Chapter 8
The chapter begins with another example of a Commandment being
adjusted and the animals' uneasiness about the matter is relieved. They
learn to accept executions as part of their way of [Link] hear that they now have to work
very hard indeed, even harder than when Jones was in charge, and food is still very short.
However, as they can no longer remember these times very clearly, Squealer has no
difficulty in persuading them that they are [Link] is becoming a cult figure; he is
absolute ruler and is given
inflated titles which suggest his good
leadership and general benevolence.
He is praised for everything that goes
well. He has a hymn composed to
him which is written up on the wall
of the barn at the opposite end to the
Commandments. He also has a
young pig to taste his food in case it
is poisoned. He begins complicated
dealings with Pilkington and Frederick over the timber they both wish to [Link] of an
attack by Frederick are heard and about the cruelty he inflicts on his own animals and
feelings against him run high. The windmill is eventually finished and is to be called
Napoleon [Link] amazes the animals by telling them that he has sold the timber to
their greatest enemy, Frederick, and that the rumours about him were the work of Snowball
who has been on Pilkington's farm all the while.
Napoleon claims that he pretended friendship with Pilkington to get
Frederick to raise the offer for the [Link], the banknotes with which Frederick paid
Napoleon are useless forgeries and Frederick then attacks Animal Farm with guns and blows
up the windmill. Eventually he and his men are repulsed by the animals
who suffer great losses in the
Battle of the Windmill but Napoleon
declares it has been a great victory and orders celebrations. The pigs discovery whisky and
get drunk, later pretending that they were [Link] is caught altering the Commandment
but the animals are too bewildered, confused and stupid to realise what he is doing.
Just how stupid are these animals? we begin to ask ourselves. Have they
been so morally corrupted by Napoleon that they can no longer recognise
evil when they see it? Thought-control is one of Napoleon's crimes but the animals are not
entirely innocent either. Look at these animals being duped, tricked, says Orwell, and ask
yourself if you too could be so easily deceived in similar circumstances. And if you are,
shouldn't you be doing something about it?The character of Benjamin needs to be looked at
in closer detail at this
point. Benjamin has kept well out of things; he did not believe in the
revolution, nor in the hope that life would improve in any way. Here he
refuses, as usual, to go and read the Commandment. How much blame
does Benjamin deserve for doing nothing to avert the tragedies? He has
brains - why does he not use them to guide his comrades until it is too
late? Is Orwell asking us to look at people like him and question their
policy of letting well or ill alone? Or does Benjamin recognise, as Orwell
seemed to do, that in human history we dethrone one set of tyrants
simply to enthrone another?
It is worth looking carefully at Benjamin's character. In this chapter he
looks on in wry amusement while Frederick and his men get ready to blow up the windmill-
only he knows what is going [Link] should also ask ourselves why the Battle of the Windmill
is much more ferocious than the
Battle of the Cowshed .In the second battle, the animals are fighting for their farm, or so they
think. In reality, they are fighting for Napoleon who appeals to their patriotism to sacrifice
their lives if necessary. It is one more way of getting
people to do what we want by appealing to their better instincts for the wrong reasons.
8.