The Old Man and The Sea: DAY 05

Summary

Early the next morning, Manolin comes to the old man’s shack, and the sight of his friend’s ravaged hands brings him to tears. He goes to fetch coffee. Fishermen have gathered around Santiago’s boat and measured the carcass at eighteen feet. Manolin waits for the old man to wake up, keeping his coffee warm for him so it is ready right away. When the old man wakes, he and Manolin talk warmly. Santiago says that the sharks beat him, and Manolin insists that he will work with the old man again, regardless of what his parents say. He reveals that there had been a search for Santiago involving the coast guard and planes. Santiago is happy to have someone to talk to, and after he and Manolin make plans, the old man sleeps again. Manolin leaves to find food and the newspapers for the old man, and to tell Pedrico that the marlin’s head is his. That afternoon two tourists at the terrace café mistake the great skeleton for that of a shark. Manolin continues to watch over the old man as he sleeps and dreams of the lions.

Analysis

Given the depth of Santiago’s tragedy most likely Santiago will never have the opportunity to catch another such fish in his lifetime.The Old Man and the Sea ends on a rather optimistic note. Santiago is reunited with Manolin, who desperately wants to complete his training. All of the old man’s noble qualities and, more important, the lessons he draws from his experience, will be passed on to the boy, which means that the fisherman’s life will continue on, in some form, even after his death. The promise of triumph and regeneration is supported by the closing image of the book. For the third time, Santiago returns to his dream of the lions at play on the African beaches. As an image that recalls the old man’s youth, the lions suggest the circularity of life. They also suggest the harmony the lions are, after all, playing that exists between the opposing forces of nature.

The hope that Santiago clings to at the novella’s close is not the hope that comes from naïveté. It is, rather, a hope that comes from experience, of something new emerging from something old, as a phoenix rises out of the ashes. The novella states as much when Santiago reflects that “a man can be destroyed but not defeated.” The destruction of the marlin is not a defeat for Santiago; rather, it leads to his redemption. Indeed, the fishermen who once mocked him now stand in awe of him. The decimation of the marlin, of course, is a significant loss. The sharks strip Santiago of his greater glory as surely as they strip the great fish of its flesh. But to view the shark attack as precipitating only loss is to see but half the picture. When Santiago says, “Fishing kills me exactly as it keeps me alive,” he is pointing, once again, to the vast, necessary, and ever-shifting tension that exists between loss and gain, triumph and defeat, life and death.

In the final pages of the novella, Hemingway employs a number of images that link Santiago to Christ, the model of transcendence, who turned loss into gain, defeat into triumph, and even death into new life. Hemingway unabashedly paints the old man as a crucified martyr: as soon as the sharks arrive, the narrator comments that the noise Santiago made resembled the noise one would make “feeling the nail go through his hands and into the wood.” The narrator’s description of Santiago’s return to town also recalls the crucifixion. As the old man struggles up the hill with his mast across his shoulders, the reader cannot help but recall Christ’s march toward Calvary. Even the position in which he collapses on his bed—he sleeps facedown on the newspapers with his arms out straight and the palms of his hands up—brings to mind the image of Christ suffering on the cross.

Source: http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/oldman/section5.rhtml

The Old Man and The Sea: DAY 04

Summary

The marlin wakes Santiago by jerking the line. The fish jumps out of the water again and again, and Santiago is thrown into the bow of the skiff, facedown in his dolphin meat. The line feeds out fast, and the old man brakes against it with his back and hands. His left hand, especially, is badly cut. Santiago wishes that the boy were with him to wet the coils of the line, which would lessen the friction.

The old man wipes the crushed dolphin meat off his face, fearing that it will make him nauseated and he will lose his strength. Looking at his damaged hand, he reflects that “pain does not matter to a man.” He eats the second flying fish in hopes of building up his strength. As the sun rises, the marlin begins to circle. For hours the old man fights the circling fish for every inch of line, slowly pulling it in. He feels faint and dizzy and sees black spots before his eyes. The fish riots against the line, battering the boat with its spear. When it passes under the boat, Santiago cannot believe its size. As the marlin continues to circle, Santiago adds enough pressure to the line to bring the fish closer and closer to the skiff. The old man thinks that the fish is killing him, and admires him for it, saying, “I do not care who kills who.” Eventually, he pulls the fish onto its side by the boat and plunges his harpoon into it. The fish lurches out of the water, brilliantly and beautifully alive as it dies. When it falls back into the water, its blood stains the waves.

The old man pulls the skiff up alongside the fish and fastens the fish to the side of the boat. He thinks about how much money he will be able to make from such a big fish, and he imagines that DiMaggio would be proud of him. Santiago’s hands are so cut up that they resemble raw meat. With the mast up and the sail drawn, man, fish, and boat head for land. In his light-headed state, the old man finds himself wondering for a moment if he is bringing the fish in or vice versa. He shakes some shrimp from a patch of gulf weed and eats them raw. He watches the marlin carefully as the ship sails on. The old man’s wounds remind him that his battle with the marlin was real and not a dream.

An hour later, a mako shark arrives, having smelled the marlin’s blood. Except for its jaws full of talonlike teeth, the shark is a beautiful fish. When the shark hits the marlin, the old man sinks his harpoon into the shark’s head. The shark lashes on the water and, eventually, sinks, taking the harpoon and the old man’s rope with it. The mako has taken nearly forty pounds of meat, so fresh blood from the marlin spills into the water, inevitably drawing more sharks to attack. Santiago realizes that his struggle with the marlin was for nothing; all will soon be lost. But, he muses, “a man can be destroyed but not defeated.”

Santiago tries to cheer himself by thinking that DiMaggio would be pleased by his performance, and he wonders again if his hands equal DiMaggio’s bone spurs as a handicap. He tries to be hopeful, thinking that it is silly, if not sinful, to stop hoping. He reminds himself that he didn’t kill the marlin simply for food, that he killed it out of pride and love. He wonders if it is a sin to kill something you love. The shark, on the other hand, he does not feel guilty about killing, because he did it in self-defense. He decides that “everything kills everything else in some way.”

Two hours later, a pair of shovel-nosed sharks arrives, and Santiago makes a noise likened to the sound a man might make as nails are driven through his hands. The sharks attack, and Santiago fights them with a knife that he had lashed to an oar as a makeshift weapon. He enjoyed killing the mako because it was a worthy opponent, a mighty and fearless predator, but he has nothing but disdain for the scavenging shovel-nosed sharks. The old man kills them both, but not before they take a good quarter of the marlin, including the best meat. Again, Santiago wishes that he hadn’t killed the marlin. He apologizes to the dead marlin for having gone out so far, saying it did neither of them any good.

Still hopeful that the whole ordeal had been a dream, Santiago cannot bear to look at the mutilated marlin. Another shovel-nosed shark arrives. The old man kills it, but he loses his knife in the process. Just before nightfall, two more sharks approach. The old man’s arsenal has been reduced to the club he uses to kill bait fish. He manages to club the sharks into retreat, but not before they repeatedly maul the marlin. Stiff, sore, and weary, he hopes he does not have to fight anymore. He even dares to imagine making it home with the half-fish that remains. Again, he apologizes to the marlin carcass and attempts to console it by reminding the fish how many sharks he has killed. He wonders how many sharks the marlin killed when it was alive, and he pledges to fight the sharks until he dies. Although he hopes to be lucky, Santiago believes that he “violated [his] luck” when he sailed too far out.

