Animal Farm Summary & ending explained

Mr Jones of the Manor Farm came home drunk, locked up the henhouses, forgot the little doors, and stumbled off to bed. As soon as his window went dark, the farm came alive.

All day the news had been passed from stall to stall: Old Major, the prize boar, had dreamed a strange dream, and he wanted to tell everyone.

Nobody minded missing sleep for Major. They crowded into the big barn. The three dogs. The pigs, who took the front. Hens on the windowsills, sheep and cows behind. Boxer and Clover, the two huge cart-horses, placing their hooves with care in case something small was hiding in the straw. Boxer was as strong as two horses, not clever, but trusted by all. Next to them stood Benjamin, the old donkey, who had never been seen to laugh. Last came Mollie, the pretty white mare, tossing her mane to show off her red ribbons.

Major looked down at them.

"Comrades, what is our life? Work until we drop, eat barely enough to keep going, and the day we're no use, the knife. Not one animal in England is free. And whose fault is it? Man's. He takes our milk, our eggs, our strength, our young, and gives back just enough to keep us working. Remove Man, and everything we make is ours."

Not a sound in the barn.

"Rebellion will come. Maybe next week, maybe in a hundred years. But when it does, never copy him. No house, no bed, no drink, no money. And no animal may ever rule another. All animals are equal."

Then he told them his dream, of the earth without Man, and sang them an old song he had heard as a piglet and remembered in his sleep. It was called "Beasts of England." By the end the whole barn knew it, and they sang it five times over, lowing, whinnying, quacking, at the tops of their voices.

The noise woke Mr Jones. He snatched his gun from the corner, leaned out of the window, and fired into the dark.