Education and ignorance

Why knowledge matters to freedom

In Animal Farm, education is not simply about learning the alphabet. It affects whether the animals can understand their rights, check what their leaders tell them and express objections. The Rebellion promises equality, but the animals do not have equal access to knowledge. Those who control written information increasingly control everyone else.

Orwell distinguishes literacy from independent judgement. Reading can help an animal discover a lie, but it does not guarantee the courage or willingness to challenge it. Conversely, Clover cannot read sentences, yet she recognises that the farm has betrayed its original hopes. The theme therefore raises a larger question: what must ordinary members of a society know and do to protect their freedom?

The beginning: knowledge gives the pigs authority

Before the Rebellion, the narrator explains in Chapter II that teaching falls to “the pigs, who were generally recognised as being the cleverest of the animals”. The phrase “generally recognised” establishes that the other animals accept their intellectual authority. Their leadership initially seems useful: they explain Animalism and help the animals imagine an alternative to Jones’s rule. However, accepting teachers is not the same as holding future rulers accountable.

After the Rebellion, the narrator reveals in Chapter II that “they had taught themselves to read and write from an old spelling book”. The discarded book gives the pigs access to a skill previously associated with humans. Education can therefore be liberating: knowledge recovered from the old society helps the animals create a new one.

Yet the pigs also become the authors and interpreters of its laws. Snowball writes the Seven Commandments and reads them aloud. The writing is publicly visible, but visibility is not enough if most animals cannot read it independently. Their supposed shared law already depends on a small group’s explanations.

This imbalance does not mean that the other animals have no useful knowledge. The horses understand mowing and raking better than Jones and his men. Orwell contrasts practical expertise with the literacy that gives the pigs political authority: being skilled at producing food does not give the workers control over how it is distributed.

Snowball’s classes: improvement with important limits

In Chapter III, Snowball organises reading and writing classes. The narrator announces, “By the autumn almost every animal on the farm was literate in some degree.” The opening sounds like an achievement, but “in some degree” qualifies it. The following account shows that knowing a few letters is very different from reading a law or assessing a document.

The narrator states in Chapter III, “Clover learnt the whole alphabet, but could not put words together.” The contrast created by “but” separates effort and partial achievement from usable literacy. Boxer struggles repeatedly and cannot get beyond D. His difficulty is not laziness: he tries hard, just as he works hard. By contrast, Mollie learns only the letters of her own name, making education serve vanity rather than shared responsibility.

The narrator adds in Chapter III, “None of the other animals on the farm could get further than the letter A.” Read in its place after the individual examples, “other animals” refers to those not already discussed; it does not include literate animals such as Muriel and Benjamin. The contrast between the optimistic announcement and these limitations makes the success of the classes look incomplete.

Snowball reduces the Commandments to a slogan that the less capable animals can remember. This can be read sympathetically as an attempt to make political ideas accessible. However, memorising a slogan is not the same as understanding principles. The sheep later repeat it to drown out debate.

The same tension appears when Snowball explains why birds belong with four-legged animals. The narrator observes in Chapter III that “The birds did not understand Snowball’s long words” and then that “they accepted his explanation”. His technical vocabulary produces acceptance without comprehension. One reading is that Snowball is helping them belong to the new society; another is that even his teaching encourages dependence on an educated leader. The classes support the more generous reading of his intentions, but the birds’ response exposes a weakness in his method.

Napoleon turns education into obedience

Snowball’s public classes contrast with Napoleon’s private treatment of the puppies. In Chapter III, the narrator reports Napoleon’s claim that “the education of the young was more important than anything that could be done for those who were already grown up”. Taken alone, this sounds like concern for the future. Napoleon then removes the puppies from their mothers and raises them in isolation.

Their return as the dogs that expel Snowball in Chapter V reveals what this education has achieved: loyalty to Napoleon rather than independent understanding. The delayed revelation changes the reader’s interpretation of his earlier claim. Education has become indoctrination, preparing animals to enforce one ruler’s will.

Later, in Chapter IX, Napoleon teaches the young pigs himself, and they are discouraged from playing with other young animals. A schoolhouse is built for them while the workers face hunger and exhaustion. Education now helps reproduce a privileged ruling group rather than overcome inequality.

The middle: who can check the truth?

Clover repeatedly tries to check the Commandments. In Chapter VI, disturbed by the pigs sleeping in beds, she asks Muriel to read the relevant rule. In Chapter VIII, after the executions, she first asks Benjamin to read the rule against killing. He refuses, so she turns to Muriel again. Clover is not simply passive: she notices contradictions and seeks evidence. Her difficulty is that she cannot compare the current writing with a reliable record of the original.

Muriel’s literacy is useful but limited as a safeguard. She can read what is now on the wall; this does not prove that it has always been there. The animals accept altered rules because they distrust their memories more than the written authority controlled by the pigs.

Benjamin presents a different problem. He can read as well as the pigs, but usually refuses to become involved. In Chapter VIII, he appears to understand the significance of Squealer being found beside the wall with paint and a broken ladder, yet says nothing. His silence suggests that knowledge without action can leave injustice undisturbed.

