Animal Farm Part 4

A slaying takes place. 

Included in this episode: 
Chapter 7

Author: George Orwell

Coccidiosis: https://www.mla.com.au/research-and-development/animal-health-welfare-and-biosecurity/parasites/identification/coccidiosis/

Contact the pod on: thesolobc@gmail.com 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome back to Solo Book Club. This is Animal Farm Part 4. What happened in part three? A lot actually. We've had Napoleon drive out his only opposition, Snowball, by force, using guard dogs that he trained up from puppies. He's now decided he's leader. He's got his little sidekick squealer running around convincing everyone of the things he thinks up. And the pigs have now moved into the farmhouse, which was decided that no one would use because that is evil human things. So it's interesting the way things have gone, uh, the direction things have taken, what's happened, a death sentence has been declared upon snowball. It's really just devolving in a way that I think we all knew it would. This is part four, so if you haven't listened to the first three parts, I highly suggest going back and listening so you're up to date. Here we go. Chapter 7. It was a bitter winter. The stormy weather was followed by sleet and snow, and then by a hard frost which did not break till well into February. The animals carried on as best they could with the rebuilding of the windmill, well knowing that the outside world was watching them, that the envious human beings would rejoice and triumph if the mill were not finished on time. Out of spite, the human beings pretended not to believe that it was Snowball who had destroyed the windmill. They said it had fallen down because the walls were too thin. The animals knew that this was not the case. Still, it had been decided to build the walls three feet thick this time instead of 18 inches as before, which meant collecting much larger quantities of stone. For a long time the quarry was full of snow drifts and nothing could be done. Some progress was made in the dry, frosty weather that followed, but it was cruel work, and the animals could not feel so hopeful about it as they had felt before. They were always cold and usually hungry as well. Only Boxer and Clover never lost heart. Squiller made excellent speeches on the joy of service and the dignity of labour, but the other animals found more inspiration in Boxer's strength and his never-failing cry of I will work harder. Poor Boxer, I feel like he's just working himself into an early grave. In January, food fell short. The corn ration was drastically reduced, and it was announced that an extra potato ration would be issued to make up for it. Then it was discovered that the greater part of the potato crop had been frosted in the clamps, which had not been covered thickly enough. The potatoes had become soft and discoloured, and only a few were edible. For days at the time, the animals had nothing to eat but chaff and mangles. Starvation seemed to stare them in the face. I mean starvation at the best of times even when you're not living in a dictatorship or in an oppressive regime. Um, not great. But when you have people controlling how much you eat, even worse. And controlling how you use your energy, not a good combination. It was vitally necessary to conceal this fact from the outside world. I mean, where have we seen that before? Famine, starvation, something that's not shown to the rest of the world. Emboldened by the collapse of the windmill, the human beings were inventing fresh lies about Animal Farm. Once again it was being put about that all the animals were dying of famine and disease, that they were continually fighting among themselves and have resorted to cannibalism and infanticide. Napoleon was well aware of the bad results that might follow if the real facts of the food situation were known, and he decided to make use of Mr. Wimper to spread a contrary impression. Hitherto the animals had had little or no contact with Wimper on his weekly visits. Now, however, a few selected animals, mostly sheep, were instructed to remark casually in his hearing that rations had been increased. In addition, Napoleon ordered the almost empty bins in the storeshed to be filled nearly to the brim with sand, which was then covered up with what remained of the grain and meal. On some suitable pretext, Wimple was led through the storeshed and allowed to catch a glimpse of the bins. He was deceived and continued to report to the outside world that there was no food shortage on Animal Farm. Nevertheless, towards the end of January it became obvious that it would be necessary to procure some more grain from somewhere. In these days, Napoleon rarely appeared in public, but spent all his time in the farmhouse, which was guarded at each door by fierce-looking dogs. When he did emerge, it was in a ceremonial manner, with an escort of six dogs who closely surrounded him and growled if anyone came too near. Frequently he did not even appear on Sunday mornings but issued his orders through one of the other pigs, usually Squealer. Oh I'm just um imagining this in the real world. A pig surrounded by dogs coming out only for ceremonies. On Sunday