Animal Farm

Animal Farm Summary | Chapter 1 Summary

This "fairy story," as Orwell describes it, begins on the farm of Mr. Jones. After Mr. Jones drunkenly retreats to bed for the evening, the animals gather to hear a word by old Major - a well respected pig who had a dream the night prior which he felt he needed to share with the other barnyard animals.

Before Major delivers his speech, Orwell introduces many of the novel's main characters, who would each play an important role later in the novel: the horses Boxer and Clover, Benjamin the donkey and Molly the pretty white mare. Major feels he will not live much longer, and desires to pass on his wisdom to the others before it is too late.

Old Major continues into his speech, where he announces that the life of an animal is "miserable, laborious and short," as a result of being enslaved by man. He describes man as the only true enemy to an animal as it is mankind who steals the fruits of an animal's labor for his own benefit. To Major "man is the only creature that consumes without producing" therefore making mankind a tyrant and parasite to animals by nature. His solution: To rebel against man in order to begin a new way of life - free from oppression. If the animals rose up against their master (Mr. Jones) and controlled their own fate, Major insists they would no longer need to work constantly while earning nothing in return.

He further implores the animals to unite against man in perfect unity, focused on defeating their one true enemy.

Old Major's speech stirs the animals into a frenzy as he leads them in singing Beasts of England over and over. Mr. Jones hears the animals making noise and quickly fires a shot into the air to quite them down. Soon after all of the animals return to their beds and fall asleep.