CHARACTERS
This pig becomes the tyrannical leader of Animal Farm after driving out his rival with a pack of dogs.
Who is Napoleon?
The original Seventh Commandment was this short, three-word statement of equality.
What is "all animals are equal?"
The animals' rebellion is triggered when Mr. Jones fails to do this one basic thing.
What is feed the animals (he gets drunk and forgets)?
Animal Farm is most famously read as an allegory for this 20th-century revolution and the regime that followed it.
What is the Russian Revolution (the rise of the Soviet Union)?
"Four legs good, two legs bad!" — This animal group bleats this slogan endlessly, drowning out debate.
Who are the sheep?
This devoted cart-horse answers every problem with the motto "I will work harder."
Who is Boxer?
By the end of the novel, all Seven Commandments are erased and replaced by this single famous maxim.
What is "all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others?"
This structure — meant to bring the farm power and shorten the workday — is built, destroyed, and rebuilt across the novel.
What is the windmill?
This rousing anthem, taught to the animals by Old Major, is later banned by Napoleon.
What is "Beasts of England?"
"I will work harder." — Identify the loyal character whose answer to every hardship this was.
Who is Boxer?
This smooth-talking pig is the farm's propagandist — the novel says he could "turn black into white."
Who is Squealer?
Once the pigs walk upright, the sheep's chant "Four legs good, two legs bad" is revised to this.
What is "four legs good, two legs better?"
In this battle, the animals defend the farm against Mr. Jones and his men; Snowball is celebrated as a hero.
What is The Battle of the Cowshed?
Raised in secret from puppies, these animals serve as Napoleon's enforcers — his secret police.
Who are the dogs?
"All men are enemies. All animals are comrades." — This character delivers the line in the novel's opening speech.
Who is Old Major?
This elderly prize boar's dream and dying speech inspire the Rebellion, though he dies before it begins.
Who is Old Major?
Commandment IV originally read "No animal shall sleep in a bed." The pigs added these two words.
What is "with sheets"?
After Boxer collapses from overwork, the lettering on the van that carts him away reveals it belongs to this kind of business.
What is a horse slaughterer (a knacker / glue boiler)?
The windmill's endless destruction and rebuilding satirizes this: the gap between glorious propaganda promises and the workers' real, worsening conditions.
What is the exploitation of workers / the false promise of progress?
"...but some animals are more equal than others." — This phrase is the altered ending of which numbered commandment?
What is The Seventh Commandment (Commandment VII)?
This cynical, long-lived donkey can read as well as the pigs but refuses to use the skill — until he reads the side of the van too late to save Boxer.
Who is Benjamin?
Commandment VI, "No animal shall kill any other animal," gained these two words after the executions.
What is "without cause?"
In the final chapter, Napoleon hosts this group for dinner — and the animals watching can no longer tell the two apart.
What is the neighboring human farmers (Mr. Pilkington and the humans)?
The pig Napoleon is most commonly read as an allegorical stand-in for this real 20th-century dictator.
Who is Joseph Stalin?
"It was a pig walking on his hind legs... it was Napoleon." — This sight marks the pigs' final transformation. In which chapter does it occur?
What is the final chapter (Chapter 10)?