morning, Squealer announced that the hens who had just come in to lay again must surrender their eggs. Napoleon had accepted through Wimper a contract for 400 eggs a week. The price of these would pay for enough grain and meal to keep the farm going till summer came on and conditions were easier. When the hens heard this, they raised a terrible outcry. They had been warned earlier that this sacrifice might be necessary, but had not believed that it would really happen. They were just getting their clutches ready for the spring sitting and they protested that to take the eggs away now was murder. For the first time since the expulsion of Jones, there was something resembling a rebellion. Led by three young black menorca pullets, the hens made a determined effort to thwart Napoleon's wishes. Their method was to fly up to the rafters and there lay their eggs, which smashed to pieces on the floor. Napoleon acted swiftly and ruthfully. He ordered the hens' rations to be stopped and decreed that any animal giving so much as a grain of corn to a hen should be punished by death. Bloody hell. The dogs saw to it that these orders were carried out. For five days the hens held out. Then they capitulated and went back to their nesting boxes. Nine hens had died in the meantime. Their bodies were buried in the orchard and it was given out that they had died of cochiodosis. What is cochiodosis? I'm going to look that up, be back in a sec. Okay, so it's actually pronounced coccydiosis, and basically it's I mean, if you're not familiar, it's a um intestinal parasite that kills hens. It's usually prevalent in chickens or other livestock. Wimper heard nothing of this affair and the eggs were duly delivered, a grocer's van driving up to the farm once a week to take them away. All this while no more had been seen of Snowball. He was rumoured to be hiding on one of the neighbouring farms, either Foxwood or Pinchfield. Napoleon was by this time on slightly better terms with the other farmers than before. It happened that there was in the yard a pile of timber which had been stuck there ten years earlier when a beachy spinny was cleared. It was well seasoned and Wimper had advised Napoleon to sell it. Both Mr. Pilkington and Mr. Frederick were anxious to buy it. Napoleon was hesitating between the two, unable to make up his mind. It was noticed that whenever he seemed on the point of coming to an agreement with Frederick, Snowball was declared to be hiding at Foxwood, while when he inclined towards Pilkington, Snowball was said to be at Pinchfield. Suddenly, early in the spring, an alarming thing was discovered. Snowball was secretly frequenting the farm by night. The animals were so disturbed that they could hardly sleep in their stores. Now where is this coming from? Where is this story coming from? Every night it was said he came creeping in under the cover of darkness and performed all kinds of mischief. He stole the corn, he upset the milk pails, he broke the eggs, he trampled the seed beds, he gnawed the bark off the fruit trees. Whenever anything went wrong, it became usual to attribute it to Snowball. If a window was broken or a drain was blocked up, someone was certain to say that Snowball had come in the night and done it. And when the key of the storeshed was lost, the whole farm was convinced that Snowball had thrown it down the well. Curiously enough, they went on believing this even after the mislaid key was found under a sack of meal. The cows declared unanimously that Snowball crept into their stores and milked them in their sleep. The rats, which had been troublesome that winter, were also said to be in league with Snowball. Napoleon decreed that there should be a full investigation into Snowball's activities. With his dogs in attendance he set out and made a careful tour of inspection of the farm buildings, the other animals following at a respectful distance. At every few steps Napoleon stopped and snuffed the ground for traces of snowball's footsteps, which he said he could detect by the smell. Good lord. He snuffed in every corner, in the barn, in the cow shed, in the hen houses, in the vegetable garden, and found traces of snowball almost everywhere. Bloody hell. His superpower seems to be to smell snowball. He would put his snout to the ground, give several deep sniffs, and exclaim in a terrible voice, Snowball! He has been here, I can smell him distinctly. And at the word snowball, all the dogs let out blood curdling growls and showed their side teeth. The animals were thoroughly frightened. It seemed to them as though Snowball was some kind of invisible influence, pervading the air about them and menacing them with all kinds of danger. Well that's what you're being led to believe. As we know, the scariest thing is when you can't see the thing, is when it's all in your mind. In the evening, Squealer called them together and with an alarmed expression on his face told them that he had some serious news to report. Comrades, cried Squealer, making little nervous skips. A most terrible thing has been discovered. Snowball has sold himself to Frederick of Pinchfield Farm, who is even now plotting to attack us and take our farm away from