Chapters 4-6: Napoleon's Rise
The Power Struggle: Napoleon vs Snowball
Chapters 4–6 chart Napoleon’s rise to sole power. The central conflict is between Napoleon and Snowball — paralleling the Stalin-Trotsky struggle. Snowball is the intellectual: he designs the windmill, organises committees and debates policy openly. Napoleon is the operator: he says little in public, works behind the scenes and has been secretly training the puppies taken from their mothers in Chapter 3.
Napoleon seizes power by unleashing the dogs (secret police) on Snowball during a meeting, driving him off the farm. He then abolishes debates, creates a committee of pigs to make decisions, and claims the windmill was his idea all along. This parallels Stalin’s exile of Trotsky, his centralisation of power, and his appropriation of Trotsky’s policies after removing him.
The moment Napoleon unleashes the dogs is the novella’s political turning point. Nine enormous dogs, wearing brass-studded collars, chase Snowball off the farm. There is no trial, no vote, no justification until afterwards. This parallels Stalin’s use of the NKVD to eliminate opponents. Violence replaces debate as the mechanism of power.
The Windmill Debate
The windmill debate is crucial. Snowball argues it will reduce the animals’ workload; Napoleon opposes it. After expelling Snowball, Napoleon reverses his position and claims the windmill was always his idea — Squealer explains that Napoleon’s apparent opposition was “tactics.” This Orwellian rewriting of history is one of the novella’s most chilling techniques: the pigs control the past as well as the present.
After Snowball’s expulsion, Squealer works overtime. He tells the animals that Snowball was always a traitor, that he was secretly working with Jones, and that Napoleon’s bravery won the Battle of the Cowshed. The animals are confused but lack the confidence to argue. Boxer ends one such argument in Chapter 7 with “If Comrade Napoleon says it, it must be right.” Orwell shows how propaganda works not by convincing people but by confusing them — making them doubt their own memories. This technique, later elaborated in Nineteen Eighty-Four, is one of Orwell’s most enduring insights.
“Napoleon Is Always Right”
Boxer adopts a second motto: “Napoleon is always right.” This is devastating because Boxer is the most admirable character — strong, honest, hardworking and loyal. His unquestioning devotion to Napoleon shows how cult of personality works: it exploits the best qualities in people (trust, loyalty, willingness to sacrifice) for the worst purposes. Boxer’s loyalty will ultimately kill him.
Boxer’s motto shows how totalitarian regimes exploit loyalty. The most hardworking, honest citizens are the most vulnerable because their trust is genuine. Boxer does not question Napoleon because he cannot imagine that someone he trusts would betray him. Orwell shows that the strength of totalitarianism lies not in the tyrant’s power but in the people’s willingness to believe.
The Commandments Begin to Change
In Chapter 6, the pigs move into the farmhouse and sleep in beds. When the other animals check the commandments, they find “No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets.” The addition is Orwell’s satirical masterstroke: the commandments are being rewritten, but so subtly that the animals cannot be sure they are wrong. Their inability to read well enough to challenge the changes mirrors how uneducated populations are vulnerable to manipulation.
The farmhouse represents the privileges of the ruling class. Jones lived there; now the pigs do. By moving into the farmhouse, the pigs have literally taken Jones’s place. The beds represent comfort and luxury that the working animals are denied. Orwell uses the farmhouse to show that the revolution has not created equality — it has simply replaced one set of rulers with another. The physical space of power has not changed; only its occupants have.
These chapters also introduce Napoleon’s trading with neighbouring farms (paralleling the USSR’s economic dealings with capitalist nations) and the rewriting of history regarding the Battle of the Cowshed, where Snowball’s heroism is gradually erased and Napoleon’s role is inflated. Orwell shows that controlling the narrative of the past is essential to maintaining power in the present.
(1) Expels Snowball using the dogs (force). (2) Abolishes debates and creates a committee of pigs (centralisation). (3) Claims the windmill was his idea and rewrites Battle of the Cowshed history (propaganda). Force + centralisation + propaganda = totalitarian control.