Animal Farm

Summary Chp. 6

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Another year passes. The animals work themselves to the bone on the harvest and on the windmill, all under the supervision of the pigs. The animals are asked to work on Sunday afternoons as well, on a voluntary basis, though any animal that did not work on Sunday had their rations halved. By autumn time, it is clear that the harvest is a poorer one than the previous year. This will make the coming winter all the more difficult.

Progress on the windmill is laborious and slow. The stones with which it is to be built have to be hauled to the top of the quarry and thrown from there to the bottom, so that the stones can be broken into the appropriate sizes. It takes until the end of the summer to accumulate enough stone to begin building the windmill, work which depends almost entirely on the tremendous efforts of Boxer, who works himself harder than ever before.

As the work on the harvest and the windmill proceeds, the animals find themselves running out of supplies. Items such as paraffin, seeds, manure and machinery could not be produced on the farm. This problem is resolved when Napoleon announces one day that Animal Farm will henceforth enter into trading arrangements with some of the surrounding farms. Hay and wheat from the farm will be sold, and the hens are told that they will have to give up some of their eggs, a sacrifice that they should be proud to make. Some of the animals are doubtful about this move, seeming to remember an agreement in the early days after the rebellion never to have anything to do with humans. Again, Squealer puts any doubts to rest in the following days, informing them that such a resolution was never written down.

From then on, Napoleon engages a local solicitor to act as the middleman between Animal Farm and the outside world. The solicitor comes every Monday, and his presence makes the other animals very uneasy, but their doubts are eased by their pride in seeing Napoleon give orders to a human.

Shortly afterwards, the pigs move into the farmhouse. They eat in the kitchen, relax in the drawing room, and even sleep in the beds. Some of the animals are very doubtful about this. Clover consults the seven commandments on the gable wall, and asks Muriel to read out the fourth commandment, which states, ** animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets. Muriel cannot remember sheets being mentioned before. However, helped by the smooth words of Squealer, she assumes that she must have been wrong, She and the other animals accept his argument that the pigs, as the leaders, must have as much comfort as possible to facilitate their brainwork.

The work on the windmill continues. The animals are all extremely proud of their progress so far, except for Benjamin, who expresses no opinion for or against the windmill. By November, the windmill is half finished. However, disaster strikes when a nighttime storm destroys it. The animals all gather around the ruin. Napoleon is silent for a long time, before making the sudden and dramatic announcement that the windmill was destroyed by Snowball. Some pig footprints leading away from the farm are discovered, and Napoleon confirms them to belong to Snowball. The other animals are shocked that their former leader could do such a thing. Napoleon announces that work on rebuilding the windmill will commence immediately.

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