’
(i) Who is the speaker of these lines ? To whom are they addressed ?
(ii) Why does the speaker say this ?
(iii) Where are the other animals ?
(iv) What similarities do we notice between the pigs and human beings ir. this chapter ?
(v) What is the author trying to show through these lines ?
Answer:
(i) These lines are spoken by Mr. Pilkington of Foxwood Farm to Napoleon and his cabinet, during their well- catered retreat inside the farmhouse while raising a toast and dispelling all doubts and misunderstanding between the animals and human beings.
(ii) Mr Pilkington and other farmers had been invited by Napoleon to inspect the Animal Farm and after the inspection they are invited to the farmhouse for a meeting. The human beings are really impressed with the way the pigs have managed Animal Farm and praise it. These lines emphasise the bonding and the similarity between the pigs and human beings by the end of the chapter.
(iii) The other animals are watching the human beings and the pigs from outside the window.
(iv) The pigs have started walking on hind legs and changed the principle of Animalism to “four feet good, two feet better.” The Seventh Commandment is changed to “All animals are equal but some animals are more equal”. The pigs have started drinking alcohol and use language to abuse their fellow animals. They have started carrying a whip to train other animals as they consider themselves superior. These are the traits that the pigs show which resembles human beings.
(v) The quote serves to emphasize directly the significance of Animal Farm as a social commentary, drawing a parallel between the downtrodden animals and the working class of the world.