us. Snowball is to act as his guide when the attack begins, but there is worse than that. We thought that Snowball's rebellion was caused simply by his vanity and ambition, but we were wrong, comrades. Do you know what the real reason was? Snowball was in league with Jones from the very start. He was Jones' secret agent all the time. It has all been proved by documents which he left behind and which we've only just discovered. To my mind, this explains a great deal, comrades. Did we not see for ourselves how he attempted, fortunately without success, to get us defeated and destroyed at the Battle of the Cowshed? The animals were stupefied. This was a wickedness for outdoing Snowball's destruction of the windmill, but it was some minutes before they could fully take it in. They all remembered, or thought they remembered, how they'd seen Snowball charging ahead of them at the Battle of the Cowshed, how he had rallied and encouraged them at every turn, and how he had not paused for an instant, even when the pellets from Jones' gun had wounded his back. At first it was a little difficult to see how this fitted in with his being on Jones' side. Even Boxer, who seldom asked questions, was puzzled. He lay down, tucked his four hoofs beneath him, shut his eyes, and with a hard effort managed to formulate his thoughts. I do not believe that, he said. Snowball fought bravely at the paddle of the cowshed. I saw him myself. Did we not give him Animal Hero First Class immediately afterwards? That was our mistake, comrade, for we know now it is all written down in the secret documents that we have found, that in reality he was trying to lure us to our doom. Yes, secret documents, sure. But he was wounded, said Boxer. We all saw him running with blood. That was part of the arrangement, cried Squealer. Joan shot only grazed him. I could show you this in his own writing if you were able to read it. The plot was for Snowball at the creak or moment to give the signal for flight and leave the field to the enemy. And he very nearly succeeded. I will even say, comrades, he would have succeeded if it had not been for our heroic leader, Comrade Napoleon. Do you not remember how, just at the moment when Jones and his men had gone inside the yard, Snowball suddenly turned and fled, and many animals followed him? And do you not remember too, that it was just at that moment when panic was spreading and all seemed lost that Comrade Napoleon sprung forward with a cry of death to humanity and sank his teeth into Jones' leg. Surely you remember that, comrades, exclaimed Squealer, frisking from side to side. Now when Squealer described the scene so graphically, it seemed to the animals that they did remember it. At any rate, they remembered that at the critical moment of the battle Snowball had turned to flee, but Boxer was still a little uneasy. I do not believe that Snowball was a traitor at the beginning, he said finally, but what he has done since is different. But I believe that at the Battle of the Cowshed he was a good comrade. Our leader, Comrade Napoleon, announced Squealer, speaking very slowly and firmly, has stated categorically, categorically, comrade, that Snowball was Jones' agent from the very beginning. Yes, and from long before the rebellion was ever thought of. Ah, that is different, said Boxer. If Comrade Napoleon says it, it must be right. My god, the proper gander. That is the true spirit, comrade, cried Squealer, but it was noticed he cast a very ugly look at Boxer with his little twinkling eyes. He turned to go, then paused and added impressively, I warn every animal on this farm to keep his eyes wide open, for we have reason to think that some of Snowball's secret agents are lurking among us at this very moment. Isn't that interesting? Squill is really setting things up for if anyone else steps out of line, if anyone questions the narrative, all of a sudden they are secret agents of snowballs. I mean, just they're setting it up so precisely and clearly, but when you're in it, when you're being convinced, when you're being bombarded with information, both false and correct, I mean it's hard to separate the two in your mind when you're in that moment, when you're living it. I mean, us sitting here reading it, we can see it so clearly. We know what's going to happen. But when you're living it, I imagine it to be a lot harder. Four days later in the late afternoon, Napoleon ordered all the animals to assemble in the yard. When they were all gathered together, Napoleon emerged from the farmhouse wearing both his medals. For he had recently awarded himself Animal Hero First Class and Animal Hero Second Class, of course he has. With his nine huge dogs frisking round him and uttering growls that sent shivers down all the animals' spines. They all cowered silently in their places, seeming to know in advance that some terrible thing was about to happen. Napoleon stood sternly surveying his audience. Then he uttered a high-pitched whimper. Immediately the dogs bounded forward, seized four of the pigs by the ear, and dragged them, squealing with pain and terror, to Napoleon's feet. What is going on? The pigs' ears were bleeding. The dogs had tasted