Animal Farm: Plot Summary by Chapter

Chapters 1-2: The dream and the rebellion

• At Manor Farm in England, the old boar Old Major tells the animals his dream of a world without humans, teaches them the revolutionary song "Beasts of England", and dies three nights later.
• The pigs, the cleverest animals, turn his dream into a set of beliefs called Animalism, led by two young boars, Snowball and Napoleon, and a smooth-talking pig, Squealer.
• When the drunken Mr Jones forgets to feed them, the animals drive him out - the Rebellion - and rename the place "Animal Farm".
• They paint the Seven Commandments - the new rules - on the barn wall, ending with "All animals are equal".
• Almost at once the pigs quietly keep the cows' milk for themselves - the first sign they will put themselves first.

Chapters 3-4: The ideal years

• At first the farm flourishes: the animals bring in the biggest harvest ever, and the loyal carthorse Boxer works hardest of all, with his motto "I will work harder".
• Because most animals cannot read or remember the Commandments, Snowball reduces them to one slogan the sheep can chant: "Four legs good, two legs bad".
• The pigs now openly take the milk and apples; Squealer convinces the others the pigs need them to run the farm, so it is for everyone's good.
• When Jones and other farmers attack to retake the farm, Snowball leads the defence and beats them off - the Battle of the Cowshed.

Chapter 5: The power struggle

• Mollie, a vain mare who misses the ribbons and sugar the humans gave her, is the first to desert the farm.
• Snowball and Napoleon quarrel constantly, above all over Snowball's plan to build a windmill to generate electricity and ease the animals' work.
• As the animals gather to vote, Napoleon gives a signal and nine huge dogs charge in - the puppies he secretly raised as private guards - and chase Snowball off the farm for good.
• With the dogs at his side, Napoleon ends the open meetings and seizes sole control, then announces the windmill will be built after all, claiming it as his own idea.

Chapters 6-8: Tyranny and terror

• Napoleon works the animals like slaves on the windmill, on shrinking rations, while the pigs move into the farmhouse and begin trading with humans - exactly what the Rebellion had vowed never to do.
• A storm topples the half-built windmill; rather than admit it was built too weakly, Napoleon blames the banished Snowball, now the hidden enemy behind every failure.
• He then turns on his own animals: some are forced to "confess" to plotting with Snowball, and the dogs kill them before the others - the farm's first executions. Soon after, the rebel song "Beasts of England" is banned.
• The neighbouring farmer Mr Frederick buys the farm's timber with forged banknotes, then attacks and blows up the rebuilt windmill - the Battle of the Windmill, won at terrible cost.
• Whenever the pigs break a Commandment - sleeping in beds, then killing other animals - Squealer secretly rewrites it on the wall, so nothing seems to have changed.

Chapters 9-10: Total corruption

• Worn out after a lifetime of work, Boxer collapses. Napoleon sells him to the knacker - the man who slaughters old horses - and spends the money on whisky; Benjamin the donkey reads the van too late to save him.
• Years pass. The farm grows richer, yet the ordinary animals are as cold, hungry and overworked as they ever were under Jones - nothing has really changed for them.
• At last the pigs walk on their hind legs and carry whips, just like the humans they overthrew; the sheep now chant "Four legs good, two legs better".
• The Seven Commandments are wiped away and replaced by a single line that lays bare what the farm has become:

"All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others"

• Napoleon renames it "Manor Farm" and dines with the human farmers. Watching through the window, the animals look from pig to man and back, and find it "impossible to say which was which".