Period 5
12-4-12
Chapters 7-8
Summary: In chapter 7, a famine breaks out at the farm and the hens are required to give up their eggs to trade for other foods. The hens rebel this and they are not allowed any food, nine hens die and any animal that helps them will be executed. Snowball is framed for sneaking around the barn at night and working with Jones and the neighboring barns to take over Animal Farm. Napoleon held a meetings and countless animals were killed and confessed to working with Snowball or plotting against him. Then the song Beasts of England was abolished. In chapter 8, Napoleon is only seen once fortnight with a whole procession before him and guards. He had special quarters in the farmhouse and was always waited on. More animals came forward with crimes to murder Napoleon and Napoleon now has taste-testers and more guards. The windmill is finished and named Napoleon Mill. The money paid for the timber is fake and Frederick has been pronounced to death. Frederick and fifteen men attack the farm and they blew up the windmill. The animals attacked them and won the battle. Napoleon and the pigs start to drink alcohol and catch Squealer changing the commandments to accommodate this.
Quotation: " So Beasts of England was heard no more. In its place, Minimus, the poet, had composed another song which began: Animal Farm, Animal Farm, Never through me shalt thou come to harm! And this was sung every Sunday morning...But somehow neither the words nor the tune ever seemed to the animals to come up to Beasts of England" (86-87).
Quotation Significance: This is reflected by the animals once the Beasts of England song is abolished. This song stood for everything the animals stood for and now this is gone. They have no rights and this new song by Minimus doesn't justify the rights they should have which disappoints them.
Reflection: Napoleon is now more in control then ever. Famines break out in the barn and food goes missing, and Snowball is blamed. I personally believe that Snowball is innocent and ran away because of a threat from Napoleon or seeing the damage that Napoleon is causing and decided he wanted to be a part of it. The hens don't want to give up their eggs and because of this they are allowed no rations and any animal who gives them food will be slaughtered. So far, the pigs have violated almost every single rule in Animal Farm and some of the animals catch Squealer changing some of the commandments in the barn because he has a ladder and a paint brush. The animals don't realize what this means however and let it slide. Whenever an animal protests a new rule Squealer is always abel to convince them that it is for the best and everything is much better than it was when Jones ran the farm. The animals agree reluctantly, only because of the dogs and they don't want to be killed by the pigs. They are starting to have suspicions of what is really going on at the farm but they don't have sufficient memory or skills to do this correctly. The pigs are smart and now how to "beat around the bush" and lie when it comes to the other animals and they know that these animals are easily persuaded. During the meeting when dozens of animals were slaughtered, it makes the animals who are still alive worry about their own future and Napoleon has no basically become the king/dictator of Animal Farm. He swore to never drink, kill animals, sleep in beds, be equal with other animals, and never live in the farmhouse. He has violated all the rules he helped to make in the first place. With using trickery and cunning tactics he has turned everyone against Snowball, who is most likely innocent, so everyone will look to him to save them. This is a tactic used with types of government to gain trust and they slowly trick and use cunning strategies to bend and twist the truth until no one remembers the truth anymore (the old commandments).
Discussion Question: Do you think that some of the animals will try and stand up to Napoleon? How will they accomplish this?
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