Animal Farm
The Seven Commandments
The founder of the Seven Commandments and the one who encouraged a rebellion was Old Major. They were stated in the midst of his speech before he died. It was said that the Commandments are the basic principles of animalism. These ‘laws’ were written on the barn wall for all animals to see and read, if they could.
The original Commandments state (pg 15):
1. Whatever goes on two legs is an enemy.
2. Whatever goes on four legs four legs, or has wings, is a friend.
3. No animal shall wear clothes.
4. No animal shall sleep in a bed.
5. No animal shall drink alcohol.
6. No animal shall kill any other animal.
7. All animals are equal.
These commandments were said to be “unalterable laws” to which every animal on Animal Farm must comply to. Even so, throughout the duration of the book every one of these laws is altered or broken; right up to the end where Napoleon changes the writing on the barn door to a simple statement.
Most of the animals were for the commands as they now were all equal and they aren’t slaves to Mr Jones. There were a few exceptions, Molly and Benjamin. Molly still wanted the human luxuries she was used to, such as ribbons in her mane and molasses, Benjamin was wiser than the other animals and acted more indifferent to the situation, knowing that the system would fail.
Almost immediately after the Commandments were set in place, the cows had to be milked which brought about the first deception from the pigs and the breaking of already one commandment. At this point the Seventh Commandment was broken; “All animals are equal.” all of the cows’ milk and all the apples that had fallen off the trees were given to the pigs. To this some of the animals protested, but Squeeler took care of it and explained to them that it wasn’t a privilege but a proven science that milk and apples is necessary for pigs to conduct “brain work.” This explanation satisfied most of the animals.
The first...