Around midnight, a pack of sharks arrives. Near-blind in the darkness, Santiago strikes out at the sounds of jaws and fins. Something snatches his club. He breaks off the boat’s tiller and makes a futile attempt to use it as a weapon. When the last shark tries to tear at the tough head of the marlin, the old man clubs the shark until the tiller splinters. He plunges the sharp edge into the shark’s flesh and the beast lets go. No meat is left on the marlin.

The old man spits blood into the water, which frightens him for a moment. He settles in to steer the boat, numb and past all feeling. He asks himself what it was that defeated him and concludes, “Nothing . . . I went out too far.” When he reaches the harbor, all lights are out and no one is near. He notices the skeleton of the fish still tied to the skiff. He takes down the mast and begins to shoulder it up the hill to his shack. It is terrifically heavy, and he is forced to sit down five times before he reaches his home. Once there, the old man sleeps.

Analysis

The fantastical final stage of the old man’s fight with the fish brings two thematic issues to the forefront. The first concerns man’s place in nature, the second concerns nature itself. It is possible to interpret Santiago’s journey as a cautionary tale of sorts, a tragic lesson about what happens when man’s pride forces him beyond the boundaries of his rightful, human place in the world. This interpretation is undermined, however, by the fact that Santiago finds the place where he is most completely, honestly, and fully himself only by sailing out farther than he ever has before. Indeed, Santiago has not left his true place; he has found it, which suggests that man’s greatest potential can be found in his return to the natural world from which modern advancements have driven him.

At one point, Santiago embraces his unity with the marlin, thinking, “You are killing me, fish . . . But you have a right to . . . brother. Come on and kill me. I do not care who kills who.” This realization speaks to the novella’s theory of the natural world. As Santiago’s exhausting and near-endless battle with the marlin shows, his is a world in which life and death go hand in loving hand. Everything in the world must die, and according to Santiago, only a brotherhood between men or creatures can alleviate the grimness of that fact. The death of the marlin serves as a beautiful case in point, for as the fish dies it is not only transformed into something larger than itself, it is also charged with life: “Then the fish came alive, with his death in him.” In Hemingway’s conception of the natural world, beauty is deadly, age is strength, and death is the greatest instance of vitality.

The transformation that the fish undergoes upon its death anticipates the transformation that awaits Santiago in the novella’s final pages. The old man’s battle with the fish is marked by supreme pain and suffering, but he lives in a world in which extreme pain can be a source of triumph rather than defeat. The key to Santiago’s triumph, as the end of the novel makes clear, is an almost martyrlike endurance, a quality that the old man knows and values. Santiago repeatedly reminds himself that physical pain does not matter to a man, and he urges himself to keep his head clear and to know how to suffer like a man.

After the arrival of the mako shark, Santiago seems preoccupied with the notion of hope. Hope is shown to be a necessary component of endurance, so much so that the novella seems to suggest that endurance can be found wherever pain and hope meet. As Santiago sails on while the sharks continue to attack his catch, the narrator says that Santiago “was full of resolution but he had little hope”; later, the narrator comments, “He hit [the shark] without hope but with resolution.” But without hope Santiago has reason neither to fight the sharks nor to return home. He soon realizes that it is silly not to hope, and he even goes so far as to consider it a sin. Ultimately, he overcomes the shark attack by bearing it. The poet and critic Delmore Schwartz regards The Old Man and the Sea as a dramatic development in Hemingway’s career because Santiago’s “sober hope” strikes a sort of compromise between youthful naïveté and the jadedness of age. Before the novella, Hemingway had given the world heroes who lived either shrouded by illusions, such as Nick Adams in “Indian Camp,” or crushed by disillusionment, such as Frederic Henry in A Farewell to Arms.

Source: http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/oldman/section4.rhtml

The Old Man and The Sea: DAY 03

Summary

A small, tired warbler (a type of bird) lands on the stern of the skiff, flutters around Santiago’s head, then perches on the taut fishing line that links the old man to the big fish. The old man suspects that it is the warbler’s first trip, and that it knows nothing of the hawks that will meet the warbler as it nears land. Knowing that the warbler cannot understand him, the old man tells the bird to stay and rest up before heading toward shore. Just then the marlin surges, nearly pulling Santiago overboard, and the bird departs. Santiago notices that his hand is bleeding from where the line has cut it.

Aware that he will need to keep his strength, the old man makes himself eat the tuna he caught the day before, which he had expected to use as bait. While he cuts and eats the fish with his right hand, his already cut left hand cramps and tightens into a claw under the strain of taking all the fish’s resistance. Santiago is angered and frustrated by the weakness of his own body, but the tuna, he hopes, will reinvigorate the hand. As he eats, he feels a brotherly desire to feed the marlin too.

While waiting for the cramp in his hand to ease, Santiago looks across the vast waters and thinks himself to be completely alone. A flight of ducks passes overhead, and he realizes that it is impossible for a man to be alone on the sea. The slant of the fishing line changes, indicating to the old fisherman that the fish is approaching the surface. Suddenly, the fish leaps magnificently into the air, and Santiago sees that it is bigger than any he has ever witnessed; it is two feet longer than the skiff itself. Santiago declares it “great” and promises never to let the fish learn its own strength. The line races out until the fish slows to its earlier pace. By noon, the old man’s hand is uncramped, and though he claims he is not religious, he says ten Hail Marys and ten Our Fathers and promises that, if he catches the fish, he will make a pilgrimage to the Virgin of Cobre. In case his struggle with the marlin should continue for another night, Santiago baits another line in hopes of catching another meal.

The second day of Santiago’s struggle with the marlin wears on. The old man alternately questions and justifies seeking the death of such a noble opponent. As dusk approaches, Santiago’s thoughts turn to baseball. The great DiMaggio, thinks the old man, plays brilliantly despite the pain of a bone spur in his heel. Santiago is not actually sure what a bone spur is, but he is sure he would not be able to bear the pain of one himself. (A bone spur is an outgrowth that projects from the bone.) He wonders if DiMaggio would stay with the marlin. To boost his confidence, the old man recalls the great all-night arm-wrestling match he won as a young man. Having beaten “the great negro from Cienfuegos [a town in Cuba],” Santiago earned the title El Campeón, or “The Champion.”

Just before nightfall, a dolphin takes the second bait Santiago had dropped. The old man hauls it in with one hand and clubs it dead. He saves the meat for the following day. Although Santiago boasts to the marlin that he feels prepared for their impending fight, he is really numb with pain. The stars come out. Santiago considers the stars his friends, as he does the great marlin. He considers himself lucky that his lot in life does not involve hunting anything so great as the stars or the moon. Again, he feels sorry for the marlin, though he is as determined as ever to kill it. The fish will feed many people, Santiago decides, though they are not worthy of the creature’s great dignity. By starlight, still bracing and handling the line, Santiago considers rigging the oars so that the fish will have to pull harder and eventually tire itself out. He fears this strategy would ultimately result in the loss of the fish. He decides to “rest,” which really just means putting down his hands and letting the line go across his back, instead of using his own strength to resist his opponent.

