108 Fun Facts About Animal Farm

Which band's album Animals was loosely inspired by Animal Farm?

Pink Floyd's cover shoot went awry when their 40-foot inflatable pig broke loose over London and drifted into Heathrow's flight path.

What was the original subtitle of Animal Farm, dropped by American publishers in 1946?

A Fairy Story was Orwell's own subtitle, and for the French translation he proposed a title abbreviating to URSA, Latin for bear, a symbol of Russia.

What was the farm called before the animals renamed it Animal Farm?

Manor Farm returns in the last chapter, when Napoleon tells his human guests that the name Animal Farm has been abolished.

What is the name of the drunken farmer the animals drive out?

Mr. Jones lost the farm after a drinking binge left the animals unfed all day, until they broke into the store-shed and chased him off.

Which prize boar inspires the rebellion with his speech and song before dying?

Old Major dies three nights after his speech, and the pigs later dig up his skull and make the animals file past it, as Lenin's body was displayed.

Which revolutionary song does Napoleon ban once he rules the farm?

Beasts of England was no longer needed, the pigs announced, because the Rebellion was complete, and the poet pig Minimus wrote a new anthem to replace it.

Which Russian ruler does Animal Farm's drunken farmer represent?

Tsar Nicholas II was forced to abdicate and later executed; his farmyard stand-in fails to win back the farm and dies in an inebriates' home.

Which Soviet figure does the pig Snowball represent?

Leon Trotsky was Stalin's exiled rival, and once Snowball is driven out the pigs blame him for every mishap, from stolen corn to broken eggs.

What is the name of the small pig who serves as Napoleon's propaganda minister?

Squealer is later found stunned beside a broken ladder and an overturned pot of white paint at the barn wall where the commandments kept changing.

What is the name of the loyal horse whose motto is 'Napoleon is always right'?

Boxer grieved over a stable-lad he thought he had killed with his iron-shod hoofs, but the boy was only stunned and slipped away.

What happens to the loyal farm horse who falls ill?

Napoleon sells him to a knacker, the pigs claim the van belonged to an animal hospital, and they soon buy another case of whisky.

Which cynical old donkey is one of the few animals who can read properly?

Benjamin said there was nothing worth reading, yet near the end he read Clover the barn wall: only a single commandment was left.

What is the vain white mare Mollie fond of?

Hair ribbons and sugar cubes won out: Mollie was last seen harnessed outside a pub, wearing a scarlet ribbon while a man fed her sugar.

What kind of animal is Moses, who preaches of a paradise above the clouds?

A raven, Moses returns years after the Rebellion; the pigs call his tales lies yet let him stay idle with a daily gill of beer.

What is the name of the goat, one of the few non-pigs on the farm who can read?

Muriel reads the Sixth Commandment to Clover after the executions, and it now forbids killing only 'without cause'.

Which commandment do the pigs rewrite first, once in the farmhouse?

No beds became 'No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets', though Clover could not recall the rule ever mentioning sheets.

The barn wall's final commandment says some animals are what?

More equal than others: once the wall read that way, nobody found it strange when the pigs put on clothes from the farmhouse wardrobes.

What slogan do the sheep bleat to drown out any dissent?

Four legs good, two legs bad later became 'Four legs good, two legs better!', bleated by the sheep as the pigs began walking upright.

What do the animals call the fight in which the ousted farmer fails to retake the farm?

The Battle of the Cowshed showed Snowball's bravery, yet Napoleon later smeared him as a secret ally of the humans.

What structure does Snowball propose building to modernise the farm?

A windmill was Snowball's plan, but once he was chased off, the pigs claimed the idea had been Napoleon's own all along.

How does Napoleon finally drive Snowball off the farm?

He sets his dogs on him: nine puppies Napoleon had taken from their mothers, Jessie and Bluebell, and raised in secret.

Which neighbouring farmer pays Napoleon in counterfeit money and then attacks the farm with explosives?

Mr. Frederick got the timber for nothing, and soon after his men invaded the farm, killing many animals.

Why do the pigs say they alone must have the farm's milk and apples?

They are brainworkers, the pigs said, and without the milk and apples their ousted farmer would come back.

What is Mr. Whymper's role in the story?

Napoleon's human go-between for trade was Mr. Whymper, a Willingdon solicitor sharp enough to see that the commissions would be worth having.

Which animals are the first executed after confessing to plotting with Snowball?

