NovelGuide: Animal Farm: Novel Summary: Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Chapter 7 continues Orwell's portrayal of the animals' plight. Animal Farm has seemed to have fallen on hard times. The crops are not as bountiful as before and the pigs are increasingly forced to trade with the outside world in order to get many of the supplies they need. "...Napoleon ordered the almost empty bins in the store-shed 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 Whymper was led through the store-shed 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."

As Napoleon was deceiving the neighboring farmers he was also tricking his own animals. The scapegoat was again Snowball. "Whenever anything went wrong it became usual to attribute it to Snowball." In fact many of the claims begin to sound ridiculous to the objective mind. Of course, Squealer's mission is to keep everything subjective in the minds of the animals.

The cornerstone of this chapter is the savage act of Napoleon. Bothered by their "conscious," many animals come forward saying they had been told in a dream by Snowball to murder Napoleon or a similar such act. So Napoleon, with the help of his dogs, slaughters anyone who is said to be disloyal. "...the tale of confessions and executions went on, until there was a pile of corpses lying before Napoleon's feet and the air was heavy with the smell of blood, which had been unknown there since the expulsion of Jones." To top it off, Napoleon outlaws Beasts of England, which had served as one of the only remaining ties between Animal Farm and old Major.