blood, and for a few moments they appeared to go quite mad. To the amazement of everybody, three of them flung themselves upon Boxer. Boxer saw them coming and put out his great hoof, caught a dog in midair and pinned him to the ground. The dog shrieked for mercy and the other two fled with their tails between their legs. Good on you, Boxer. Boxer looked at Napoleon to know whether he should crush the dog to death or let it go. Napoleon appeared to change countenance and sharply ordered Boxer to let the dog go, whereat Boxer lifted his foot and the dog slunk away, bruised and howling. Presently the tumult died down. The four pigs waited, trembling with guilt written on every line of their countenances. Napoleon now called upon them to confess their crimes. They were the same four pigs as had protested when Napoleon abolished the Sunday meetings. Without any further prompting, they confessed that they had been secretly in touch with Snowball ever since his expulsion, that they had collaborated with him in destroying the windmill, and that they had entered into an agreement with him to hand over Animal Farm to Mr. Frederick. They added that Snowball had privately admitted to them that he had been Jones' secret agent for years past. When they had finished their confession, the dogs promptly tore their throats out, and in a terrible voice, Napoleon demanded whether any other animal had anything to confess. But he held, did he convince these pigs to confess to something that they didn't do? Oh my god, this is proper devolving. The three hens who had been the ringleaders in the attempted rebellion over the eggs now came forward, stated that Napoleon had appeared to them in a dream and incited them to disobey Napoleon's orders. They too were slaughtered. Then a goose came forward and confessed to having secreted six ears of corn during the last year's harvest, eaten them in the night. Then a sheep confessed to having urinated in the drinking pool, urged to do this, so she said by Snowball, and two other sheep confessed to having murdered an old ram, an especially devout follower of Napoleon, by chasing him round and round a bonfire when he was suffering from a cough. They were all slain on the spot. And so the tale of confessions and executions went on, till there was a pile of corpses lying before Napoleon's feet. The air was heavy with the smell of blood, which had been unknown there since the expulsion of Jones. And my question is, how many animals do you need to kill until there are no animals left on Animal Farm? I guess we're about to find out. When it was all over, the remaining animals, except for the pigs and dogs, crept away in a body. They were shaken and miserable. They did not know which was more shocking, the treachery of the animals who had leagued themselves with Snowball, or the cruel retribution they had just witnessed. In the old days, there had often been scenes of bloodshed, equally terrible, but it seemed to all of them that it was far worse now that it was happening among themselves. Since Jones had left the farm until today, no animal had killed another animal, not even a rat had been killed. And of course, yes, that was part of the seven commandments. No animal shall kill another animal. And buddy Napoleon is just he isn't attending to any of the seven commandments. They had made their way onto the little knoll where the half-finished windmill stood, and with one accord they all lay down as though huddling together for warmth. Clover, Muriel, Benjamin, the cows, the sheep, and a whole flock of geese and hens, everyone indeed except the cat, who had suddenly disappeared just before Napoleon ordered the animals to assemble. For some time nobody spoke, only Boxer remained on his feet. He fidgeted to and fro, swishing his long black tail against his sides and occasionally uttering a little whinny of surprise. Finally he said, I do not understand it. I would not have believed that such things could happen on our farm. It must be due to some fault in ourselves. The solution, as I see it, is to work harder. From now onwards I shall get up a full hour earlier in the mornings. Oh, boxer. And he moved off at his lumbering trot and made for the quarry. Having got there, he collected two successive loads of stone and dragged them down to the windmill before retiring for the night. The animals huddled about clover, not speaking. The knoll where they were lying gave them a wide prospect across the countryside. Most of Animal Farm was within their view. The long pasture stretching down to the main road, the hayfield, the spinny, the drinking pool, the ploughed fields where the young wheat was thick and green, and the red roofs of the farm buildings with the smoke curling from the chimneys. It was a clear spring evening. The grass and the bursting hedges were gilded by the level rays of the sun. Never had the farm, and with a kind of surprise, they remembered that it was their own farm, every inch of it, their own property, appeared to the animals so desirable a place. As Clover looked down the hillside, her eyes filled with tears. If she could have spoken her thoughts, it would have been to say that this was not what they had aimed