After “resting” for two hours, Santiago chastises himself for not sleeping, and he fears what could happen should his mind become “unclear.” He butchers the dolphin he caught earlier and finds two flying fish in its belly. In the chilling night, he eats half of a fillet of dolphin meat and one of the flying fish. While the marlin is quiet, the old man decides to sleep. He has several dreams: a school of porpoises leaps from and returns to the ocean; he is back in his hut during a storm; and he again dreams of the lions on the beach in Africa.

Analysis

The narrator tells us that Santiago does not mention the hawks that await the little warbler because he thinks the bird will learn about them “soon enough.” Hemingway tempers the grimness of Santiago’s observation with Santiago’s feeling of deep connection with the warbler. He suggests that the world, though designed to bring about death, is a vast, interconnected network of life. Additionally, the warbler’s feeling of exhaustion and its ultimate fate destruction by predators mirror Santiago’s own eventual exhaustion and the marlin’s ravishment by sharks.

The brotherhood between Santiago and the surrounding world extends beyond the warbler. The old man feels an intimate connection to the great fish, as well as to the sea and stars. Santiago constantly pledges his love, respect, and sentiment of brotherhood to the marlin. For this reason, the fish’s death is not portrayed as senselessly tragic. Santiago, and seemingly Hemingway, feel that since death must come in the world, it is preferable that it come at the hands of a worthy opponent. The old man’s magnificence the honor and humility with which he executes his task elevates his struggle to a rarified, even transcendent level.

Skills that involved great displays of strength captured Hemingway’s imagination, and his fiction is filled with fishermen, big-game hunters, bullfighters, prizefighters, and soldiers. Hemingway’s fiction presents a world peopled almost exclusively by men—men who live most successfully in the world through displays of skill. In Hemingway’s world, mere survival is not enough. To elevate oneself above the masses, one must master the rules and rituals by which men are judged. Time and again, we see Santiago displaying the art and the rituals that make him a master of his trade. Only his lines do not drift carelessly in the current; only he braves waters so far from shore.

Rules and rituals dominate the rest of the old man’s life as well. When he is not thinking about fishing, his mind turns to religion or baseball. Because Santiago declares that he is not a religious man, his prayers to the Virgin of Cobre seem less an appeal to a supernatural divinity and more a habit that orders and provides a context for his daily experience. Similarly, Santiago’s worship of Joe DiMaggio, and his constant comparisons between the baseball great and himself, suggest his preference for worlds in which men are measured by a clear set of standards. The great DiMaggio’s reputation is secured by his superlative batting average as surely as Santiago’s will be by an eighteen-foot marlin.

Even though Santiago doesn’t consider himself a religious man, it is during his struggle with the marlin that the book becomes strongly suggestive of a Christian parable. As his struggle intensifies, Santiago begins to seem more and more Christ-like: through his pain, suffering, and eventual defeat, he will transcend his previous incarnation as a failed fisherman. Hemingway achieves this effect by relying on the potent and, to many readers, familiar symbolism identified with Jesus Christ’s life and death. The cuts on the old man’s hands from the fishing line recall the stigmata—the crucifixion wounds of Jesus. Santiago’s isolation, too, evokes that of Christ, who spent forty days alone in the wilderness. Having taken his boat out on the ocean farther than any other fisherman has ever gone, Santiago is beyond even the fringes of society.

Hemingway also unites the old man with marlin through Santiago’s frequent expressions of his feeling of kinship. He thus suggests that the fate of one is the fate of the other. Although they are opponents, Santiago and the marlin are also partners, allies, and, in a sense, doubles. Thus, the following passage, which links the marlin to Christ, implicitly links Santiago to Christ as well:

“Christ, I did not know he was so big.”

“I’ll kill him though,” [Santiago] said. “In all his greatness and his glory.”

Santiago’s expletive (“Christ”) and the laudatory phrase “his greatness and his glory” link the fish’s fate to Christ’s. Because Santiago declares the marlin his “true brother,” he implies that they share a common fate. When, later in the book, sharks attack the marlin’s carcass, thereby attacking Santiago as well, the sense of alliance between the old man and the fish becomes even more explicit.

Source: http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/oldman/section3.rhtml

The Old Man and the Sea: DAY 02

Summary

The next morning, before sunrise, the old man goes to Manolin’s house to wake the boy. The two head back to Santiago’s shack, carry the old man’s gear to his boat, and drink coffee from condensed milk cans. Santiago has slept well and is confident about the day’s prospects. He and Manolin part on the beach, wishing each other good luck.

The old man rows steadily away from shore, toward the deep waters of the Gulf Stream. He hears the leaps and whirs of the flying fish, which he considers to be his friends, and thinks with sympathy of the small, frail birds that try to catch them. He loves the sea, though at times it can be cruel. He thinks of the sea as a woman whose wild behavior is beyond her control. The old man drops his baited fishing lines to various measured depths and rows expertly to keep them from drifting with the current. Above all else, he is precise.

The sun comes up. Santiago continues to move away from shore, observing his world as he drifts along. He sees flying fish pursued by dolphins; a diving, circling seabird; Sargasso weed, a type of seaweed found in the Gulf Stream; the distasteful purple Portuguese man-of-war; and the small fish that swim among the jellyfish-like creatures’ filaments. Rowing farther and farther out, Santiago follows the seabird that is hunting for fish, using it as a guide. Soon, one of the old man’s lines goes taut. He pulls up a ten-pound tuna, which, he says out loud, will make a lovely piece of bait. He wonders when he developed the habit of talking to himself but does not remember. He thinks that if the other fishermen heard him talking, they would think him crazy, although he knows he isn’t. Eventually, the old man realizes that he has sailed so far out that he can no longer see the green of the shore.

When the projecting stick that marks the top of the hundred-fathom line dips sharply, Santiago is sure that the fish tugging on the line is of a considerable size, and he prays that it will take the bait. The marlin plays with the bait for a while, and when it does finally take the bait, it starts to move with it, pulling the boat. The old man gives a mighty pull, then another, but he gains nothing. The fish drags the skiff farther into the sea. No land at all is visible to Santiago now.

All day the fish pulls the boat as the old man braces the line with his back and holds it taut in his hands, ready to give more line if necessary. The struggle goes on all night, as the fish continues to pull the boat. The glow given off by the lights of Havana gradually fades, signifying that the boat is the farthest from shore it has been so far. Over and over, the old man wishes he had the boy with him. When he sees two porpoises playing in the water, Santiago begins to pity his quarry and consider it a brother. He thinks back to the time that he caught one of a pair of marlin: the male fish let the female take the bait, then he stayed by the boat, as though in mourning. Although the memory makes him sad, Santiago’s determination is unchecked: as the marlin swims out, the old man goes “beyond all people in the world” to find him.

