Do Now

Why do the animals want to start a rebellion on the farm?

Extension: Give one way life would be better for the animals after a rebellion.
Plot and vocabulary recap
• Tyrant
• Life without Man
Reading NOTE: ALL OF THE
Read chapter 2 – pages 10-14 READING IN THIS LESSON
WILL TAKE
Lesson Guide

Check for understanding

In pairs, students discuss questions 1-5 APPROXIMATELY
25MINS. BEAR THIS IN
Reading MIND WHEN TIMING
Read from page 14 – 18 to the end of the chapter 2 OTHER TASKS IN THE
LESSON.
Character sheet – ask student to stick this resource in their books. They will Resource – Character List p.6
complete the resources as the unit progresses.
The three pigs
In pairs, students to make bullet point notes on the three pigs in their Character
List resource.
The Commandments Resource – The seven
Introduce students to the commandments and explain what a commandment is. commandments p.7
Consider if you want to
Discussion
discuss in pairs, groups or
Do you think the commandments will give the animals a better life? complete as a short written
Extension: What problems could the commandment cause? task.

Mastery Quiz
Students complete mastery quiz
 Tuesday, 05 April 2022

Why do the animals want to

start a rebellion on the farm?
Do Now

Extension: Give one way life would be better for each

of the animals after a rebellion.
 Orwell shows us that the animals on the farm are fed
up of Jones, who they think is a tyrant.
Old Major has inspired the animals. He has given them
a vision of a life without Man.
In this world, the animals will not have any masters.
Animal Farm

Everything they make will be their own.

They will not need to live in fear of Man any more.
 Let’s find out how Old Major’s speech inspires the
animals.
Chapter 2 – The Rebellion
Read from, ‘Three nights later…’
Read to, ‘the Manor Farm was theirs.’
Animal Farm
 Three nights later old Major died peacefully in his
sleep. His body was buried at the foot of the orchard.
This was early in March. During the next three
months there was much secret activity. Major's
speech had given to the more intelligent animals on
the farm a completely new outlook on life. They did
not know when the Rebellion predicted by Major
would take place, they had no reason for thinking
that it would be within their own lifetime, but they saw
Reading

clearly that it was their duty to prepare for it. The work
of teaching and organising the others fell naturally
upon the pigs, who were generally recognised as
being the cleverest of the animals. Pre-eminent pre-eminent –
among the pigs were two young boars named more important
Snowball and Napoleon, whom Mr. Jones was
breeding up for sale. Napoleon was a large, rather
fierce-looking Berkshire boar, the only Berkshire on the
farm, not much of a talker, but with a reputation for
getting his own way. Snowball was a more vivacious vivacious – full of
pig than Napoleon, quicker in speech and more energy, lively
inventive, but was not considered to have the same
depth of character. All the other male pigs on the
farm were porkers.
 The best known among them was a small fat pig
named Squealer, with very round cheeks, twinkling
eyes, nimble movements, and a shrill voice. He was a nimble – able to
brilliant talker, and when he was arguing some move quickly and
difficult point he had a way of skipping from side to easily
side and whisking his tail which was somehow very
persuasive. The others said of Squealer that he could
turn black into white.
These three had elaborated old Major's elaborated –
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teachings into a complete system of thought, to gave more

which they gave the name of Animalism. Several details
nights a week, after Mr. Jones was asleep, they held
secret meetings in the barn and expounded the expounded –
principles of Animalism to the others. At the beginning gave detailed
they met with much stupidity and apathy. Some of explanations
the animals talked of the duty of loyalty to Mr. Jones, apathy – lack of
whom they referred to as "Master," or made interest
elementary remarks such as "Mr. Jones feeds us. If he elementary -
were gone, we should starve to death." basic
 Others asked such questions as "Why should we care
what happens after we are dead?" or "If this Rebellion
is to happen anyway, what difference does it make
whether we work for it or not?", and the pigs had
great difficulty in making them see that this was
contrary to the spirit of Animalism. The stupidest
questions of all were asked by Mollie, the white mare.
The very first question she asked Snowball was: "Will
there still be sugar after the Rebellion?"
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"No," said Snowball firmly. "We have no means of

making sugar on this farm. Besides, you do not need
sugar. You will have all the oats and hay you want."
"And shall I still be allowed to wear ribbons in my
mane?" asked Mollie.
"Comrade," said Snowball, "those ribbons that
you are so devoted to are the badge of slavery. Can devoted – loving
you not understand that liberty is worth more than or caring about
ribbons?" something
Mollie agreed, but she did not sound very liberty - freedom
convinced.
 The pigs had an even harder struggle to
counteract the lies put about by Moses, the tame counteract – to
raven. Moses, who was Mr. Jones's especial pet, was reduce the
a spy and a tale-bearer, but he was also a clever negative effect
talker. He claimed to know of the existence of a
mysterious country called Sugarcandy Mountain, to
which all animals went when they died. It was
situated somewhere up in the sky, a little distance
beyond the clouds, Moses said. In Sugarcandy
Reading