Squealer exploits unequal literacy directly when he tells Boxer in Chapter VII, “I could show you this in his own writing, if you were able to read it.” He claims that documents prove Snowball’s treachery. The conditional “if” makes verification depend on a skill Boxer lacks, while “his own writing” gives the accusation an appearance of authority. Readers remember Snowball’s bravery and can recognise the distortion that Boxer struggles to resist. This dramatic irony makes the consequences of dependence painfully clear.

Memory also becomes a source of vulnerability. In Chapter VIII, the narrator explains that “they could no longer remember very clearly what conditions had been like before the Rebellion”. Without a trustworthy comparison, Squealer’s figures can persuade them that life has improved despite their hunger. The pigs control not only present explanations but increasingly the animals’ understanding of the past.

The end: ignorance survives into another generation

In Chapter IX, Benjamin finally uses his reading to expose the lettering on the van taking Boxer away. Muriel begins spelling it out, but Benjamin reads it and identifies the danger. Literacy allows the animals to understand what is happening, yet their attempt to save Boxer comes too late. This moment sharply contrasts with Benjamin’s earlier refusals to intervene.

By Chapter X, the new horses have inherited the same vulnerability. The narrator states, “None of them proved able to learn the alphabet beyond the letter B.” They accept accounts of the Rebellion without understanding much of them. Structurally, this echoes the early account of limited literacy: years have passed, but the workers have not gained the knowledge needed to scrutinise their rulers.

The narrator also reports in Chapter X, “Much of this work was of a kind that the other animals were too ignorant to understand.” This follows Squealer’s explanations of the pigs’ administrative work. Mysterious paperwork helps justify privileges that the workers cannot assess. The surrounding account undercuts those justifications by reminding readers that pigs and dogs produce no food themselves.

At the end, Clover again needs Benjamin to read the wall. He reveals that the original Commandments have been replaced by a single statement legitimising inequality. Their inability to protect the written law has helped turn shared principles into an instrument of domination.

A warning about responsibility, not a rejection of education

Animal Farm, published in 1945, is a political allegory drawing on the Russian Revolution and the development of Soviet dictatorship. Education matters to that allegory because a ruling minority can present itself as the only group qualified to understand and direct society.

In his December 1946 letter to Dwight Macdonald, Orwell explained that revolutions improve ordinary people’s lives only when the people remain alert and can remove leaders who have completed their task. He identified the pigs keeping the milk and apples as the turning point. This connects closely to Chapter III: the animals accept a claim about the pigs’ special intellectual needs instead of challenging unequal treatment early.

One interpretation places responsibility on the animals for surrendering judgement. Benjamin’s silence and Boxer’s acceptance of Napoleon support this view. Another stresses their exploitation: Boxer makes a genuine effort to learn, Clover repeatedly investigates, and intimidation makes resistance dangerous. Their limited education is a vulnerability the pigs exploit, not evidence that they deserve oppression.

The strongest conclusion brings these readings together. Orwell criticises deliberate manipulation while warning that good intentions, hard work and even literacy are insufficient without critical judgement and collective action. The failure of this revolution need not mean that all efforts to create equality must fail; it shows what happens when leaders cease to be accountable.

Turning a quotation into an argument

OCR’s modern-text question has two related parts, worth 20 marks each. Part (a) compares the printed Animal Farm extract with an unseen prose extract. It focuses on the two passages, including relevant social and cultural situations inferred from their details and introductions. AO1 and AO3 are equally dominant, each weighted twice as heavily as AO2. Part (b) asks about another moment in the studied text: AO1 and AO2 are equally weighted, with no AO3 marks.

For Part (b), a useful argument moves from an interpretation to precise evidence, then explains how Orwell’s choices develop it. A short quotation gives you room to analyse rather than retell events.

Worked paragraph — Part (b)

Orwell presents limited literacy as a weakness that political authority deliberately exploits. In Chapter VII, Squealer tells Boxer, “I could show you this in his own writing, if you were able to read it.” The conditional “if” makes access to supposedly decisive evidence depend on a skill Boxer lacks, leaving Squealer in control of its interpretation. His appeal to “his own writing” makes the accusation against Snowball appear verifiable while preventing Boxer from testing it. Because readers have already witnessed Snowball’s bravery in Chapter IV, the later rewriting of that event creates dramatic irony: we recognise the falsehood that Boxer is pressured to accept. Orwell therefore shows that loyalty becomes dangerous when a worker must rely on his rulers to explain the evidence against their opponents.

The paragraph links language, the order of events and the theme to one argument. A different valid response could place greater emphasis on Boxer’s trust in Napoleon, provided it explains how that trust helps Squealer overcome Boxer’s remembered experience.

Central argument

Unequal education lets the pigs control laws, evidence and memory. Literacy helps expose lies, but independent judgement and action are also necessary.

Beginning → middle → end

• Chapter II: the pigs teach themselves to read and write, then write and interpret the Commandments.
• Chapter III: Snowball’s classes offer improvement, but literacy remains uneven. Clover knows letters, Boxer reaches D, and many others reach only A. Napoleon isolates the puppies.
• Chapters VI–VIII: Clover checks rules through Muriel; Benjamin usually refuses to help. Squealer claims written proof and undermines memory.
• Chapter IX: Benjamin reads the van’s lettering, but the warning comes too late to save Boxer. Young pigs receive separate education.
• Chapter X: the new horses reach only B. Ignorance and dependence continue into another generation.