The sun rises and the fish has not tired, though it is now swimming in shallower waters. The old man cannot increase the tension on the line, because if it is too taut it will break and the fish will get away. Also, if the hook makes too big a cut in the fish, the fish may get away from it. Santiago hopes that the fish will jump, because its air sacs would fill and prevent the fish from going too deep into the water, which would make it easier to pull out. A yellow weed attaches to the line, helping to slow the fish. Santiago can do nothing but hold on. He pledges his love and respect to the fish, but he nevertheless promises that he will kill his opponent before the day ends.

Analysis

As Santiago sets out on the eighty-fifth day, the reader witnesses the qualities that earn him Manolin’s praise and dedication. The old man is an expert seaman, able to read the sea, sky, and their respective creatures like books that tell him what he needs to know. The flying fish, for instance, signal the arrival of dolphins, while, in Santiago’s experience, the magnificent tug on the line can mean only one thing: a marlin—a type of large game fish that weighs hundreds of pounds. Unlike the fishermen he passes on his way into the deep waters of the gulf, Santiago exercises an unparalleled precision when fishing. He keeps his lines perfectly straight instead of letting them drift as the other fishermen do, which means that he always knows exactly how deep they are. Santiago’s focus, his strength and resolve in the face of tremendous obstacles, as well as the sheer artistry with which he executes his tasks, mark him as a hero.

Santiago conforms to the model of the classical hero in two important respects. First, he displays a rare determination to understand the universe, as is evident when he meditates that the sea is beautiful and benevolent, but also so cruel that the birds who rely on the sea’s bounty are too delicate for it. Second, the old man possesses a tragic flaw that will lead to his downfall: pride. Santiago’s pride carries him far, not only metaphorically but literally—beyond his fellow fishermen into beautiful but, in the end, terribly cruel waters. As in classical epics, the most important struggle in Hemingway’s novella is a moral one. The fish itself is of secondary importance, for it is merely a trophy, a material prize.

Some critics have taken issue with Hemingway’s depiction of the old man because it betrays the very tenets of fiction that the author demanded (see “Hemingway’s Style”). Hemingway was, first and foremost, a proponent of realism. He wished to strip literature of its pretense and ornamentation, and he built a reputation as a journalistic writer who prized hard facts above all else. Metaphysical meditations and lofty philosophizing held little interest for Hemingway when compared to the details of daily life. As he states in A Farewell to Arms, “Abstract words such as glory, honor, courage or hallow were obscene beside the concrete names of villages, the number of roads, the names of rivers, the numbers of regiments and the dates.” But several critics have charged Hemingway with a failure to render his old man or, for that matter, the sea realistically. Hemingway has forged particular details that simply are not true. For example, as critic Robert P. Weeks points out, the poisonous Portuguese man-of-war that follows Santiago’s boat would not appear in the waters off of Cuba for another six months. A more significant, less petty objection is the charge that Hemingway reduces Santiago to an unrealistic archetype of goodness and purity, while the surrounding world is marked by man’s romance and brotherhood with the sea and its many creatures.

Many critics believe that Hemingway was striking out into new literary territory with The Old Man and the Sea. America’s foremost proponent of realism seemed to be moving toward something as highly symbolic as parable. Hemingway, however, disagreed. The philosophy that governed his writing of the novella was the same one that shaped his earlier novels. In a 1958 interview with The Paris Review, Hemingway spoke about The Old Man and the Sea:

Anyway, to skip how [the writing] is done, I had unbelievable luck this time and could convey the [old man’s] experience completely and have it be one that no one had ever conveyed. The luck was that I had a good man and a good boy and lately writers have forgotten there are still such things.

To Hemingway, Santiago and Manolin were as true to the real world as protagonists like Frederic Henry of A Farewell to Armsor Jake Barnes of The Sun Also Rises.

The old man’s memory of hooking the female marlin of a male-female pair exemplifies Hemingway’s vision of a world in which women have no real place even the picture of Santiago’s wife no longer remains on his wall. Men are the central focus of most of Hemingway’s writing and certainly of The Old Man and the Sea. It is no coincidence that Santiago is convinced that his greatest adversary is, as he continually notes, a male, a fact that he could not possibly ascertain before even seeing the fish.

Source: http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/oldman/section2.rhtml

The Old Man and The Sea: DAY 01

Summary

Santiago, an old fisherman, has gone eighty-four days without catching a fish. For the first forty days, a boy named Manolin had fished with him, but Manolin’s parents, who call Santiagosalao, or “the worst form of unlucky,” forced Manolin to leave him in order to work in a more prosperous boat. The old man is wrinkled, splotched, and scarred from handling heavy fish on cords, but his eyes, which are the color of the sea, remain “cheerful and undefeated.”

Having made some money with the successful fishermen, the boy offers to return to Santiago’s skiff, reminding him of their previous eighty-seven-day run of bad luck, which culminated in their catching big fish every day for three weeks. He talks with the old man as they haul in Santiago’s fishing gear and laments that he was forced to obey his father, who lacks faith and, as a result, made him switch boats. The pair stops for a beer at a terrace café, where fishermen make fun of Santiago. The old man does not mind. Santiago and Manolin reminisce about the many years the two of them fished together, and the boy begs the old man to let him provide fresh bait fish for him. The old man accepts the gift with humility. Santiago announces his plans to go “far out” in the sea the following day.

Manolin and Santiago haul the gear to the old man’s shack, which is furnished with nothing more than the barest necessities: a bed, a table and chair, and a place to cook. On the wall are two pictures: one of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and one of the Virgin of Cobre, the patroness of Cuba. The old man has taken down the photograph of his wife, which made him feel “too lonely.” The two go through their usual dinner ritual, in which the boy asks Santiago what he is going to eat, and the old man replies, “yellow rice with fish,” and then offers some to the boy. The boy declines, and his offer to start the old man’s fire is rejected. In reality, there is no food.

Excited to read the baseball scores, Santiago pulls out a newspaper, which he says was given to him by Perico at the bodega. Manolin goes to get the bait fish and returns with some dinner as well, a gift from Martin, the café owner. The old man is moved by Martin’s thoughtfulness and promises to repay the kindness. Manolin and Santiago discuss baseball. Santiago is a huge admirer of “the great DiMaggio,” whose father was a fisherman. After discussing with Santiago the greatest ballplayers and the greatest baseball managers, the boy declares that Santiago is the greatest fisherman: “There are many good fishermen and some great ones. But there is only you.” Finally, the boy leaves, and the old man goes to sleep. He dreams his sweet, recurring dream, of lions playing on the white beaches of Africa, a scene he saw from his ship when he was a very young man.