Mountain it was Sunday seven days a week, clover

was in season all the year round, and lump sugar and
linseed cake grew on the hedges. The animals hated
Moses because he told tales and did no work, but
some of them believed in Sugarcandy Mountain, and
the pigs had to argue very hard to persuade them
that there was no such place.
Their most faithful disciples were the two cart- disciples –
horses, Boxer and Clover. These two had great someone who
difficulty in thinking anything out for themselves, but follows someone
having once accepted the pigs as their teachers, else's beliefs
they absorbed everything that they were told, and
passed it on to the other animals by simple
arguments.
 They were unfailing in their attendance at the secret
meetings in the barn, and led the singing of 'Beasts of
England', with which the meetings always ended. Fallen on evil
Now, as it turned out, the Rebellion was days-
achieved much earlier and more easily than anyone experienced bad
had expected. In past years Mr. Jones, although a fortune
hard master, had been a capable farmer, but of late
he had fallen on evil days. He had become much
disheartened after losing money in a lawsuit, and had disheartened -
Reading

taken to drinking more than was good for him. For disappointed
whole days at a time he would lounge in his Windsor
chair in the kitchen, reading the newspapers,
drinking, and occasionally feeding Moses on crusts of
bread soaked in beer. His men were idle and
dishonest, the fields were full of weeds, the buildings
wanted roofing, the hedges were neglected, and neglected – not
the animals were underfed. looked after
June came and the hay was almost ready for properly
cutting. On Midsummer's Eve, which was a Saturday,
Mr. Jones went into Willingdon and got so drunk at
the Red Lion that he did not come back till midday
on Sunday. The men had milked the cows in the early
morning and then had gone out rabbiting, without rabbiting –
bothering to feed the animals. hunting rabbits
 When Mr. Jones got back he immediately went to
sleep on the drawing-room sofa with the News of the
World over his face, so that when evening came, the
animals were still unfed. At last they could stand it no
longer. One of the cows broke in the door of the
store-shed with her horn and all the animals began to
help themselves from the bins. It was just then that Mr.
Jones woke up. The next moment he and his four
men were in the store-shed with whips in their hands,
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lashing out in all directions. This was more than the

hungry animals could bear. With one accord, though accord – by
nothing of the kind had been planned beforehand, choice, without
they flung themselves upon their tormentors. Jones being forced
and his men suddenly found themselves being butted
and kicked from all sides. The situation was quite out
of their control. They had never seen animals behave
like this before, and this sudden uprising of creatures
whom they were used to thrashing and maltreating maltreating –
just as they chose, frightened them almost out of their treating badly
wits. After only a moment or two they gave up trying
to defend themselves and took to their heels. A
minute later all five of them were in full flight down
the cart-track that led to the main road, with the
animals pursuing them in triumph.
 Mrs. Jones looked out of the bedroom window,
saw what was happening, hurriedly flung a few
possessions into a carpet bag, and slipped out of the
farm by another way. Moses sprang off his perch and
flapped after her, croaking loudly. Meanwhile the
animals had chased Jones and his men out on to the
road and slammed the five-barred gate behind
them. And so, almost before they knew what was
happening, the Rebellion had been successfully
Reading

carried through: Jones was expelled, and the Manor expelled – forced
Farm was theirs. to leave
 Quick check
Discuss the answers to these questions in pairs:
1. What are the names of the three main pigs on the
farm?
2. How does Mollie respond to the idea of a rebellion?
Animal Farm

3. How do Boxer and Clover, the two horses, respond

to the idea of a rebellion?
4. How had Jones ‘fallen on evil days’?
5. How do the animals take control of the farm?
 1. Napoleon, Snowball and Squealer are the three
main pigs on the farm.
2. Mollie is not interested in the idea of a rebellion. She
is only interested to know if she will still be allowed
to wear her ribbons and eat sugar lumps. She does
Animal Farm

not take the rebellion seriously.

