Animal Farm Chapters 4-5

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Hi everyone! You’re listening to episode 4 of The Literary Friends Society podcast. We are reading through George Orwell’s classic, Animal Farm. If you haven’t listened to the first few episodes, I recommend you go back and listen to those before listening to this one, just to get you up to speed. Today we are discussing chapters 4 and 5 of Animal Farm.

So, in chapter 4, we find that the news of what had happened an Animal Farm with the expulsion of Mr. Jones by his animals, had spread across the country. Napoleon tried to spread it by sending pigeons to the neighbouring farms to tell the animals there about the rebellion. Meanwhile, Mr. Jones was complaining about the injustice of being ousted off his farm by his animals.

There were two farms adjoining Animal Farm. Foxwood Farm was owned by Mr. Pilkington. It was old fashioned and overgrown with woodland. He represents the Western Powers such as Britain and the US. Pinchfield was the other farm and was owned by Mr. Frederick. It was smaller and better kept. He was “a tough shrewd man, perpetually involved in lawsuits and with a name for driving hard bargains.” He represents Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party in general.

These two farmers disliked each other and it was difficult for them to agree. The thing with them is that the rebellion on Animal Farm scared them and they were anxious to keep their animals from hearing about it lest they should get it into their heads to do the same. They spread nasty rumors about what went on there. But waves of rebelliousness spread through the country nonetheless. The song spread rapidly too.

These three farmers decided to try and recapture the farm. The animals had expected this and had prepared. Snowball was in charge of the defences. The attack came in early October. There was a battle. At one point, Snowball charged straight for Jones and was struck by Jones’ bullet. “Within minutes of their invasion they were in ignominious retreat by the same way they had come.” Boxer thought he had accidentally killed a stable lad, and Mollie was missing, but they found her hiding in her stall.

The text says, “An impromptu celebration of victory was held immediately. The flag was run up and ‘Beasts of England’ was sung a number of times, then the sheep who had been killed was given a solemn funeral, a hawthorn bush being planted on her grave. At the graveside Snowball made a little speech, emphasizing the need for all animals to be ready to die for Animal Farm if need be.”

So, we read that the farmers attempt to take Animal Farm but the animals are prepared and defend it and drive them into retreat winning a great victory. They call it the Battle of the Cowshed and Snowball is its hero.

To summarize chapter 4, we find fear among the farmers about the rebellion on Animal Farm, and a battle later called the Battle of the Cowshed is fought between the animals and the humans in which the animals are led by Snowball into a great victory which is later memorialized.

I just want to point out that in socialist and communist societies, the memorializing of epic victories and events like battles can be used as a propaganda tool. We’ll see more propaganda I’m sure in the coming chapters.

Okay. In chapter 5, there is a dispute among the animals about the building of a windmill. Napoleon’s leadership becomes more authoritarian and tyrannical. Mollie disappears and Snowball is expelled.

Mollie becomes increasingly troublesome. She is accused of letting one of Mr. Pilkington’s men stroke her nose. Clover found a bunch of sugar lumps and coloured ribbons under her straw. She disappears and none of the animals ever mentioned her again. What do you think happened to her?

It was decided that the pigs should decide all questions of farm policy but a majority vote had to ratify their decisions.

Snowball and Napoleon still had disputes and disagreements. The text says, “At the meetings Snowball often won over the majority by brilliant speeches, but Napoleon was better at canvasing support for himself between times.” Snowball was full of innovations and ideas while Napoleon said that they would come to nothing. Snowball came up with plans for the windmill which would supply electricity to the farm, which, Napoleon from the start, declared himself against. So, there were disputes over the windmill. There was also the defence of the farm question. Again, Snowball and Napoleon disagreed on how this was to be done.

We find the animals in a meeting where Snowball was eloquently trying to get the animals to vote for the windmill, and Napoleon with indifference was saying it was nonsense. Suddenly, Snowball was chased out of the meeting by fierce dogs. These were the puppies that Napoleon had taken away from their mothers and reared in private. It says, “They kept close to Napoleon. It was noticed that they wagged their tails to him in the same way as the other dogs had been used to do to Mr. Jones.” That’s a bit concerning. So, we see that Napoleon expels Snowball by force much like Stalin expelled and exiled Trotsky.

I want to talk here about the historical parallels with Trotsky and Stalin.

Leon Trotsky was born in Ukraine in 1879. As a teenager, he embraced Marxism, and dropped out of uni to help organize the South Russian Workers Union. He was arrested and imprisoned or sent into exile several times. In 1902, he escaped Siberia and went to England where he collaborated with the exiled Vladimir Lenin, and sided with the Menshevik faction (which opposed the Bolshevik faction) which had a democratic approach to socialism. Twice he returned to Russia, once in 1902 and again in 1917. He’d lived in several countries as well but had been expelled several times because of his radical views. During the revolution of 1917, he gave up his Menshevik views and became a leader of the Bolsheviks and Lenin’s secretary of foreign affairs. In 1918, he became the war commissariat and began building the Red Army. He led the Red Army to victory against the White Army, the Tsarist loyalist forces, and fought against them on the front lines. I think that this battle is represented by the Battle of the Cowshed in Animal Farm. In the early 1920’s, he seemed to be Lenin’s heir. The two were close friends. But a power struggle ensued between Trotsky and his rival Joseph Stalin.