Analysis

The opening pages of the book establish Santiago’s character and set the scene for the action to follow. Even though he loves Manolin and is loved dearly by the boy, the old man lives as an outsider. The greeting he receives from the fishermen, most of whom mock him for his fruitless voyages to sea, shows Santiago to be an alienated, almost ostracized figure. Such an alienated position is characteristic of Hemingway’s heroes, whose greatest achievements depend, in large part, upon their isolation. In Hemingway’s works, it is only once a man is removed from the numbing and false confines of modern society that he can confront the larger, universal truths that govern him. In A Farewell to Arms, for instance, only after Frederic Henry abandons his post in the army and lives in seclusion is he able to learn the dismal lesson that death renders meaningless such notions as honor, glory, and love. Yet, although Hemingway’s message in The Old Man and the Sea is tragic in many respects, the story of Santiago and the destruction of his greatest catch is far from dismal. Unlike Frederic, Santiago is not defeated by his enlightenment. The narrator emphasizes Santiago’s perseverance in the opening pages, mentioning that the old man’s eyes are still “cheerful and undefeated” after suffering nearly three months without a single catch. And, although Santiago’s struggle will bring about defeat—the great marlin will be devoured by sharks—Santiago will emerge as a victor. As he tells the boy, in order for this to happen, he must venture far out, farther than the other fishermen are willing to go.

In Hemingway’s narrative, Santiago is elevated above the normal stature of a protagonist, assuming near-mythical proportions. He belongs to a tradition of literary heroes whose superior qualities necessitate their distance from ordinary humans and endeavors. Because Manolin constantly expresses his devotion to, reverence for, and trust of Santiago, he establishes his mentor as a figure of significant moral and professional stature, despite the difficulties of the past eighty-four days. While other young fishermen make fun of the old man, Manolin knows Santiago’s true worth and the extent of Santiago’s knowledge. In the old man, Hemingway provides the reader with a model of good, simple living: Santiago transcends the evils of the world—hunger, poverty, the contempt of his fellow men—by enduring them.

In these first few scenes, Hemingway introduces several issues and images that will recur throughout the book. The first is the question of Santiago’s endurance. The descriptions of his crude hut, almost nonexistent eating habits, and emaciated body force the reader to question the old man’s physical capacities. How could Santiago, who subsists on occasional handouts from kind café owners or, worse, imaginary meals, wage the terrific battle with the great marlin that the novel recounts? As the book progresses, we see that the question is irrelevant. Although Santiago’s battle is played out in physical terms, the stakes are decidedly spiritual.

This section also introduces two important symbols: the lions playing on the beaches of Africa and baseball’s immortal Joe DiMaggio. Throughout his trial at sea, Santiago’s thoughts will return to DiMaggio, for to him the baseball player represents a kind of triumphant survival. After suffering a bone spur in his heel, DiMaggio returned to baseball to become, in the eyes of many, the greatest player of all time. The lions are a more enigmatic symbol. The narrator says that they are Santiago’s only remaining dream. When he sleeps, he no longer envisions storms or women or fish, but only the “young cats in the dusk,” which “he love[s] . . . as he love[s] the boy.” Because the image of the lions has stayed with Santiago since his boyhood, the lions connect the end of the old man’s life with the beginning, giving his existence a kind of circularity. Like Santiago, the lions are hunters at the core of their being. The fact that Santiago dreams of the lions at play rather than on the hunt indicates that his dream is a break—albeit a temporary one—from the vicious order of the natural world.

Source: http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/oldman/section1.rhtml

Animal Farm: Chapter X - Summary

After a few years, the only animals that even remember the Rebellion are Clover,Benjamin, Moses, and some of the pigs. Muriel, Bluebell, Jessie, and Pincher have died. Mr. Jones has died in a home for alcoholics. Still, no animal has retired, and no pasture has been put aside for retired animals. Napoleon and Squealer have both become very fat. The farm is bigger, thanks to land purchased from Mr. Pilkington, and now features a threshing machine and hay elevator. The windmill is finished, but the animals use it to mill corn for a profit instead of to generate electricity as planned. Napoleon puts the animals to work building an additional windmill, which he promises will supply electricity. However, he discourages the animals from dreaming of luxury, saying, “The truest happiness … [lies] in working hard and living frugally” (129).

The pigs and dogs continue to do no manual labor, instead devoting themselves to organizational work that the other animals are “too ignorant to understand” (130). This includes writing up notes and burning them promptly after. Propaganda and pride in living on the only animal-owned farm in England continue to distract the animals from their hardships. One day, Squealer takes all the sheep out to an overgrown patch of land on the far side of the farm. Over the next week, he claims to be teaching them a song, and no one sees them. On the day the sheep return, Clover alerts the other animals to a disturbing fact: Squealer and the other pigs are walking two-footed, on their hind legs. The sheep break into a chorus of, “Four legs good, two legs better!” Benjamin accompanies Clover to the barn wall, where he deigns to read to her for the first time. In place of the Seven Commandments there is now a single maxim: “All animals are equal / But some animals are more equal than others” (133).

The animals discover that the pigs are buying a telephone and have subscribed to several magazines. Napoleon takes to smoking Mr. Jones’s pipe, and the other pigs take to wearing Mrs. Jones’s clothes. Napoleon begins wearing Mr. Jones’s dress clothes and awards “his favorite sow” the privilege of wearing Mrs. Jones’s Sunday dress. One day, Napoleon invites human visitors to tour the farm. That night, the animals spy into the farmhouse and see the pigs dining with the humans. According to Mr. Pilkington’s toast, they are celebrating the end of their bad relations. Touring Animal Farm has impressed him and the other farmers to follow Animal Farm’s example and give their animals more work and less food. Napoleon says he wants to cooperate with the other farms and confirms that he and the pigs co-own the farm’s title-deeds. He states that the animals will no longer be calling each other “Comrade” or marching past Old Major’s skull (a practice he denies understanding anyway). In addition, the flag has been changed to a plain green without the symbols of the Rebellion. Even further, Animal Farm shall again be referred to as “The Manor Farm.” The pigs and humans begin to play poker, and a fight erupts when Napoleon and Pilkington both put down the Ace of Spades at the same time. As the animals witness the pigs and humans quarreling over their poker game, they cannot distinguish between them.

Source: http://www.gradesaver.com/animal-farm/study-guide/section10/

Animal Farm: Chapter IX - Summary

Boxer’s split hoof, an injury from the battle, taxes him; still he will not let it deter him from rebuilding the windmill before he reaches retirement age. When they first formedAnimal Farm, the animals had agreed on fixed retirement ages and pensions. The winter is bitter again. Rations, save the pigs’ and dogs’, are reduced--“readjusted,” as Squealersays. To appease the animals, Squealer reads the animals more statistics to make them believe that their lives are better than in the days of Mr. Jones’s rule. The animals are overworked, underfed, and cold, but they are happy to believe Squealer.

Thirty-one young pigs now live on the farm, all of them parented by Napoleon. He makes plans to build them a schoolhouse and discourages them from interacting with other types of animals. He also instates two rules of pig superiority: other animals must stand aside on the path to let pigs pass, and pigs are allowed to wear green ribbons on their tails on Sundays. Napoleon also awards himself the privilege of eating sugar. Still, times are hard on the farm, and the animals struggle to make ends meet. The chickens are forced to lay six hundred eggs per week to sell in town and can barely keep any for hatching. Rations are reduced again, and the animals are not allowed lanterns in their stalls anymore in order to save oil. Meanwhile, the pigs seem to be flourishing.

