Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:
It was just after the sheep had returned, on a pleasant evening when the animals had
finished work and were making their way back to the farm buildings, that the terrified
neighing of a horse sounded from the yard. Startled, the animals stopped in their tracks.
(i) From where did the sheep return? Under whose supervision were they? What were they
taught while they were in this place?
(ii) Whose voice was it that startled the animals? What did the horse see that caused it to neigh in terror?
(iii) How did the animals react to this sight at first? Why were they not able to protest?
(iv) Why did Clover lead Benjamin gently to the end of the barn immediately after this? What did they find written on the wall?
(v) What strange and disturbing change did the animals observe in the pigs when they peered in at the dining room window later that evening?
Comment on the irony of the situation.
Show SolutionHide Solution↓
(i)
- The sheep returned from a piece of waste ground at the other end of the farm/ overgrown with birch saplings.
- Squealer supervised them.
- They were taught to sing – ‘four legs good, two legs better’.
(ii)
- Clover’s voice.
- The sight of Squealer walking on hind legs. / After that, there came a long file of pigs also walking on their hind legs.
Finally, Napoleon – walking upright majestically and carrying a whip.
(iii)
- At first there was a deadly silence. Amazed/ terrified/ huddling together, / the animals watched in silent bewilderment.
- Before they could utter some word of protest, the sheep burst into a tremendous bleating of – ‘four legs good, two legs better’. It went on or five minutes without stopping;
The chance to utter any protest had passed as the pigs had marched back into the Farmhouse.
(iv)
- Clover wanted Benjamin to read the Seven Commandments and tell her if they were the same as they had always been.
- ‘All animals are equal, / but some animals are more equal than others’ / was written there where the Seven Commandments had stood.
(v)
- The faces of the pigs seemed to be melting and changing.The animals could not distinguish between pig and man.The difference had blurred it was impossible to say which was which.
- The irony lies in the fact that the pigs had spearheaded the rebellion to liberate the farm animals from human tyranny – they had now become tyrants themselves – They even looked like the humans they had overthrown. Things had come full circle nothing had really changed for the animals on the farm.