ANIMAL FARM
3
Moses, the tame raven: Ravens are not traditionally ‘tame’, but Moses is Jones’s ‘pet’. Moses here represents the Russian Orthodox Church, and his name is a reference to the Old Testament figure who gave the Israelites the Ten Commandments.
3 Comrades: The term literally means ‘colleague’ or ‘fellow’ but was adopted by 19th-century revolutionaries as an egalitarian form of address; it is widely associated with Socialism and Communism. 3 stall: individual, partitioned area for each animal in a barn or stable 4
the order of Nature: i.e. a kind of Natural law
4
too weak to pull the plough: Old Major highlights man’s reliance on animals for producing food.
4 tills: breaking up and turning over soil in the field, to prepare it for sowing new crops 5
confinements: final period of pregnancy with labour and subsequent recovery
5 porkers: young pigs raised and fattened for food 5
at the block: i.e. the butcher’s block (to be slaughtered)
5
the knacker: person who collects and disposes of animal carcasses and boils them down for fat, etc.
5
boil you down for the foxhounds: Horsemeat was often given to hunting dogs (foxhounds).
6
have a common interest: share the same motives
6 hindquarters: back legs 6 trotter: pig’s foot 7 dissentients: dissenters, those who opposed the majority 7
your duty of enmity: Old Major means the animals have a ‘duty’ (i.e. of loyalty to each other) to always be against man, the enemy.
7
All animals are equal: Egalitarianism (the belief that all humans are equal) as a revolutionary ideal was developed during the European ‘Enlightenment’ period (c.1688–1815) and is reflected in the American Declaration of Independence of 1776.
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