Chapter+5

Chapter 5
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SUMMARY
In chapter 5, the pigeons spotted Mollie at the Foxwood farm after missing for multiple weeks p.46. After old major's death, the animal are in need of a new leader. Knowing Snowball is the better speaker, the Napoleon is backed into a corner because all of the farm animals are in favor of the windmill being built, except for Napoleon p.47. Aware that the animals of the farm were siding with Snowball, Napoleon got dogs to cast Snowball from 'Animal Farm' and to take charge as a leader p.55. Napoleon decides to build the windmill anyway, and removes the skull of Old Major from the orchard p.56. 

New Characters

 * Minimus (Pig): Minimus is a Poet who writes the patriotic song "Animal Farm, Animal Farm", to replace the previous hymn "Beasts of England".
 * Clover (Female Cart-Horse): Very good friend of Boxer.


 * Nine Dogs: These dogs are the product of Napoleon's upbringing. They are used by him to enforce his power and authority, and to intimidate the other animals in the farm. The dogs represent Stalin's secret police forces in the Soviet Union (Komitet Gosudarstvennoj Bezopasnosti - KGB).

KGB Uniform (above)
 * Sheep: The sheep who repeat Napoleon's mottoes over and over again, represent the working class in Russia during the Revolution. Like Boxer, the sheep are easily swayed, and follow Napoleon (Stalin) without a second thought.

Symbols/Parallels to History

 * Napoleon Kicks Snowball Out - This event in the book mirrored the political dispute in Russia after the death of Lenin. Lenin preferred Trotsky to take over communist Russia rather than Stalin becuase he beileved Stalins intentions were evil. Napoleon quietly schemes behind the scenes while Snowball makes plans and projects for the farm, and eventually chases Snowball out of the farm. This is symbolic of Stalin's plotting to overthrow Trotsky's power over the Russian people. While Lenin wished for Trotsky to take over after his death, Stalin plotted with Kamenev and Zinoview to kick Trotsky out of the position. They brought up minor flaws from him past, emphasized that he had newly entered the party, and opposed his ideal of spreading revolution to other countries, promoting the act of stabilizing the society of Russia before spreading socialism elsewhere. Stalin remained in the background, allowing Kamenev and Zinoniev to partially defeat Trotsky. Stalin then left his allies and joined up with three right-winged men, and fought against a newly allied group of Trotsky, Kamenev and Zinoniev. (This seamless transition of enemy to ally is present in Orwell's 1984.) A follower of Zinoniev was accused of organizing an opposition group within the Red Army, and Zinoniev was found guilty of supposedly scheming alongside his supporter. This accusation split up the left-winged group, having Zinoniev and Kamenev renounce their claims and slip back into the Party with Stalin, and leaving Trotsky to be exiled to Central Asia. Stalin, after remaining in the background and allowing others to fight his battles for him so that he would stay out of major conflict, turned on his own allies and took Russia over as a dictatorship.

These photos (above) illustrate Stalin's effective erasing of Trotsky from his company. This created the idea that Stalin was never friends with Trotsky, and allowed Stalin to easily use him as a scapegoat for the problems that Russia was facing.


 * Boxer's New Motto - 'Napoleon is always right' is synonymous to 'il dulceha sempre ragion'. Which means Mussolini is always right, a chant used in Italy during his rain from 1922 to 1943. And when he says, 'I will work harder' symbolizes Boxer's proletariat ways of Russia's working class during the revolution.


 * Windmill - The windmill project in Animal Farm represents the attempt to modernize and build industry in post-Revolution Russia. Russia had a late start compared to the other large countries of the world that were already industrialized and out of their overwhelming dependence on agriculture, and overall had a rocky modernization period. Projects that came out of this effort involved creations such as Sputnik I, the first artificial satellite.


 * Napoleon's New Rules - When Napoleon chased Snowball out of Animal Farm, he implemented new rules over the animals. He put an end to the Sunday-morning meetings, set up a special committee of pigs, presided over by himself, that would meet privately and then deliver orders to the rest of the farm without debate that had previously been allowed. This is representative of the switch in ideals in Russia when Stalin took over power completely. Although he held connection to Lenin's ideals, he truly distorted the whole idea of communism by creating inequality, distinct classes and separate rule away from the people.

Two pieces of Russian propaganda used to promote unity and equality (left), and to promote the idea of opportunity of success in the socialist world (right).
 * Squealer - This pig represents the propaganda used to promote Stalin in Russia. More specifically, he represents the Russian newspaper, Pravda, that Stalin owned. Through this tool, Stalin was able to print positive messages about both himself, and his communist theories. This propaganda machine tricked the Russian people into blindly following Stalin, as it persuaded the animals on Animal Farm to agree with Napoleon.

Russian propaganda used to connect Stalin's rule to Lenin, although Stalin had completely distorted the ideals of Lenin's original communist plan.

Important Quotes

 * "The skull of Old Major, now clean of flesh, had been disinterred from the orchard and set up on a stomp at the foot of the flagstaff, beside the gun" p.56
 * Napoleon dug up Old Major's skull and set in on the tree stomp so, that he could show the farm animals his power to the farm animals. They were made to past his skull every sunday and totally ignore it to show Napoleon all respect. This action reflects the actions that the communist leaders took when Lenin died. They had originally planned to freeze his body, but actually ended up embalming Lenin to remain preserved, and life-like in appearance.


 * "At this there was a terrible baying sound outside, and nine enormous dogs wearing brass-studded collars came bounding into the barn. They dashed straight for Snowball, who only sprang from his pace just in time to escape their snapping jaws" pg. 67.
 * This shows Napoleon's violent side towards Snowball. This is a parallel between Stalin and Trotsky. Napoleon is losing the minds of the lower animals to Snowball. It shows that Napoleon, like Stalin, prefers to step outside of the ordinary to get his goal accomplished. Snowball on the other hand tries to win the animals over by his wonderful ideas and thinking, such as Trotsky did.
 * This shows Napoleon's violent side towards Snowball. This is a parallel between Stalin and Trotsky. Napoleon is losing the minds of the lower animals to Snowball. It shows that Napoleon, like Stalin, prefers to step outside of the ordinary to get his goal accomplished. Snowball on the other hand tries to win the animals over by his wonderful ideas and thinking, such as Trotsky did.


 * "It was noticed that [the dogs] wagged their tails to [Napoleon] in the same way as the other dogs had used to do to Mr. Jones." pg. 53.
 * This quote reveals that Napoleon has risen into a position of power and control over the other animals, and is no where near that level of equality that was supposed to exist among them. The comparison to Mr. Jones is very important because it shows that Napoleon has reached a very high level of hypocrisy in his actions. He had promoted equality and unity in work, but now lorded over the other animals with special privileges and authorities.

Changes/Patterns

 * "At the meetings Snowball often won over the majority by his brilliant speeches.." This just reinforces how powerful Snowball's speeches were and how it effected the people listening to them. Snowball who is acting as Trotsky also gave many speeches.


 * "Four legs good, two legs bad" This quote has been repeated/said numerous times throughout this book to this point. In Chapter 5 it was said by the sheep during the meeting. This quote was yelled by the sheep during "crucial moments" of Snowball's speeches.

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