Four young pigs had protested when Napoleon abolished the animals' meetings, and after their forced confessions they were killed on the spot.

How does Napoleon break the hens' rebellion over their eggs?

He stops their rations: nine hens die before the rest give in, and their deaths are blamed on coccidiosis.

What is unusual about the cat's only recorded vote?

She voted both ways, and though she dodged all work, she once leapt off a roof onto a cowman's shoulders and sank her claws into his neck.

What does Snowball make the farm's hoof-and-horn flag from?

An old green tablecloth: its hoof and horn seem to echo the hammer and sickle, and by the end the symbol has been removed.

What are the pigs and men doing when the animals outside realise they can no longer tell them apart?

Playing cards and cheating: Napoleon and Mr. Pilkington had each played an ace of spades at the same time.

Which 1943 summit shaped Animal Farm's closing scene?

Tehran was thought to have set up the best possible relations between the USSR and the West, but Orwell personally did not believe they would last.

What almost destroyed Orwell's Animal Farm manuscript in June 1944?

A German V-1 flying bomb wrecked Orwell's Kilburn flat, and he spent hours sifting the rubble to rescue the pages.

Which poet, a director at Faber and Faber, rejected the book while praising its 'good writing'?

He suggested what was needed was 'not more communism but more public-spirited pigs'.

Which publisher finally issued Animal Farm on 17 August 1945?

Secker & Warburg's Fredric Warburg took it on in July 1944, but paper shortages, and possibly fear of offending an ally, held it back a year.

An official at which British government department warned a publisher off Animal Farm during the war?

The Ministry of Information official is thought to be Peter Smollett, a Soviet agent; the publisher then said pigs as rulers would offend 'the Russians'.

What was the title of Orwell's suppressed preface on self-censorship, published in 1972?

Ian Angus found the typescript and Bernard Crick published it in the Times Literary Supplement.

What does Napoleon call the weekly processions held to celebrate the farm's triumphs?

Spontaneous Demonstrations meant weekly marches, poems and speeches, and they helped the hungry animals forget their empty bellies, at least part of the time.

Who secretly funded the 1954 animated film of Animal Farm?

The CIA sent agents to buy the film rights from Orwell's widow, and the British cartoon it funded changed his bleak ending.

Which experience did Orwell say showed him how easily propaganda sways enlightened people?

Escaping communist purges in Spain convinced Orwell that destroying the Soviet myth was essential to reviving socialism.

What sight did Orwell say gave him the idea of setting the story on a farm?

A boy whipping a carthorse made Orwell reflect that if such animals knew their strength, men would have no power over them.

How far did the mare Clover get when Snowball taught the animals to read?

Letters but not words: years later Clover still had to ask others to read her the commandments on the barn wall.

Whose 2025 animated version is a corporate-corruption allegory with a female Snowball?

Andy Serkis's film swaps Orwell's bleak ending for a hopeful one, in which a piglet named Lucky rallies the animals against Napoleon.

Which luxury did Snowball promise every animal's stall?

Electric light was part of Snowball's dream, yet years later Napoleon taught that true happiness lay in living frugally.

In 1996 Animal Farm belatedly won a top award from fans of which genre?

Science fiction fans gave it a Retro Hugo, voted fifty years late for a year when their convention met but no Hugos were handed out.

According to Orwell's adopted son, who helped plan Animal Farm, making it 'my parents' teamwork'?

Eileen, his first wife, died under anaesthetic during surgery in March 1945, five months before Animal Farm finally appeared.

At the closing dinner, what do Napoleon's human guests admire about his farm?

Its animals get less food yet do more than any in the county, the guests said, and they planned to bring the same system to their own farms.

Besides 'Napoleon is always right', what is the loyal horse's own personal motto?

I will work harder: he even had a cockerel wake him three-quarters of an hour early to put in extra labour.

The morning after the pigs find a case of whisky, what do they announce about Napoleon?

That he is dying: the night before, he had been seen galloping round the yard wearing the farmer's old bowler hat.

Which conservative group challenged the use of Animal Farm in Wisconsin, objecting to the words 'masses will revolt'?

The John Birch Society was a fiercely anti-communist group, yet it objected to an anti-Stalin satire over the words 'masses will revolt'.

What happens in the vote for President once Animal Farm becomes a Republic?

Napoleon is the only candidate and wins unanimously; the same day, new 'documents' claim Snowball had led the human forces against the farm.