at when they had set themselves years ago to work for the overthrow of the human race. These scenes of terror and slaughter were not what they had looked forward to on that night when old Major first stirred them to rebellion. If she herself had had any picture of the future, it had been of a society of animals set free from hunger and the whip, all equal, each working according to his capacity, the strong protecting the Weak as she had protected the lost brood of ducklings with her foreleg on the night of Major's speech. Instead, she did not know why. They had come to a time when no one dared speak his mind, when fierce, growling dogs roamed everywhere, and when you had to watch your comrades torn to pieces after confessing to shocking crimes. There was no thought of rebellion or disobedience in her mind. She knew that even as things were, they were far better off than they had been in the days of Jones, and that before all else it was needful to prevent the return of the human beings. Whatever happened, she would remain faithful, work hard, carry out the orders that were given to her, and accept the leadership of Napoleon. But still, it was not for this that she and all the other animals had hoped and toiled. It was not for this that they had built the windmill and faced the pellets of Jones's gun. Such were her thoughts, though she lacked the words to express them. At last, feeling this to be in some way a substitute for the words she was unable to find, she began to sing Beasts of England. The other animals sitting round her took it up and they sang it three times over, very tunefully but slowly and mournfully, in a way they had never sung it before. They had just finished singing it for the third time when Squealer, attended by two dogs, approached them with the air of having something important to say. He announced that by a special decree of Comrade Napoleon, Beasts of England had been abolished. From now onwards it was forbidden to sing it. The animals were taken aback. Well of course, because the song incites rebellion, but now they would be rebelling against Napoleon. Oh the crafty bugger. Why? cried Muriel. It is no longer needed, comrades, said Squealer stiffly. Beast of England was the song of rebellion, but the rebellion is now completed. The execution of the traitors this afternoon was the final act. The enemy, both external and internal, has been defeated. In Beast of England we expressed our longing for a better society in days to come. But that society has now been established. Clearly this song has no longer any purpose. Frightened though they were, some of the animals might possibly have protested. But at this moment the sheep set up their usual bleating of four legs good, two legs bad, which went on for several minutes and put an end to the discussion. So Beasts of England was heard no more. In its place, Minimus, the poet, had composed another song which began, Animal farm, animal farm, never through me shalt thou come to harm. This was sung every Sunday morning after the hoisting of the flag, but somehow neither the words nor the tune ever seemed to the animals to come up to the beasts of England. Chapter 7. I mean, oh Lord. So we've had a killing, we've had brutal slayings of any animal who came up and said, you know what? I've been in cahoots with Snowball, which they probably haven't because Snowball's gone. Snowball hasn't been around the farm. Like they have been forced to confess something that never happened and were killed for it. There were scapegoats. They were made an example of and it cost them their lives. And it's just so demoralizing to see what started as something to remove them from the oppression of the humans. They now find themselves under the oppression of Napoleon. They're not allowed to sing their rebellion song because they'd be rebelling against Napoleon. Their friends have been killed, their loved ones have been killed. I mean, it's just oh heartbreaking to see it happening, to know that this was the direction it was going. And now they're under the tyranny of Napoleon. Instead of the tyranny of drones, where they at the very least got fed, where they at the very least had somewhere warm to sleep, they at the very least their lives weren't constantly at risk. Now they're in an even more oppressive state where they're forced to work, their rations are even less. And they now, I believe, can't remember what it was like when Jones was the farmer. They can't remember what it was like when Napoleon wasn't there, when they didn't have someone whispering lies into their ears constantly and telling them, no, it's this way, it's this way, it's this way. I mean, if you tell yourself something often enough, you will start to believe it. Oh, that was that was a tough chapter to read. Um, let's leave it there for for this week. Next week, chapter eight, we'll see what happens next. Um, I think there will probably only be two more parts to go uh in the reading of the book, and then we'll have our discussion episode, which I feel like there's a lot to really sink our teeth into here. Yes, and then we would decide on our next book. All right, we'll leave it there for this week. See you next time.