Chapters 7 and 8 — AQA GCSE English Literature 8702
AQA GCSE English Literature · 8702
Chapters 7 and 8
The plot, part by part
What you need to know
The hard winter, the hens' revolt, the confessions and executions, Beasts of England banned, the changing Commandments,
the timber sold to Frederick, the Battle of the Windmill and the whisky.
Key quotations: 'Napoleon acted swiftly and ruthlessly.', 'Nine hens had died in the meantime.', 'it became usual to attribute it to Snowball', 'Snowball was in league with Jones from the very start!', 'the dogs promptly tore their throats out', 'They were all slain on the spot.', 'a pile of corpses lying before Napoleon's feet', 'Beasts of England had been abolished', 'Animal Farm, Animal Farm, / Never through me shalt thou come to harm!', 'No animal shall kill any other animal without cause', 'The bank-notes were forgeries!', 'all the animals, except Napoleon, flung themselves flat on their bellies', 'Then we have won back what we had before', 'No animal shall drink alcohol to excess'.
Clover on the knoll after the executions: the narrator puts into words the thoughts she cannot express.
Context: the purges and show trials of the 1930s, the pact with Hitler as Frederick's forged notes, and the German invasion as the Battle of the Windmill.