Towards the end of winter, the animals smell a new scent in the wind, which they discover is from the barley Napoleon has begun to cook. Soon after, the pigs announce that all barley is reserved for them. Each pig gets a pint of beer added to his rations, with Napoleon getting half a gallon. To distract the animals from their hardship, Napoleon increases the amount of propaganda on the farm. This includes songs, speeches, poems, statistics, marches, and his newly created Spontaneous Demonstrations, in which the animals celebrate their victories. The animals enjoy the Spontaneous Demonstrations, which remind them of their freedom and self-sufficiency.

In April, Napoleon declares Animal Farm a Republic, and the animals elect Napoleon unanimously as president. His new propaganda claims Snowball was not a covert human collaborator, but an open one who charged into battle on the human side yelling, “Long Live Humanity!” (119). In mid-summer, Moses returns from a long absence. His stories of Sugarcandy Mountain return with him. The other animals enjoy the stories, with the exception of the pigs. Boxer and the other animals work feverishly to complete their tasks, which now include building the schoolhouse for the young pigs. One day, Boxer overworks himself so much that he collapses, unable to get up. In his sickly state, he expresses a wish to retire early along with Benjamin. The animals fetch Squealer, who relays Napoleon’s decision to send Boxer to the veterinary hospital in Willingdon.

Over the next two days, Boxer lies in his stall and takes doses from “a large bottle of pink medicine” that the pigs send from the farmhouse. He expresses his wish to spend his final years learning the rest of the alphabet. One afternoon, a van comes to take Boxer away. It has “lettering on its side and a sly-looking man in a low-crowned bowler hat sitting on the driver’s seat.” The hopeful animals wish Boxer goodbye, but Benjamin breaks their revelry by reading the lettering on the side of the van: “Alfred Simmons, Horse Slaughterer and Glue Boiler, Willingdon. Dealer in Hides and Bone-Meal. Kennels Supplied” (123). The animals panic and try to get Boxer to escape. He tries to get out of the van, but he has grown too weak to break the door. The animals try to appeal to the horses drawing the van, but they do not understand the situation.

Boxer never returns, but three days later the pigs announce that he died in the hospital despite receiving the best care. Squealer claims to have been present at Boxer’s death, a tale he relates emotionally to the other animals. He claims that Boxer’s last words were, “Forward, Comrades! … Forward in the name of the Rebellion” and “Long live Animal Farm! Long live Comrade Napoleon! Napoleon is always right” (125). Squealer also claims that the van belongs to the veterinarian, who had recently bought it from the horse slaughterer and had not yet managed to paint over the lettering. These stories satisfy the animals. The next Sunday, Napoleon promises to honor Boxer with a special wreath and a memorial banquet. On the day the banquet is to be held, a large crate arrives at Animal Farm. That night, the pigs are rowdy inside the farmhouse and do not wake up until noon the next day. The animals hear a rumor that the pigs had bought a case of whisky.

Source: http://www.gradesaver.com/animal-farm/study-guide/section9/

Animal Farm: Chapter VIII - Summary

Once the terror abates, some of the animals recall the Sixth Commandment, “No animal shall kill any other animal.” Clover again asks Muriel to read to her from the wall, only to find that the Sixth Commandment has been changed to: “No animal shall kill any other animal without cause” (98). Clover and Muriel convince themselves that the commandment has always been that way and decide that treachery justifies murder after all. The animals work even harder than in the previous year. On Sundays Squealerassures them, by reading statistics from a sheet of paper, that their efforts are increasing production many times over. The animals can do nothing but believe Squealer. They can scarcely remember life before the Rebellion.

Napoleon restricts his public appearances further to about once a month. He is said to eat separately from the other pigs, using the fine china. He also decrees that the gun be fired every year on his birthday. The animals now call Napoleon “our Leader, Comrade Napoleon.” Just as the animals attribute all misfortunes toSnowball, they now attribute all success and luck to Napoleon. Minimus composes a poem called “Comrade Napoleon,” which Napoleon has inscribed on the wall across from the Seven Commandments, where Squealer also paints his portrait.

Napoleon continues to negotiate with Mr.Frederick and Mr. Pilkington, though the timber remains unsold. Rumors of Mr. Frederick’s plans to overthrow the farm continue. In the summer, three hens confess to plotting against Napoleon’s life and are executed instantly. After that, Napoleon increases his security even more and enlists a pig namedPinkeye to be his taster, lest someone attempt to poison him. Napoleon finally agrees to sell the timber to Pilkington, as well as to engage in regular trade with Foxwood. Meanwhile, rumors about Frederick’s coming invasion, as well as his cruel practices at Pinchfield, begin to circulate. One day, Napoleon announces that he never planned to do business with Frederick at all. He makes the messenger pigeons change their slogan from “Death to Humanity” to “Death to Frederick” (103). He also, strangely, forbids them from going to Foxwood.

The wheat fields turn out to be filled with weeds, a misfortune that the animals blame promptly on Snowball. A gander confesses to knowing about the plot to mix weed seeds with the wheat seeds and commits suicide. To bring further ignominy upon Snowball’s memory, Squealer disseminates a rumor that Snowball never received the title of “Animal Hero, First Class” at all. As usual, he is able to quell any questions that arise from his rewriting of history.

At last the windmill is finished, with walls twice as thick as before. The animals are very proud of their achievement. Napoleon names the windmill “Napoleon Mill.” Two days later, Napoleon calls a meeting to announce that he has sold the timber to Frederick, not Pilkington. He denounces Foxwood and makes the pigeons change their slogan to “Death to Pilkington.” Napoleon claims that Frederick had never planned to invade Animal Farm and that he was not as cruel as rumored. Moreover, Snowball has never been at Foxwood or been Frederick’s collaborator; in reality, he has been Pilkington’s longtime collaborator. The pigs are proud of Napoleon’s shrewdness. They believe Napoleon’s claim that his relationship with Pilkington was just a pretense to get Frederick to raise his bid. Even cleverer, Napoleon refused to let Frederick pay for the timber with a check, instead demanding cash that he will use to buy the windmill machinery. Napoleon goes so far as to hold a special meeting where the animals can inspect the banknotes.

Three days later, Whymper informs Napoleon that the banknotes are forgeries. Napoleon sentences Frederick to death by boiling alive and tries to reconcile with Pilkington. The next morning, Frederick and his armed men overtake the farm. Napoleon considers calling Pilkington for help, but Pilkington sends a note that says, “Serves you right.” As the animals watch helplessly, Frederick and his men blow up the windmill. After that, the animals put up a fight and manage to chase the men off. Squealer, who was not in the battle, has the gun fired as a sign of victory. For the first time, Boxer’s faith in the value of hard work begins to flag. However, Napoleon devotes two days to celebrating the victory at the newly named Battle of the Windmill and burying the slain. He also gives himself the title, “Order of the Green Banner.”

