Chapter 6: Windmill Destruction

“The fruit of all their struggles, levelled to its foundation”

• metaphor ‘fruit of all their struggles’ symbolises the hard one achievements of the animals and all the suffering they had to go through just to get the windmill built which has gone and been destroyed, crushing not only their efforts but their morale too

• passive structure ‘levelled to its foundations’ makes destruction feel inevitable removing any sense of control from the animals

• biblical undertone in ‘fruit’ may allude to fall from grace in garden of Eden, highlighting how their utopia has been corrupted

“SNOWBALL! Snowball has done this thing!”

• exclamatory tone and repetition, shows hysterical scapegoating replacing reason with emotional manipulation

• vagueness when described as ‘this thing’ details are ignored and accusations are enough to justify punishment

“In sheer malignity, thinking to set back out plans and avenge himself for his ignominious expulsion”

• ‘sheer malignity’ the adjective ‘sheer’ intensifies the ‘malignity’ portraying Snowball as entirely irrationally wicked

• ‘thinking to set back our plans’ inclusive pronouns serve to create a sense false of unity, framing Napoleons ambitions as being shared by all

• ‘ignominious expulsion’ emotive language filled with shame and disgrace to demonise Snowball and vilify his so-called actions

“And now I pronounce the death sentence upon Snowball”

• starting to oppose original ideals of Animalism, to never kill another animal

• formal tone mimics tone of a show trial, the sentence being delivered without any real investigation

“Half a bushel of apples to any animal who brings him to justice. A full bushel to anyone who captures him alive.”

• betrayal and distrust is encouraged as the animals are tempted in rewards to turn in a fellow animal

• irony in ‘bring him to justice’ when justice in this case is not about the truth but instead about loyalty to Napoleon

“The stones they had broken and carried around so laboriously scattered all around”

• verb ‘scattered’ has connotations of disorder and abandonment, diminishing their efforts

• adverb ‘laboriously’ reminds readers of the extreme effort and pain the animals had to go through

• juxtaposition ‘carried so laboriously’ vs ‘scattered’ reflects the radical loss of meaning and hope

“Unable to speak at first, the stood gazing mournfully at the litter of fallen stone”

• shows the animals are in shock and grief, simply ‘stood’ expressing their passive response as opposed to outwardly expressing their strong feelings of astonishment

• reinforces their helplessness and submission

• adverb ‘gazing mournfully’ shows the emotional pain, making evident their numbness and lack of retaliation

• ‘mourn’ for the windmill as though it was one of their comrades

• ‘litter of fallen stone diminished their efforts and how great the windmill once was, reinforcing imagery of ruin