“Four legs good, two legs bad.”
Read in Chapter III, this is how Snowball paraphrases the Seven Commandments of Animalism, which are designed to support Old Major’s speech on the importance of animal unity in the face of oppression by the humans. This is one example that the author uses to substantiate how elitist, or the upper class, might use language to oppress the lower class.
“At this there was a terrible baying sound outside, and nine enormous dogs wearing brass-studded collars came bounding to the barn. They dashed straight for Snowball, who only sprang from his place just to escape their snapping jaws”
Taken from Chapter V, this quote pertains to Napoleon’s violent exile of Snowball from Animal Farm, it is said to reference the decline in the relationship between Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin. Napoleon knows that, of the two, he is the least adored by the farm animals, and seeks to get rid of Snowball. He instructs his slave dogs to reinforce his power. Similar to Stalin, Napoleon prefers to stay out of the public eye – building his reign of power through corruption and in secrecy.
Quotes of Note
Chapter 3:
“The animals were happy as they had never conceived it possible to be. Every mouthful of food was an acute positive pleasure, now that it was truly their own food, produced by themselves and for themselves, not doled out to them by a grudging master.”
Chapter 6:
“All that year the animals worked like slaves. But they were happy in their work; they grudges no effort or sacrifice, well aware that everything they did was for the benefit of themselves and those of their kind who would come after them and not for a pack of idle, thieving human beings.”
Chapter 8:
“Some of the animals remembered – or thought they remembered – that the Sixth Commandment decreed, “No animal shall kill any other animal.” And though no one cared to mention it in the hearing of the pigs or dogs, it was felt that the killings which had taken place did not square with this.”