A few days later, the pigs discover a store of whisky, which they begin consuming. The morning after, the pigs do not show up for work. Squealer finally emerges to inform the animals that Napoleon is dying, a fact that the animals blame on Snowball. He announces Napoleon’s final declaration: drinking alcohol should be punishable by death. However, Napoleon recovers and, soon after, asks Whymper to procure information on how to brew alcohol. He also designates a field for the propagation of barley. Soon after, a strange episode occurs. One midnight, a crash in the barn awakens the animals. They rush there only to discover Squealer with a broken ladder and a can of paint.Benjamin seems to understand what is happening but declines to share his insight with the others. However, a few days later, Muriel notices that the Fifth Commandment has been changed from “No animal shall drink alcohol” to “No animal shall drink alcohol to excess” (113).

Source: http://www.gradesaver.com/animal-farm/study-guide/section8/

Animal Farm; Chapter VII - Summary

The animals work to rebuild the windmill through a bitter, stormy winter, well aware that the human world is watching and hoping for their failure. Because of increasing food shortages, the animals begin to go hungry. Knowing that the humans must not hear ofAnimal Farm’s hardships, Napoleon enlists the sheep to comment about their increasing rations when within earshot of Mr. Whymper. He also has someone lead Mr. Whymper past the food bins, which are filled with sand and topped with grain to look full.

Napoleon appears in public less and less, and when he does, six fierce dogs act as his guards. As there is need for more grain, he has Mr. Whymper arrange a contract to sell four hundred eggs per week. The hens rebel by laying their eggs in the rafters so that the eggs smash on the floor. Napoleon stops the hens’ rations and makes feeding a hen punishable by death. Nine hens die, supposedly of coccidiosis, during the five-day strike, after which the hens surrender.

Napoleon negotiates with Mr. Frederickand Mr. Pilkington, who wish to buy Animal Farm’s supply of timber. A rumor begins circulating among the animals that Snowball is sneaking into the farm at night and causing mischief. From then on, the animals attribute any misfortune to Snowball’s interference. Napoleon arranges a public investigation of Snowball’s activities. He surveys the farm and claims to smell Snowball’s scent everywhere. The animals are terrified. That evening, Squealer tells the animals that Snowball now belongs to Mr. Frederick, with whom he is plotting to overtake Animal Farm. He claims that Snowball was collaborating with Mr. Jones from the very beginning and claims to have supporting evidence. Squealer also claims that Snowball intended to get the animals killed in the Battle of the Cowshed. When the animals, including Boxer, protest, Squealer invents yet another lie. He claims that Napoleon cried, “Death to Humanity!” during the battle and bit Mr. Jones in the leg. Boxer continues to protest until Squealer tells him that the news is directly from Napoleon. Boxer replies, “If Comrade Napoleon says it, it must be right” (91). Before leaving, Squealer gives Boxer a nasty look and warns the animals that Snowball’s secret agents are lurking among them.

Four days later, Napoleon calls an assembly. He wears the medals of “Animal Hero, First Class” and “Animal Hero, Second Class,” which he has awarded himself. Napoleon’s dogs drag out of the crowd the four pigs that had opposed the cessation of Sunday meetings. The dogs try to drag Boxer out as well, but he deflects them. The pigs confess that they collaborated with Snowball in destroying the windmill and were planning to help Mr. Frederick overtake Animal Farm. They also confess to knowing of Snowball’s partnership with Mr. Jones for years. Then the dogs tear out the four pigs’ throats. Napoleon asks whether any other animal wishes to confess. Three hens, which had led the hen rebellion, confess that Snowball incited them to revolt in a dream vision. After this, several other animals confess to crimes both great (murder) and small (stealing). Napoleon has them all murdered.

After the public executions, the horrified animals slink away. Boxer blames the evil among them to some “fault” in themselves and suggests that the way to quash it is to work harder. As Clover sits on the knoll with the other animals, she considers how different their current situation is than the ideal Old Major put forth. The animals were supposed to create a society of equality and freedom, not one of “terror and slaughter” (95). Still, Clover thinks Animal Farm is better than it was in the days of Mr. Jones’s rule, and her heart remains faithful to it. Unable to put her thoughts into words, Clover leads the animals in singing “Beasts of England.”

Suddenly, however, Squealer arrives with a dog escort and forbids the animals from singing the anthem, for Napoleon has abolished it. He explains that the Rebellion has now ended with the slaughter of the unfaithful and that, being a song of the Rebellion, “Beasts of England” has no further purpose. The animals are now to sing Minimus’s anthem, which begins with the lyrics: “Animal Farm, Animal Farm, / Never through me shalt thou come to harm!”

Source: http://www.gradesaver.com/animal-farm/study-guide/section7/

Animal Farm: Chapter VI - Summary

The animals work sixty-hour weeks all spring and summer in order to build the windmill, but none begrudges the extra labor. In August, Napoleon instates “strictly voluntary” labor on Sundays: animals may choose not to come, but they will have their rations reduced by half. There are plenty of building materials on the premises, and the animals discover that they can break limestone into pieces by using the force of gravity. However, the process of dragging boulders to the top of the quarry and throwing them down is very taxing. Boxer compensates by picking up the other animals’ slack, for which they admire him.

Shortages begin to occur. The animals require things, such as iron for horseshoes and machinery for the windmill, that they cannot produce on the farm. To provide a solution, Napoleon opens trade with the neighboring farms and says that the animals may need to sell some of the hens’ eggs in the nearby town of Willingdon. He makes sure to stress the fact that the windmill should be the animals’ first priority. The other animals are “conscious of a vague uneasiness” because the Seven Commandments forbid trade with humans and the use of money. Napoleon assures the animals that they, at least, will not have to make contact with human beings. He has already set up an agreement with a solicitor in town named Mr. Whymper, who will act as their intermediary to the human world.

After the meeting, Squealer assures the animals that trade and the use of money are allowed after all—that no resolution against those activities has ever been passed. He convinces them that their memory of such a resolution is mistaken. Mr. Whymper visits the farm every Monday to get his orders. Meanwhile, in the human world, humans are more opposed than ever to Animal Farm’s existence. They hope that the windmill will fail and the farm will go bankrupt. Still, they secretly admire Animal Farm’s efficiency, which they have begun to call by its new name. They even stop valorizing Mr. Jones, who has moved away.

One day, the pigs move into the farmhouse. The other animals again feel uneasy, remembering faintly a resolution that forbade such an action. Again, Squealer convinces them that they are mistaken. Napoleon, whom Squealer now calls “The Leader,” should be granted the honor of living in a house. Furthermore, the pigs need a quiet workplace. Squealer’s lies satisfy some of the animals. But Clover decides to investigate when she learns that the pigs have taken to sleeping in beds. She tries to read the Seven Commandments on the barn wall, but she cannot. Muriel is able to read it for her. One resolution has been changed to: “No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets” (79). At this point, Squealer approaches and denies that there was ever a rule against beds—only sheets. As usual, he justifies the pigs’ actions by threatening Mr. Jones’s return. Soon after, the pigs award themselves the additional privilege of waking up an hour late.

