What Happened In Chapter 8 Of Animal Farm

Chapter eight

Course Hero's video written report guide provides in-depth summary and analysis of Chapter 8 of George Orwell's novel Animal Farm.

Brute Farm | Chapter viii | Summary

Summary

Subsequently the executions, the animals question (away from the pigs and dogs) whether these events fall in line with the Seven Commandments; they remember they remember one of the commandments stating that no animal shall kill some other animal. After some investigation, Muriel the goat reads the commandment on the wall aloud, and they find information technology really reads, "No animal shall impale some other animal without crusade." The animals determine these ii words justify the executions of the apparent traitors since their actions gave Napoleon cause.

The general conditions for the animals keep to be harsh, as the workload of rebuilding the windmill and regular subcontract duties requires additional effort. Although the animals believe they are getting no more than nutrient than they did under Mr. Jones, Squealer presents weekly numbers that seem to show they are actually getting more food and are improve off. At this point Grunter is doing near of Napoleon's public speaking. Napoleon has isolated himself in the farmhouse, abroad from fifty-fifty the other pigs, and rarely appears in public. When three hens confess to plotting to electrocute Napoleon in summer, he becomes even more than isolated, adds more baby-sit dogs, and gets a nutrient taster. The hens are executed. The pigs broadcast poems and songs praising Napoleon every bit the savior and protector of all the animals.

Napoleon'southward negotiations with the other farms become more complicated as he plans to sell a pile of timber to either Pilkington or Frederick. Frederick wants the timber just won't see Napoleon's price, so Napoleon announces plans to sell to Pilkington and spreads rumors nearly Frederick'due south plans to set on the subcontract. Other rumors circulate about Frederick'southward cruelty to his animals, which makes the animals want to attack his farm and overthrow him, but Sus scrofa advises them against "rash action."

More than misfortunes, including the appearance of weeds in the wheat crop, go along to be blamed on Snowball, still said to be hiding on Frederick's subcontract. A gander who says he knew that Snowball mixed weed seeds in with the wheat confesses and commits suicide. The pigs revise the story of the Battle of the Cowshed once more, this fourth dimension to reveal Snowball'southward agile cowardice.

Later on all of these rumors and stories, the animals are shocked to learn that Napoleon has sold the timber to Frederick and has been negotiating with Frederick in cloak-and-dagger all along. He spread the stories about selling to Pilkington only to get Frederick to meet his price. The rumors about Frederick's farm probable came from Snowball, who manifestly is actually hiding on Pilkington's farm. Once they hear the whole story, the animals are proud of Napoleon'south negotiating prowess and also impressed that he is savvy plenty to need cash payment instead of a check.

With the windmill finished and the timber sold, the machinery for the windmill tin can be purchased, and all their dreams tin can come true. Withal, iii days later on the auction Mr. Whymper tells Napoleon that Frederick's coin is counterfeit and he has cheated them all. Napoleon pronounces a death sentence on Frederick and prepares for an assail the next morning. The animals are outmatched, and the men have guns. The animals ship a message to Pilkington, who refuses to help. The battle culminates when Frederick and his men blow up the finished windmill. The animals, who have retreated, are outraged by this act and counterattack vigorously, suffering casualties but driving the humans from the farm. The pigs declare a victory and hold a anniversary celebrating what they call the Battle of the Windmill.

The animals, however, are crushed past the loss of the windmill and don't understand why the pigs want to gloat. Squealer convinces them the boxing is a triumph because the animals held on to the subcontract, only they are not fully convinced until Napoleon speaks to them. The fallen animals are given a funeral, and the rest of the animals receive extra rations.

A few days after the battle, the pigs find whisky in the farmhouse and drink information technology. The morn afterward, the pigs announce Comrade Napoleon is dying, but he seems to experience improve by evening. That night the animals hear a noise in the barn and find Pig unconscious on the ground next to a ladder and a pigment can. Ane of the Vii Commandments now reads, "No animal shall drink booze to excess."

Analysis

The animals fail to remember their own history, and the pigs have reward of this fact. Squealer's weekly presentations of numbers regarding the food supply practice not reverberate the truth. Numbers can be manipulated to prove unlike results, and so having the capacity to question the sources and methods of creating statistics is important. Of course the animals don't have this capacity. The changes to the commandments and the faulty statistics illustrate how blind trust, a lack of education and attention to detail, and apathetic participation in regime all combined can effect in ongoing exploitation and the abuse of power. The animals do not take much recourse toward the pigs at this point, anyway. After they notice Grunter in the barn, they may guess what the pigs accept been up to with the commandments, but with the dogs at the pigs' brook and phone call, the animals are also intimidated to do anything.

As if to add together insult to (literal) injury, the pigs declare the Boxing of the Windmill a victory worth celebrating in spite of the losses the animals have suffered. This characterization negates the months of hard labor and deprivation the animals have endured to build and and then rebuild the windmill. Boxer, the well-nigh steady of them all, has even suffered a serious injury in the battle. Now the animals know they will take to construct the windmill over again. When Squealer's arguments don't work to convince the animals of the victory, Napoleon buys them off with meager treats: an apple tree for each brute, an ounce of corn for each bird, and iii biscuits for each dog. These are modest rewards for such a heavy loss. Every bit for the pigs, they celebrate past drinking themselves sick, breaking another of the Seven Commandments; and then they revise it behind the animals' backs to fit their own beliefs. No matter how egregious and obvious the pigs' hypocrisy becomes, the animals exercise not react. Hither Orwell underscores merely how dangerous a combination passive citizens and unscrupulous dictators tin exist.

The negotiations with Frederick and Pilkington illustrate the strength of propaganda in manipulating public opinion. When Napoleon leans toward doing concern with Frederick, he puts out negative publicity about Pilkington. When he inclines toward Pilkington, he maligns Frederick, playing each side off against the other to become his way. Furthermore, saying each man's farm is harboring Snowball creates simply more hostility among the animals. The changing stories about Snowball'due south location reveal that no one knows where Snowball is, or the pigs have killed Snowball already and are using him as a kind of bogeyman for their ain purposes. Given the shady fashion Napoleon deals with both farmers, information technology should not come up every bit a shock that Frederick betrays him and Pilkington refuses to come to his aid during the Battle of the Windmill. The ii farmers have been opposed to Animate being Subcontract from the beginning, anyway. If the pigs had adhered to their own purported belief system—"Four legs good, 2 legs bad"—they might have avoided the trouble. The entire episode illustrates how Napoleon is actually more interested in his own advantage than he is in animal power.

Napoleon's dealings with Pilkington and Frederick parallel Stalin's negotiations with Adolf Hitler in the 1930s and then Winston Churchill, Britain'southward prime minister, in the 1940s. Stalin entered an brotherhood with Hitler in 1939 but as Napoleon entered an agreement with Frederick. Hitler nullified his pact with Stalin when he invaded the Soviet Matrimony in 1941 only as Frederick betrayed the terms of his deal with Brute Farm. The Soviet army suffered massive casualties repelling the High german advance just as the animals suffered heavy losses in the Battle of the Windmill. Both the Soviets and the animals were ultimately successful in keeping what they had.

During the 1940s, Russia and Uk were official allies in World State of war Two, but Stalin and Churchill kept secrets from each other. Stalin did not permit the extent of his vindictive purges, such as his extensive killings of kulaks (members of the rich Russian peasant class) be known. Churchill, on his side, did not tell Stalin that he and Roosevelt had decided not to open a 2d front confronting Hitler in France in 1942, which they earlier had led Stalin to believe and which would have helped Russia defend itself improve.

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