Joseph Stalin was born in Georgia in 1878 and when he grew up he joined the Bolshevik cause. Early in life, he was a thug, robbing banks and kidnapping for the Bolshevik party. In 1917, he slipped out of the spotlight so to speak and did a lot of background work including administration. He was described in those days as a “grey blur”. This work though, gave him a lot of internal power within the Communist Party. This concerned Lenin a lot who actually wrote a letter criticizing Stalin’s role within the party and indicating that he wanted him removed from power. Stalin, however, emerged as leader of the Soviet Union after Lenin’s death in 1924.

Trotsky was against Stalin’s policies. He criticized Stalin’s new regime saying that it suppressed democracy within the Party. Stalin launched a propaganda counter attack against Trotsky. In 1925, he was removed from the war commissariat. In 1927, he was expelled from the Communist Party. And in 1929, he was expelled from the Soviet Union. Stalin took dictatorial control over the country.

Napoleon announced that that meetings would end. From now on, questions would be decided by a committee of pigs and then communicated to the other animals. So, democracy disappears. The power to make decisions is now in the hands of the pigs only.

The animals were dismayed by this but again they couldn’t really think of anything to say in argument against it. They couldn’t really think and argue for themselves. Some of the young disapproving pigs were silenced by Napoleon’s dogs.

Squealer, the persuasive pig, was sent to explain the arrangements to the others.

“Comrades, he said, ‘I trust that every animal here appreciates the sacrifice that Comrade Napoleon has made in taking this extra labour upon himself. Do not imagine, comrades, that leadership is a pleasure! On the contrary, it is a deep and heavy responsibility. No one believes more firmly than Comrade Napoleon that all animals are equal. He would be only too happy to let you make decisions for yourselves. But sometimes you might make the wrong decisions, comrades, (in other words, sometimes you might oppose Napoleon), and then where should we be? Suppose you had decided to follow Snowball, with his moonshine of windmills – Snowball, who, as we now know, was no better than a criminal.” What?? Where did that come from? I thought Snowball was a hero and leader.

Note the values they mention… loyalty and obedience more than bravery. And again, Squealer played on the animals’ fear of Jones coming back… the use of fear in getting the animals to do what they want.

Notice what it says next. “Boxer, who had now had time to think things over, voiced the general feeling by saying, ‘If comrade Napoleon says it, it must be right.’ And from then on, he adopted the maxim ‘Napoleon is always right’ in addition to his private motto of ‘I will work harder.’” They said this of Stalin if I remember correctly. It’s a tactic of authoritarians to get people to believe that they are never wrong. The Roman Catholic Church was like this in the Middle Ages. Everything they said and decreed was right. It meant that there was no room for disagreement, no room for dissenting, no room for thinking differently or coming to different conclusions. Everything the authority said was right and you had to agree or else. I see a similar thing happening today with Cancel Culture. It isn’t though they are saying they’re always right, but in a sense they are because there’s no longer room for debate and disagreement. If you disagree with the ideas of the establishment, you’re cancelled out.

The animals now didn’t have participatory meetings with votes. They simply received orders.

Also, Old Major’s skull was put on display like Lenin’s body (you can still go see Lenin’s embalmed body in Moscow) and the animals had to reverently file past it as they went into the barn.

Then Napoleon, without explanation, suddenly announced that the windmill was to be built after all. Squealer explained to the animals a twisted version of history, about how the windmill and plans were actually Napoleon’s. He said that Napoleon had “seemed to oppose the windmill, simply as a maneuver to get rid of Snowball, who was a dangerous character and a bad influence.” Squealer called this “tactics”. Squealer spoke persuasively. The dogs growled menacingly. So, the animals accepted the explanation without question.

So, we have a significant event this week in the Battle of the Cowshed as well as some significant changes to the way things are done on Animal Farm including the expulsion of Snowball and the increasing grabbing of power by Napoleon. I hope you join us next Tuesday as we discuss chapters 6 and 7. Make sure you read those chapters next week in preparation for the podcast. And be sure to join us this week over at the Discord server for our discussion of this week’s chapters. I’m looking forward to seeing you there!

That’s all from me for now. Until next time, keep reading!

Sources

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/stalin-banishes-trotsky

https://www.history.com/topics/russia/joseph-stalin

https://www.thecollector.com/leon-trotsky-joseph-stalin/

https://www.britannica.com/question/What-was-the-relationship-between-Leon-Trotsky-and-Joseph-Stalin

You can listen to past episodes here

https://caitlinmullon.podbean.com/