3. Boxer and Clover take the idea of the rebellion very
seriously. They try to learn as much as they can
from the teachings of the pigs. They also share they
ideas among the other animals.
4. Jones was an alcoholic. He got drunk too often. He
had also lost a lot of money in a lawsuit.
5. The animals take control of the farm when Jones
comes home one day without feeding them. The
animals are so tired and hungry they break into the
store-shed and start eating. When Jones and his
men try to stop the cows, the other animals attack
the men and chase them from the farm.
 The animals have taken control of the farm!
Now they are able to start building the world that they
want.
They can make old Major’s dream become a reality.
Let’s find out how their new society starts.
Animal Farm

Let’s read up to the end of the chapter from page 14.

 For the first few minutes the animals could hardly
believe in their good fortune. Their first act was to
gallop in a body right round the boundaries of the
farm, as though to make quite sure that no human
being was hiding anywhere upon it; then they raced
back to the farm buildings to wipe out the last traces
of Jones's hated reign. The harness-room at the end reign – a period
of the stables was broken open; the bits, the nose- of time when
rings, the dog-chains, the cruel knives with which Mr. someone is in
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Jones had been used to castrate the pigs and lambs, charge
were all flung down the well. The reins, the halters, the castrate – to stop
blinkers, the degrading nosebags, were thrown on to a male animal
the rubbish fire which was burning in the yard. So from having
were the whips. All the animals capered with joy babies
when they saw the whips going up in flames. capered –
Snowball also threw on to the fire the ribbons with jumped playfully
which the horses' manes and tails had usually been
decorated on market days.
"Ribbons," he said, "should be considered as
clothes, which are the mark of a human being. All
animals should go naked."
When Boxer heard this he fetched the small
straw hat which he wore in summer to keep the flies
out of his ears, and flung it on to the fire with the rest.
 In a very little while the animals had destroyed
everything that reminded them of Mr. Jones.
Napoleon then led them back to the store-shed and
served out a double ration of corn to everybody, with
two biscuits for each dog. Then they sang 'Beasts of
England' from end to end seven times running, and
after that they settled down for the night and slept as
they had never slept before.
But they woke at dawn as usual, and suddenly
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remembering the glorious thing that had happened,

they all raced out into the pasture together. A little pasture – area of
way down the pasture there was a knoll that grass
commanded a view of most of the farm. The animals knoll – small hill
rushed to the top of it and gazed round them in the
clear morning light. Yes, it was theirs--everything that
they could see was theirs! In the ecstasy of that ecstasy –
thought they gambolled round and round, they extreme
hurled themselves into the air in great leaps of happiness
excitement. They rolled in the dew, they cropped gambolled –
mouthfuls of the sweet summer grass, they kicked up jumped in a
clods of the black earth and snuffed its rich scent. happy way
 Then they made a tour of inspection of the whole
farm and surveyed with speechless admiration the
ploughland, the hayfield, the orchard, the pool, the
spinney. It was as though they had never seen these spinney – small
things before, and even now they could hardly wood
believe that it was all their own.
Then they filed back to the farm buildings and
halted in silence outside the door of the farmhouse.
That was theirs too, but they were frightened to go
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inside. After a moment, however, Snowball and

Napoleon butted the door open with their shoulders
and the animals entered in single file, walking with
the utmost care for fear of disturbing anything. They
tiptoed from room to room, afraid to speak above a
whisper and gazing with a kind of awe at the awe – feeling of
unbelievable luxury, at the beds with their feather respect
mattresses, the looking-glasses, the horsehair sofa, the lithograph - print
Brussels carpet, the lithograph of Queen Victoria over
the drawing-room mantelpiece. They were just
coming down the stairs when Mollie was discovered
to be missing. Going back, the others found that she
had remained behind in the best bedroom.
 She had taken a piece of blue ribbon from Mrs.
Jones's dressing-table, and was holding it against her
shoulder and admiring herself in the glass in a very
foolish manner. The others reproached her sharply, reproached -
and they went outside. Some hams hanging in the criticised
kitchen were taken out for burial, and the barrel of
beer in the scullery was stove in with a kick from
Boxer's hoof, otherwise nothing in the house was
touched. A unanimous resolution was passed on the unanimous –
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spot that the farmhouse should be preserved as a agreed by

