The chapter describes how Napoleon and the pigs gradually implement oppressive policies on the farm. They overwork the animals and change the rules, such as allowing the pigs to sleep in beds. When the windmill is destroyed, Napoleon falsely blames Snowball to scapegoat him. By creating a common enemy, Napoleon unites the animals behind him as he consolidates his power and control over the farm. The chapter shows how totalitarian regimes operate through propaganda, rewriting history, and oppressing the population with excessive work and control.

1. Chapter 6

2. What is the irony behind the chapter’s
opening line?
“All that year the animals worked
like slaves.”
What type of irony is it?
“But they were happy…They did it
for the benefit of themselves… not
for a pack of idle thieving human
beings.”

3. Voluntary work on Sundays
• If you did not, your food rations were cut
Animals eager to take more work b/c it’s for
their own benefit
Hens called upon to give their eggs

4. Boxer emerges and the most important
animal on the farm
“Nothing could have been achieved without
Boxer…” (p67)
He works more than any other animal
Only Benjamin refused to get enthusiastic
about the windmill
Represents the people who were cynical
and skeptical about the rebellion

5. Mr. Whymper-Human solicitor
• Used to obtain needed goods
• Iron, nails, oil, machinery for the windmill
Caused concern among the animals
who believed such actions were a
violation of Animalism

6. Agent of the Communist International
(Comintern) worked with Russia and the
outside world
Mr. Whymper serves the farm while making a
profit as well
Napoleon uses him
to spread rumors that
all is still going well

7.  Whymper is also an allusion to Westerners that
catered to Soviet interests and helped spread
the Soviet myth
 “There is no famine or actual
starvation nor is there likely
to be.” -- Walter Duranty
New York Times, Nov. 15, 1931
 Words spread by journalist
about the state of Soviet Russia
 The reality was much different

8.  "There is no famine or actual starvation nor is there likely to
be.” --New York Times, Nov. 15, 1931, page 1
 "Any report of a famine in Russia is today an exaggeration or
malignant propaganda.“ --New York Times, August 23,
1933
 "Enemies and foreign critics can say what they please.
Weaklings and despondents at home may groan under the
burden, but the youth and strength of the Russian people is
essentially at one with the Kremlin's program, believes it
worthwhile and supports it, however hard be the sledding.”
--New York Times, December 9, 1932, page 6
 "You can't make an omelet without breaking eggs.” --New York
Times, May 14, 1933, page 18
 "There is no actual starvation or deaths from starvation but
there is widespread mortality from diseases due to
malnutrition.” --New York Times, March 31, 1933, page 13

9.  Walter Duranty (1884 – October 3, 1957) was a
controversial Liverpool-born British-American journalist
who served as the Moscow bureau chief of the New
York Times from 1922 through 1936.
 A series of stories written in 1931 on the Soviet Union
won Duranty a Pulitzer Prize.
 Duranty has been criticized for his denial of
widespread famine
 Many years later there were calls to revoke his
Pulitzer
 The Times acknowledged that his articles
constituted “some of the worst reporting to appear
in this newspaper.”

10. “Never to have dealing with humans”
“Never to engage in trade”
“Never to make use of money”
“All the animals remembered passing such
resolutions: or at least they thought that
they remembered it.” (p63)
For legs good, two legs bad.

11. Squealer suggests it’s something that
the animals “dreamed”
“Have you any record of such a
resolution? Is it written down
anywhere?” (p64)
Targets the animals illiteracy

12. Pigs now live and sleep in farm house
Commandments changed
“No animal shall sleep in a bed with
sheets”
Squealer said it was necessary for the
pigs who did the brainwork
Uses fear, “Surely none of you
wishes to see Jones back?” (p67)

13. Storm destroys windmill
• It was built with walls too thin
• The humans would “meet in the public
houses and prove to one another by
means of diagrams that the windmill was
bound to fall down.” (p65)
Napoleon accuses Snowball
Snowball is given a death sentence

14.  Elements of Oppression in Action
1. Overworked working class
• Educational psychology says that people who
are kept very busy are easily controlled
2. Rewriting history
3. Propaganda as a means of control
4. A common enemy
• Ex: Communist Russia vs. Trotskyism
• Ex: U.S.A. vs. Communism

16.  Many psychologists say humans need
something to love and something to hate
1. It aides in building a group identity– “US”
You can’t know happiness without sadness.
You can’t know YOU without THEM
“..self-definition is impossible without reference to
the other.”
2. It allows us to project our own negative
qualities onto others
3. It aides in building group cohesiveness

17. Snowball is blamed
Unites the comrades against a common
enemy
What is the irony behind this ?

18. His changes are small and incremental so that
there appears to be no change at all
He changes:
• The commandment
• Their workload
• The view of Snowball’s
influence on the farm

20. “Power corrupts, and absolute
power corrupts absolutely”