Orwell said the pigs keeping the milk and apples was Animal Farm's turning point, echoing what?

The crushing of the Kronstadt revolt fit Orwell's moral: revolutions only bring real improvement when the masses are alert and ready to chuck out their leaders.

Orwell changed 'including Napoleon' to 'except Napoleon' so that, as the blasting powder goes off, the leader does what?

Stays on his feet: Czapski, a Katyn survivor, told Orwell Stalin's greatness had saved Russia, since Stalin stayed in Moscow as the Germans advanced.

A neighbouring farmer's forged banknotes and surprise attack are read as an allegory of which 1939 event?

The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939 ended when Hitler invaded the USSR, which the swindling farmer's sudden attack seems to echo.

What does Napoleon's favourite sow wear once the pigs raid the farmhouse wardrobes?

The farmer's wife's Sunday dress was left behind when the wife fled on the night of the Rebellion, a few things stuffed into a carpet bag.

Which Russian composer's opera of Animal Farm premiered in Amsterdam in March 2023?

Alexander Raskatov composed it for director Damiano Michieletto, who had long wanted to bring the fable to the opera stage; Vienna and Palermo co-commissioned it.

Which Star Trek captain voiced Napoleon in TNT's 1999 live-action Animal Farm?

Patrick Stewart voiced Napoleon, whose regime in this version keeps the animals in line with TV broadcasts and newsreel propaganda.

How does TNT's 1999 live-action Animal Farm end?

New humans take over the property, but only after the escaped animals return to find the farm in ruins and Napoleon's regime gone.

Who narrated BBC Radio 4's 2013 production of Animal Farm?

Tamsin Greig narrated a script the author had written himself, adapting his own novel for BBC radio in 1947.

Which effects studio built the animatronic animals for TNT's 1999 Animal Farm?

Jim Henson's Creature Shop built the animals for a retelling in which Jessie the border collie leads an escape from Napoleon's farm.

When Napoleon first walks upright near the end of Animal Farm, what is he carrying in his trotter?

A whip is in his trotter: the very tool of human cruelty that the animals had joyfully burned on the day of the Rebellion.

How does Napoleon show his contempt for the plans Snowball has chalked on a shed floor in Animal Farm?

He urinates on them in silence and walks out. Once Snowball has been driven off, Napoleon revives the scheme, and the animals are told it was his own idea all along.

After first touring the farmhouse, the creatures of Animal Farm vote unanimously to preserve it as what?

A museum is what they agree on, with no animal ever to live there. The pigs later move in anyway and persuade the others that no such resolution was ever passed.

In Animal Farm, what does Moses call the heavenly country where animals supposedly go when they die?

Sugarcandy Mountain lies just beyond the clouds, Moses says, with linseed cake growing on its hedges. The pigs argue hard that no such place exists, yet years later they let him stay on and keep preaching it.

Under which real name did George Orwell, the Eton-educated author of Animal Farm, grow up?

Eric Blair wanted to spare his family embarrassment over his time living as a tramp, so his first book came out under a pen name borrowed from a river in Suffolk.

Orwell's suggested French title for Animal Farm shortens to URSA, the Latin word for which animal?

A bear, the old symbol of Russia, hides in the initials of Union des républiques socialistes animales, a title that also mimics the French name of the Soviet Union.

What finally drives the livestock of Animal Farm to break into the store-shed and start the Rebellion?

A day with no food does it: the farmer is sleeping off a drinking bout and his men have gone rabbiting, so a cow breaks down the shed door with her horn.

In the 1950s, how were copies of Animal Farm sent into Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia?

Balloons carried the books over the Iron Curtain in an operation codenamed Aedinosaur, and the air forces below tried to shoot them down.

What is the only thing the mare Mollie agrees to learn to spell in Animal Farm's reading classes?

Her own name is all she wants: she shapes it neatly out of twigs, decorates it with a flower or two and walks round admiring it.

After Napoleon's executions, which two words are found added to Animal Farm's commandment against killing?

Without cause now ends the rule that once read simply 'No animal shall kill any other animal', and the puzzled animals decide the words must have slipped their memory.

In Animal Farm, what do the pigs call the system of thought they build from the old boar's teachings?

Animalism is worked out by Napoleon, Snowball and one other pig, who hold secret meetings in the barn several nights a week once the farmer is asleep.

How many commandments do the pigs first paint on the barn wall in Animal Farm as unalterable law?

