Question 1 : 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?
Answer : Squealer was one of the pigs living at 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 ground for about a week and Squealer was teaching them a new song.
ii) What happens on a pleasant evening when the animals, after completion of their work, are returning to the farm?
Answer : It was a pleasant evening and all the animals were returning to the farm after a hard day’s labour. Then suddenly, they head a loud neighing of a horse. They were startled and stopped immediately. Then again the sound came, it was Clover’s. They ran to see what the matter was.
iii) Narrate briefly the sight that is seen by the animals in the yard.
Answer : 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) What is the effect of what they see on the animals? What do the sheep suddenly bleat out?
Answer : 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 of at a signal, the sheep started bleating out loudly, “Four legs good, two legs better”.
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 : 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 have come to nothing. Only the regime had changed everything else was same.
Long Answer Type Questions
Question 1 : In the aftermath of the rebellion against Mr Jones, Snowball and Napoleon emerge as the prominent characters, yet it is Napoleon who eventually consolidates and assumed power as an unquestioned leader. In the light of the above statement, discuss the character of Napoleon in the novel ‘Animal Farm’.
Answer : When we first met Napoleon, we learnt that he 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 way.” From the very beginning of the novella, Napoleon emerged as an utterly corrupt opportunist.
Though always present at the early meetings of the new state, Napoleon never made a single contribution to the revolution – not to formation of its ideology, not to the bloody struggle that it necessitates, not to the new society’s initial attempts to establish itself. He never showed interest in the strength of Animal Farm itself, only in the strength of his power over it.
He operated through cruelty and treachery. Thus, the only project he undertook with enthusiasm was the training of a litter of puppies. He did not educate them for their own good or for the good of all, but rather for his own good: they became his own private army of secret police, a violent means by which he imposed his will on others.
He was very shrewd and thus rejected everything that may go against him. He did not need to talk, because he had the aptly named Squealer to do speaking for him. He didn’t need to worry about protests, because he got rid of public meetings. He didn’t need to worry about sharing power, because he named himself as the the head of every committee. He also knew how to take advantage of the gullible crowd he ruled over. His lies and deceitful stories made Snowball a villain in the eyes of the residents of the Animal Farm.
His violent and utterly harsh nature came to the force many times in the novel. He let the ferocious dogs on Snowball. He also made the hens follow his will even if it meant starving them to death. Nine of the hens died and he did not even allow the other animals to help the hens. Then he slaughtered the various animals of the farm before forcing them to tell false stories.
Although he was most directly modeled on the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, Napoleon represented, in a more general sense, the political tyrants that had emerged throughout human history and with particular frequency during the twentieth century. His namesake was not any communist leader but the early-eighteenth-century French general Napoleon, who betrayed the democratic principles on which he rose to power, arguably becoming as great a despot as the aristocrats whom he supplanted.
Question 2 : How do the pigs, under the leadership of Napoleon, cleverly deceive the other animals of ‘Animal Farm’ and slowly but surely, take over its ownership, living royally and luxuriously, while the others sweat it out. Give example from the text to substantiate your answer.
Answer : It was the Old Major who had dreamt of a human free world where the animals ruled themselves. He had the vision of an equal world away from tyranny and filled with harmony. He was the one who incited the feelings of the Rebellion. However, he died after that. From that very day, the pigs started to show their superiority.
They were considered to be the cleverest and hence the thinking and planning was their main work. No doubt, Snowball was one of the most patriotic of them and he did and planned many things for the betterment of the Animal Farm.
However, even he was seen greedy when all the milk and the windfall apples went to the pigs and he even agreed that they needed them the most. Then he was overthrown by his own comrade, Napoleon. He had a force of nine ferocious dogs and no one dared to protest his will. Moreover, he had Squealer on his side to spread his lies and deceit. Then the pigs began to exploit the residents of the farm.
They made them work for their own selfish benefits. Squealer continued to demean Snowball so that he could gain more support for Napoleon. The animals of the Animal Farm were either too foolish or too gullible to see through their trickery. Then the Seven Commandments began to change according to the wishes of the pigs. When they moved to the farmhouse, the Commandments changed in their favour.
It was also seen that Napoleon did not care much for the animals of the farm as he starved many hens to death just because they denied parting away with the eggs. He broke another resolution and got in trade arrangements with the humans. Again the animals were told that it was required in order to complete the windmill and they believed.
Then there was bloodshed at the farm. The murdered animals were made to utter lies and thus they died to spread more lies of Napoleon. Another Commandment was changed. They also sold Boxer to the slaughterhouse and told others that he had died a peaceful death. Boxer was the most faithful worker but as he was at his prime, he was of no use to the pigs. They bought whisky from the money they had got. They got drunk nearly every night. They were making merry while the other animals of the farm suffered.
Many a times the rations were cut down and the other animals were made to work for longer hours. While others starved, the pigs got fatter and fatter. At last, Napoleon was seen having friendship with the humans. In that party, the pigs and humans said humiliating things for the workers of the farm.
It was easy to understand from their talk that the pigs considered the animals only as workers and nothing else. There was no equality now. No Commandments and certainly not the free Animal Farm. Thus, the pigs, under the leadership of Napoleon, cleverly deceived the other animals of Animal Farm and slowly but surely, took over the ownership, living royally and luxuriously, while others sweated it out.
Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10