Animal Farm

by George Orwell

Chapter IV

Summary

By late summer, word of the rebellion at Animal Farm has spread across the English countryside. Pigeons, dispatched by Snowball and Napoleon, carry news of the uprising to animals on neighboring farms, teaching them the tune and words of "Beasts of England." The response among animals elsewhere is electric: bulls grow restive, sheep break down hedges, and an undercurrent of revolt simmers across the region. The humans, alarmed, circulate their own counter-narratives. They claim the animals on Manor Farm are starving, diseased, and engaged in constant fighting among themselves. When these rumors prove unconvincing, darker stories emerge—tales of cannibalism and torture—which are equally disbelieved by many of the listening animals.

Two neighboring farmers watch these developments with particular anxiety. Mr. Pilkington of Foxwood, a gentleman farmer more interested in fishing and hunting than in agriculture, presides over a large but neglected estate. Mr. Frederick of Pinchfield runs a smaller, better-managed farm, but he is known for his ruthlessness, his perpetual lawsuits, and his reputation for hard dealing. Though Pilkington and Frederick are normally on poor terms, the threat of Animal Farm temporarily unites them in hostility. Neither, however, is willing to help Jones directly, and both secretly hope to profit from his misfortune.

In early October, Jones and a group of men from Foxwood and Pinchfield march on Animal Farm, armed with sticks and a gun. Snowball, who has been studying an old book on the campaigns of Julius Caesar, has anticipated this attack and prepared a detailed defense. He has organized the animals into divisions, assigned roles, and planned a strategy of staged retreats designed to lure the invaders into an ambush.

The first wave of defense consists of the pigeons and geese, who swoop at the men and peck at their legs. This initial skirmish is a feint, intended to give the impression that the animals are easily routed. When the men press forward confidently, Snowball launches the second line of attack: Muriel the goat, Benjamin the donkey, and the sheep charge from a concealed position. Again, after a brief engagement, the animals fall back as planned. The men, now laughing and certain of victory, chase them into the yard—exactly where Snowball wants them.

At Snowball's signal, the full ambush is sprung. Three horses, three cows, and the pigs emerge from the cowshed and cut off the men's retreat. Snowball leads the charge directly at Jones, who fires his gun and sends pellets grazing across Snowball's back, killing a sheep. Snowball does not falter. He throws himself at Jones, knocking him into a pile of dung. Boxer rears up on his hind legs and strikes a stable-lad from Foxwood with his iron-shod hooves, and the boy falls motionless in the mud. Panic overtakes the men. They abandon their sticks and flee through the gate, pursued by the geese who nip viciously at their calves.

The victory is total. The animals are jubilant, though Boxer is deeply troubled. He believes he has killed the stable-lad and expresses genuine remorse, saying he had no intention of taking a life. Snowball dismisses his concern, declaring that the only good human being is a dead one. Boxer remains uneasy, quietly repeating that he does not wish to kill. It soon turns out that the boy was only stunned and has crawled away during the celebration.

The animals hold a ceremony on the battlefield. A flag is raised, a gun that was found in the farmhouse is fired—once on the anniversary of the Rebellion in June and once on the anniversary of this battle. Snowball and Boxer are awarded newly created military decorations: "Animal Hero, First Class." The dead sheep is posthumously awarded "Animal Hero, Second Class." The battle is officially named the "Battle of the Cowshed," after the site of the decisive ambush.

Character Development

Chapter IV is defining for Snowball, who emerges as a capable military strategist and courageous leader. His study of Caesar's campaigns and his ability to translate theory into battlefield tactics reveal an intellectual resourcefulness that goes beyond the farm's daily governance. He is also unflinching in combat, personally engaging Jones despite being wounded, and his callous remark about dead human beings hints at an ideological rigidity that mirrors the very tyranny the animals sought to overthrow.

Boxer provides the chapter's moral counterweight. His distress at believing he has killed the stable-lad exposes a deep-seated gentleness that contrasts sharply with his enormous physical power. While Snowball rationalizes violence as a political necessity, Boxer clings to a personal ethic that values life regardless of species. This tension between Boxer's conscience and the leadership's pragmatism foreshadows the exploitation he will later suffer.

Mr. Pilkington and Mr. Frederick are sketched as distinct types of human corruption—one lazy and indifferent, the other shrewd and cruel—who represent the capitalist powers that will shadow the farm's future.

Themes and Motifs

Propaganda and counter-propaganda dominate the chapter's first half. The pigeons spreading "Beasts of England" and the humans circulating horror stories about Animal Farm mirror real-world information wars, where competing narratives shape public perception far more than facts. Neither side tells the complete truth; both manipulate to serve their interests.

The morality of revolutionary violence surfaces in the exchange between Snowball and Boxer. Snowball's maxim that "the only good human being is a dead one" echoes the dehumanizing rhetoric that revolutions often use to justify bloodshed, while Boxer's refusal to celebrate killing preserves the original humane impulse behind the rebellion. Orwell positions the reader to question whether violence, even in self-defense, corrodes the ideals it claims to protect.

The creation of military honors and ceremonies introduces the motif of institutional ritual as a tool of power. What begins as genuine celebration will, in later chapters, become a mechanism for consolidating authority and rewriting history.

Notable Passages

After Boxer strikes the stable-lad and believes he has killed him, Orwell captures the horse's anguish:

"I have no wish to take life, not even human life."

This line crystallizes Boxer's moral nature and stands in stark contrast to the increasingly utilitarian ethics of the pigs. It is one of the novel's most quietly powerful moments, revealing that Boxer's loyalty to the revolution has not erased his individual conscience.

Snowball's response is equally telling:

"War is war. The only good human being is a dead one."

This declaration marks a turning point in the revolution's rhetoric, replacing Animalism's original vision of liberation with a doctrine of total enmity. Its echo of real-world wartime slogans underscores Orwell's satirical intent.

The narrative also notes, with dry irony, the animals' decision to preserve Jones's gun as a ceremonial object:

"It was decided to set the gun up at the foot of the flagstaff, like a piece of artillery, and to fire it twice a year."

The revolutionaries adopt the very symbols of human power they once opposed, foreshadowing the gradual transformation of Animal Farm's leadership into a mirror of the regime it replaced.

Analysis

Orwell structures Chapter IV as a miniature war narrative, complete with strategic preparation, escalating action, and a decisive climax. His prose during the battle is notably brisk and cinematic—short sentences, rapid shifts in focus—recreating the chaos and speed of combat. This stands in deliberate contrast to the measured, almost bureaucratic tone of the political passages that frame the battle, reinforcing the gap between ideology and lived experience.

The chapter's allegorical framework maps onto early Soviet history. The Battle of the Cowshed parallels the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War (1918–1921), when Western powers attempted to crush the Bolshevik government. Snowball's role as military hero corresponds to Leon Trotsky, who organized the Red Army and led it to victory. The neighboring farmers represent the capitalist nations whose hostility both threatened and, paradoxically, legitimized the new regime.

Orwell also deploys dramatic irony throughout. The reader can already see seeds of future corruption in the pigs' willingness to adopt human tactics, human weapons, and human categories of honor. The military decorations, the ceremonial gun, and the official naming of the battle are not merely celebrations—they are the first steps toward the construction of a mythology that the ruling class will later exploit. Each ritual innocently established here will eventually be weaponized to silence dissent and glorify those in power.