Seven rules go up in white paint, large enough to be read thirty yards away. By the closing chapter a single line is left on the wall, and it is not one of the originals.

Which Soviet dictator is the pig Napoleon, ruler of Animal Farm, generally read as an allegory of?

Joseph Stalin was the target: writing to a French author, Orwell summed up the whole book as a satirical tale against him, 'un conte satirique contre Staline'.

Which George Orwell novel, his next after Animal Farm, gave the English language the phrase Big Brother?

Nineteen Eighty-Four appeared in June 1949, less than a year before its author died, and also coined Newspeak, doublethink and the Thought Police.

The white hoof and horn on the flag of Animal Farm appear to be modelled on which Communist emblem?

The hammer and sickle is the clear model. The farm's version is said to signify a future Republic of the Animals, and it is taken off the flag once Napoleon rules alone.

Which birds do Snowball and Napoleon send to neighbouring farms to spread news of Animal Farm's Rebellion?

Pigeons fly out every day to mingle with other farms' animals and teach them the rebels' anthem. When men later attack the farm, the same birds bombard them with droppings.

Which threat do the pigs of Animal Farm raise again and again to silence complaints about their privileges?

The farmer's return is the clincher every time. Asked whether they want their old master back, the animals give up every objection to the pigs' milk, apples and soft living.

George Orwell, author of Animal Farm, served as an imperial police officer as a young man in which country?

Burma was his pick because his grandmother lived at Moulmein, and his years in its police later produced the essays 'A Hanging' and 'Shooting an Elephant'.

Why did several British publishers shy away from Animal Farm when Orwell offered it to them in 1944?

The USSR was a wartime ally against Nazi Germany and widely admired in Britain, so the satire was turned down again and again and reached shops only after the war in Europe had ended.

Under a rule laid down late in Animal Farm, what must any other animal do on meeting a pig on a path?

Stand aside is the order, which makes rank visible on a farm that had sworn to abolish it. The piglets are also kept from mixing with the other young animals.

Right after expelling Snowball, what does Napoleon abolish on Animal Farm in favour of a pigs' committee?

The animals' debates end on the spot, dismissed as a waste of time. A few pigs in the front row protest until growls from Napoleon's guards silence them, and from then on orders are simply read out.

What do the victorious rebels of Animal Farm do with the hams they find hanging in the farmhouse kitchen?

The animals bury them, giving the hams a funeral rather than a place in the larder, and leave almost everything else in the house untouched.

Which disease killed George Orwell at 46, less than five years after Animal Farm was published?

Tuberculosis was confirmed late in his life, and the request to import a new medicine, streptomycin, to treat him went as far as the Minister of Health.

In Animal Farm, the pigs reveal they have taught themselves to read and write from what discarded item?

An old spelling book, once owned by the farmer's children and thrown on the rubbish heap, gives the pigs the one skill that lets them rule everyone else.

Snowball plans the defence of Animal Farm after studying an old book about which general's campaigns?

Julius Caesar's campaigns, read up in a book found in the farmhouse, teach Snowball to fake a retreat and then spring an ambush once the men are inside the yard.

Which medal do Orwell's farmyard rebels invent after repelling the farmer's raid and confer on Snowball?

Animal Hero, First Class is a brass medal made from old horse-brasses found in the harness-room. A Second Class version goes posthumously to a sheep killed in the fight.

Which large, neglected farm next door to Animal Farm belongs to the easy-going Mr. Pilkington?

Foxwood is overgrown with woodland and its hedges are a disgrace, because its owner spends most of his time fishing or hunting according to the season.

With no tools to cut stone, how do the workers of Animal Farm break up the boulders in the quarry?

They drop them over the edge after hauling each boulder up the slope with ropes, a job that can take a whole day and still leave the stone unbroken.

George Orwell satirised Soviet tyranny in Animal Farm, but which political creed did he say he wrote for?

Democratic socialism was what he stood for: he said every serious line he had written since 1936 was against totalitarianism and for it, and he hoped to free the left from the Soviet myth.

Peter Smollett, the official believed to have warned a publisher off Animal Farm, was later unmasked as what?

A Soviet agent codenamed ABO, Smollett later appeared on Orwell's own list of suspected crypto-communists, so the advice that the book would offend Moscow seems to have come from Moscow's own man.

After the mare Mollie deserts Animal Farm, what is she last reported doing in a nearby town?

