Chapter+4

= ﻿ Chapter Four- The Battle of the Cowshed = (The October Revolution) Summary:  In Chapter 4 we find out the Animal Farm becomes known by many people across the country. There are some farms near by that are managed by two guys named Mr. Pilkington and Mr. Frederick who are worried that animalism will occur on their farm as well. When October comes, a flock of pigeons flies over the farm and lets all of the animals know that Mr. Jones is coming onto the farm with Mr. Pilkington and Mr. Frederick. A battle breaks out between the three men and all of the animals on the farm which is an example of how Russia and the west wanted to start a battle with Trotsky. Snowball thinks of a game plan which allows the animals to overpower the men. Boxer feels guilty because he killed a human during the battle, but the animals tell him that he should not be guilty because humans are enemies, according to rule number one, "Whatever goes on two legs is an enemy." Since Boxer and Snowball fought the hardest during the battle, they both received medals for their bravery. Mr. Jones' gun is discovered after the battle and the animals make the decision to fire it on October 20th, which was the Battle of the Cowshed and on the anniversary of their rebellion towards Mr. Jones.

Before the War:  ﻿Before the war, Mr. Jones was the owner of Manor farm and always had the animals do whatever work needed to be done around the farm. He could depend on the animals to get the work done, but because he treated them poorly they rebelled against him. During the Russian Revolution, the Czar depended on his army during any wars or rebellions, but after his death the army fell, and a new leader took control. This army is like the animals on the farm, because after Mr. Jones was run out of his farm, the farm in his eyes fell apart and the animals appointed new leaders.

** Parallels **

Jones did not want people to know about the rebellion and everything he suffered because of it. In Russia, Kerensky was the prime minister, but his authority had faultered much like Mr. Jones, and the people were now listening to the ideas of the animals (the Bolsheviks). Now that word was spreading about the Animal Farm rebellion, Mr. Jones failed to recieve a lot of outside support.
 * "Most of the time Mr. Jones...[complained] to anyone who [listened to] the monstrous injustice he had suffered in being turned out of his property" **

The song Beasts of England ultimately represents the idea of communism. As the song continues to be spread "across half the country," in Russia, communism also seems to be spreading across the world in many labor unions.
 * "Above all, the tune and event the words of Beasts of England were known everywhere." **

When the animals sent the pigeons out to spread the word about animal farm, this was also what the Communists were doing in Russia. The Russian Communists spread the propaganda in order to make Communism well known and in order to get support of it from many people.
 * "By the late summer the news of what had happened on Animal Farm had spread across half the country. Every day Snowball and Napoleon sent out flights of pigeons..." **

As animalism spread, the actions demonstrated by the animals also changed. In Russia, as communism spread, even the subservient began to chance their views and became much more radical.
 * "Bulls which had always been tractable suddenly turned savage, and sheep broke down hedges and devoured the clover..." **

Because of the terrible rebellion on Animal Farm, Jones and the owners of two close by farms come together to try to take back Jones's farm. It was known that "these two disliked each other so much it was difficult for them to come to any agreement" (Mr. Pilkington and Mr. Frederick), but because they both were afraid the animial rebellion would spread to their farms they decided to come together. Mr. Pilkington, the owner of a farm called Foxwood is a parallel to the leaders of England, while Mr.. Frederick, the owner of the farm Pinchfield, represents the leaders of Germany. In 1914, Germany had even declared war on France, but because both non-communist countries did not want communism to spread to their countries, they put aside their differences and come up with a plan to take Russia out.
 * "Jones and all his men, with half a dozen others from Foxwood and Pinchfield, had entered the five-barred gate and were coming up the cart-track that led to the farm." **

Snowball devised a plan to defeat Mr. Jones and the other farm owners. His plan was executed and he was acknowledged for his leadership. Leon Trotsky (Snowball) led the Bolshevik revolution, and because he was a great organizer he won the battle against the Mensheviks. Becacuse of Trotskys brilliant ideas, he was later elected President of the Saint Petersburg Soviet.
 * "The animals decided unanimously to create a military decoration, "Animal Hero, First Class," which was conferred there and then on Snowball and Boxer." **

This was a communist idea, and as the animals represented the communists, Snowball (Trotsky) wanted it to be known that all animals should be be ready to die because they would ultimately be helping the group of animals as a whole. As communists believed that actual ownership is ascribed to a community, if one animal sacrified itself, they could have an impact on the rest of the animals lives.
 * "At the graveside Snowball made a little speech, emphasising the need for all animals to be ready to be ready to die for Animal Farm if need be." **

__ The "Domino Effect" __ An example of the domino effect is how the animals on the farm wanted to spread "animalism" across the country to other farms. Old Major leads the animals to succeed in "animalism" just like Karl Marx led the spread of communism during the time of the Russian Revolution. One idea going from one place to another gives the "Domino Effect" its name because the idea of communism going from one country to another is what Karl Marx was trying do. Communism was spread all throughout parts of Korea, Vietnam, China and Cuba because people were disadvantaged by foreign interests within their countries. 

__Flag Parallels__



The Animal Farm "horn and feather" flag are a direct representation of the Communist "hammer and sickle" flag. The Hammer and Sickle stand for "unity of peasants and workers", just as the animals want unity between all animal comrades. The two tools on the communist flag stand for proletariat and peasantry, when these symboles are crossed they then represent the unity of industrial and agricultural workers. The feather and horn represent the untiy of animals, just as the animals wanted this to be the symbol of unity for all farms, so did the Soviet Union when it came to the hammer and sickle. When the horn and feather crossed it symbolised unity between those on four legs and those with wings.

 __** After The Battle **__

After the battle the Animal Farm becomes more united and stable, the animals create their own militant awards and they set their own two holidays. Animal Farm has made a repution for itself now that the farmers were defeated and it has also presumably gained respect from other farms for that fact. The massive increase in Animal Farm's involvement in government and reputation resembles Russia shortly following the revolution. Russia too became widely known and they became more involved in government, which eventually would grow into the Soviet Union.

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