museum. All were agreed that no animal must ever everyone
live there.
The animals had their breakfast, and then
Snowball and Napoleon called them together again.
"Comrades," said Snowball, "it is half-past six and
we have a long day before us. Today we begin the
hay harvest. But there is another matter that must be
attended to first."
 The pigs now revealed that during the past three
months they had taught themselves to read and
write from an old spelling book which had belonged
to Mr. Jones's children and which had been thrown
on the rubbish heap. Napoleon sent for pots of black
and white paint and led the way down to the five-
barred gate that gave on to the main road. Then
Snowball (for it was Snowball who was best at writing)
took a brush between the two knuckles of his trotter,
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painted out MANOR FARM from the top bar of the

gate and in its place painted ANIMAL FARM. This was
to be the name of the farm from now onwards. After
this they went back to the farm buildings, where
Snowball and Napoleon sent for a ladder which they
caused to be set against the end wall of the big
barn. They explained that by their studies of the past
three months the pigs had succeeded in reducing
the principles of Animalism to Seven
Commandments. These Seven Commandments
would now be inscribed on the wall; they would form inscribed - written
an unalterable law by which all the animals on
Animal Farm must live for ever after.
 With some difficulty (for it is not easy for a pig to
balance himself on a ladder) Snowball climbed up
and set to work, with Squealer a few rungs below him
holding the paint-pot. The Commandments were
written on the tarred wall in great white letters that
could be read thirty yards away. They ran thus:

THE SEVEN COMMANDMENTS

Reading

1. Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy.

2. Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a

friend.

3. No animal shall wear clothes.

4. No animal shall sleep in a bed.

5. No animal shall drink alcohol.

6. No animal shall kill any other animal.

7. All animals are equal.

 It was very neatly written, and except that
"friend" was written "freind" and one of the "S's" was
the wrong way round, the spelling was correct all the
way through. Snowball read it aloud for the benefit of
the others. All the animals nodded in complete
agreement, and the cleverer ones at once began to
learn the Commandments by heart.
"Now, comrades," cried Snowball, throwing
down the paint-brush, "to the hayfield! Let us make it
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a point of honour to get in the harvest more quickly point of honour –

than Jones and his men could do." something that
But at this moment the three cows, who had affects
seemed uneasy for some time past, set up a loud someone’s
lowing. They had not been milked for twenty-four reputation
hours, and their udders were almost bursting. After a
little thought, the pigs sent for buckets and milked the
cows fairly successfully, their trotters being well
adapted to this task. Soon there were five buckets of
frothing creamy milk at which many of the animals
looked with considerable interest.
 "What is going to happen to all that milk?" said
someone.
"Jones used sometimes to mix some of it in our
mash," said one of the hens.
"Never mind the milk, comrades!" cried
Napoleon, placing himself in front of the buckets.
"That will be attended to. The harvest is more
important. Comrade Snowball will lead the way. I
shall follow in a few minutes. Forward, comrades! The
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hay is waiting."
So the animals trooped down to the hayfield to
begin the harvest, and when they came back in the
evening it was noticed that the milk had
disappeared.
 We have met many of the main characters in the
novel.
As we read the novel, we will make some notes on
each character.
Keep the Character List sheet stuck in your book. We
Animal Farm

will return to this throughout the unit.

Today, we will begin making

notes on the three main pigs in
the novel.

Napoleon Snowball Squealer

p.6
 List down bullet point notes for each of the pigs on your
character sheet
• Large, fierce and controlling
• He leads the animals to start work on
Animal Farm

harvest.

• Intelligent
• Helps to educate the other animals about
how they should live after the Rebellion.

• Well-known and a brilliant talker

• Very persuasive –can convince the
animals of anything.
p.6
 The commandments
After the animals have taken over the farm, they write
seven commandments on the side of the barn wall.
A commandment is an important rule.
Animal Farm

Do you think the commandments will give the

animals a better life?
p.7
Extension: What problems could the commandment
cause?
 How do the pigs start the rebellion?

a) They arrange a meeting with Jones, the farmer

b) One of the cows breaks the door of the store shed
c) They arrange secret meetings and teach the
Mastery

principles of Animalism
d) They convince the other animals that Sugarcandy
Mountain is real
e) They convince Boxer and Clover to spread their
message and teachings of Animalism to the others
 How do the pigs start the rebellion?

a) They arrange a meeting with Jones, the farmer

b) One of the cows breaks the door of the store shed
c) They arrange secret meetings and teach
teach the
the
Mastery

principles of
principles of Animalism
Animalism
d) They convince the other animals that Sugarcandy
Mountain is real
e) They convince Boxer
Boxer and
and Clover to spread their
message and teachings of Animalism to the others
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