Pulling a dogcart for a fat, red-faced man who strokes her nose, she appears to be enjoying herself, and none of the animals ever mentions her again.

Alongside 'Terror of Mankind', which gentler title do the pigs of Animal Farm invent for Napoleon?

Ducklings' Friend sits beside Father of All Animals on the list, and by then one hen will tell another that she owes her five eggs in six days to his guidance.

After a rumoured murder plot in Animal Farm, what duty is the young pig Pinkeye given for Napoleon?

Tasting his food in case it has been poisoned is Pinkeye's task, while guards watch over Napoleon's sleep, one at each corner.

The rebel anthem sung in chapter one of Animal Farm is described as a cross between Clementine and which song?

La Cucaracha is the other half of the tune, which the animals sing five times running until the noise wakes the farmer and he fires his gun into the dark.

In Animal Farm, the paddock promised as a retirement pasture is ploughed up so Napoleon can sow which crop?

Barley goes in once the pigs acquire a taste for alcohol: Napoleon orders booklets on brewing and distilling, and soon every pig draws a daily pint.

To hide a food shortage from Mr. Whymper, what does Napoleon have Animal Farm's near-empty bins filled with?

Sand fills the bins almost to the brim, with the last of the grain and meal spread on top, and the deceived visitor goes on telling the outside world the farm has plenty.

Which softer word does the pigs' spokesman in Animal Farm always use for a cut in the workers' food?

Readjustment, never reduction, is his word, and it comes with a rapid stream of figures claiming everyone still eats better than in the old farmer's day.

When Moses returns to Animal Farm after years away, what daily allowance do the pigs let him have?

A gill of beer a day goes to an idler the pigs still call a liar, echoing the Soviet regime's revival of the Russian Orthodox Church in the 1940s.

Where does the farmer driven out of Animal Farm finally die, in another part of the country?

An inebriates' home, an institution for alcoholics, is where his drinking ends; by then hardly any animal is left who remembers the days before the Rebellion.

What setback left the future Animal Farm's owner disheartened and drinking heavily before the Rebellion?

A costly lawsuit soured a man who had once been a capable farmer; after it his men grew idle, the fields filled with weeds and the animals went underfed.

In Animal Farm's great debate, Snowball's side promises a three-day week; what does Napoleon's slogan promise?

The full manger is Napoleon's counter-offer: he argues that growing more food matters most and that Snowball's grand building scheme would leave them all to starve.

George Orwell wrote a special preface about Animal Farm's origins for a 1947 edition in which language?

Ukrainian was the language: the translation was produced in Germany, and American authorities confiscated much of the print run and handed it to the Soviet repatriation commission.

In which 1946 essay did Orwell call Animal Farm his first attempt to fuse political and artistic purpose?

Why I Write names the great motives for writing, from sheer egoism to political purpose, and admits that his books turned lifeless whenever a political purpose was missing.

Which American magazine named Animal Farm among the 100 best English-language novels published since 1923?

Time drew the line at 1923, the year its own first issue appeared, so Orwell's short fable of 1945 qualified alongside far longer novels.

What was the aim of the Wild Comrades' Re-education Committee that Snowball sets up in Animal Farm?

To tame rats and rabbits was the plan, and it broke down almost at once: the wild animals carried on as before and simply took advantage of any generosity shown them.

In which pub does the farmer ousted from Animal Farm sit complaining of the injustice he has suffered?

The Red Lion's taproom hears his grievances for months, while the other farmers sympathise in principle and privately wonder how to turn his misfortune to their own advantage.

Napoleon is the only pig of which breed on the farm in George Orwell's Animal Farm?

Berkshire is his breed, and Orwell introduces him as large, rather fierce-looking and no great talker, but with a reputation for getting his own way.

The captured gun on Animal Farm is fired each year on which day, the anniversary of the Rebellion?

Midsummer Day gets one shot and 12 October another, for the farm's earliest victory; the weapon, found lying in the mud, is set up by the flagstaff like a piece of artillery.

Which publisher, George Orwell's regular one before Animal Farm, turned the manuscript down in 1944?

Victor Gollancz had launched Orwell by publishing Down and Out in Paris and London, yet he passed on the fable, as did several other firms before it found a publisher.

In which country was George Orwell, the author of Animal Farm, born to a father in the colonial civil service?

India was his birthplace: his father supervised opium production for the Indian Civil Service at Motihari, and his mother took him to Britain as a one-year-old.