By autumn, the windmill is half finished. One night in November, violent winds ravage the farm and destroy the windmill. Napoleon quickly blames the destruction on Snowball. He sentences Snowball to death and offers half a bushel of apples and the title of “Animal Hero, Second Class” to any animal that detains him. There is a track of pig footprints leading to the hedge, which Napoleon attributes to Snowball. Then Napoleon rouses the animals to action, saying, “Forward, comrades! Long live the windmill! Long live Animal Farm!” (83).

Source: http://www.gradesaver.com/animal-farm/study-guide/section6/

Animal Farm: Chapter V - Summary

As winter approaches, Mollie’s behavior becomes increasingly perturbed. She is late for work and feigns injury in order to shirk her duties. More seriously, Clover has spotted Mollie at the border of Foxwood, allowing Mr. Pilkington to stroke her nose and talk to her. Mollie denies the accusation, but her embarrassment confirms that she is lying. On a hunch, Clover goes to Mollie’s stall and finds a hidden stash of sugar and ribbons. Mollie disappears soon after. She is seen in a painted cart, gussied up and taking sugar from a man who appears to be some kind of manager. The other animals never mention her again.

January brings bitterly cold weather. Since conditions are too harsh for farming, the animals hold many meetings. They have agreed that the pigs should make all policy decisions, which the other animals are to ratify. Snowball andNapoleon are in constant disagreement, and the other animals begin to take sides. The sheep support Napoleon and interrupt Snowball’s speeches by bleating, “Four legs good, two legs bad.” Snowball is the more progressive politician, promoting innovations to make the farm run more efficiently. Napoleon makes sure to oppose all of Snowball’s ideas.

After some time, Snowball and Napoleon come into bitter conflict over a windmill. Snowball designates a piece of land for a windmill, which will provide electricity for the heretofore-primitive farm. He uses Mr.Jones’s books to draft a detailed chalk blueprint, which fascinates the other animals. One day, Napoleon urinates on the blueprint to show his disdain.

Snowball estimates that the animals can complete the windmill with a year of hard labor, after which the time saving machine will shorten their workweek to three days. Napoleon counters with the idea that they will all starve to death in that time, and that the farm’s primary concern should be increasing food production. The animals split into two groups, one called “Vote for Snowball and the three-day week,” the other called “Vote for Napoleon and the full manger” (65). The only animal not to take a side is Benjamin, who is pessimistic about both plans.

Snowball and Napoleon engage in another major debate about how best to prepare for another human attack. Napoleon advocates the procurement of firearms as well as firearms training. Snowball advocates sending pigeons to rally the other animals; if rebellions occur everywhere, then the humans will stay at bay. The other animals do not divide over this issue because they cannot decide who is right.

Finally, Snowball completes his blueprint for the windmill. The animals hold a meeting at which Snowball wins over the majority with his descriptions of the leisurely life that the windmill will allow. Suddenly, Napoleon signals “nine enormous dogs wearing brass-studded collars,” which barge into the barn and chase Snowball out. Snowball manages to escape through a hedge. The frightened animals gather once more in the barn. As it turns out, the nine dogs are Jessie’s and Bluebell’s puppies. They seem to consider Napoleon their master. Napoleon takes the stage and announces that Sunday meetings with all their accompanying debates will cease, and he will lead a small committee of pigs in making decisions. This mandate disturbs the other animals, but most of them are too dull to argue and too afraid of the dogs to show their disapproval. Four pigs protest briefly.

After the meeting, Squealer explains the new arrangement to the other animals. Just as in the case of the milk and apples, Squealer claims that taking on leadership responsibilities is a burden for Napoleon and his committee; they do it only for the general welfare. If left to make their own decisions, he explains, the animals might make a wrong decision. He also calls Snowball a criminal; even if he was brave in the Battle of the Cowshed (an idea that Squealer also questions), “loyalty and obedience are more important.” Squealer tells the animals, “Discipline, comrades, iron discipline! That is the watchword for today.” Again as in the case of the milk and apples, Squealer ensures the animals’ compliance by threatening Mr. Jones’s return. Of all the animals, Boxer takes obedience to the pigs to heart most. He now has two personal maxims: “Napoleon is always right” and “I will work harder” (70).

Winter turns into spring. The pigs disinter Old Major’s skull and place it at the base of the flagpole beside the gun. When they meet to receive their orders for the week, the animals no longer sit all together. Rather, the dogs and other pigs gather around Napoleon, Squealer, and another pig named Minimus. Only three days after Snowball’s removal, Napoleon announces plans to build the windmill and make similar improvements to the farm. Squealer explains to the animals that Napoleon had never really opposed the windmill—in fact, it was “his own creation,” which Snowball had copied. With evident pride, Squealer explains that Napoleon’s feigned opposition to the windmill was simply a “maneuver” in his plan to expel Snowball for disobedience; it was a brilliant example of “tactics” (72).

Source: http://www.gradesaver.com/animal-farm/study-guide/section5/

Animal Farm: Chapter IV - Summary

It is late summer. News of the Rebellion has spread to many other farms, thanks toSnowball’s and Napoleon’s pigeon messengers. Meanwhile, in the human world, Mr. Jonestells other farmers about the Rebellion. The fear of similar revolutions unites the owners of the farms adjacent to Animal Farm, even though they dislike one another. Easy-going Mr. Pilkington (of large, neglected Foxwood) and hard-nosed Mr. Frederick (of small, better-kept Pinchfield) spread rumors to discourage their animals from turning against them. They say that the animals on Manor Farm are starving. When this claim turns out to be clearly untrue, they claim that the animals are cannibals who practice all kinds of wickedness.

Despite the farmers’ efforts to subdue ideas of rebellion, their animals begin lashing out against them. The animals resist the farmers’ orders. They also adopt the infuriating habit of singing “Beasts of England.”

In October, accompanied by several other farmers, Mr. Jones tries to recapture Animal Farm. Snowball has already trained the animals for war, however, and they take their defensive positions. The smaller animals attack the men and then pretend to retreat into the yard in defeat. Once the men follow, the larger animals ambush them. Mr. Jones kills one sheep and wounds Snowball several times with his gun, but the animals manage to overpower the humans. Boxer is thought to have killed a stable-lad, which upsets the stalwart horse. But it turns out that the boy is only injured, and he flees with the other men. The only animal who does not fight is Mollie, whom the animals discover cowering in her stall.

After the battle, the animals sing “Beasts of England” yet again. They invent a military honor called “Animal Hero, First Class,” which they bestow upon Snowball and Boxer. Then they bury the fallen sheep and confer upon him posthumously the title of “Animal Hero, Second Class.” The animals decide to call this conflict the Battle of the Cowshed. The agree to fire Mr. Jones’s gun into the air twice a year, on the anniversaries of the battle (October 12) and of the Rebellion (Midsummer’s Eve).

Source: http://www.gradesaver.com/animal-farm/study-guide/section4/

Animal Farm: Chapter III - Summary

The harvest is more of a success than Mr. Jones and his men ever accomplished, despite the fact that the tools are not well suited for animals to use, especially without the animals rearing up on their hind legs. The pigs supervise the others but do not participate in the manual labor. With the “parasitical human beings” out of the way, the animals enjoy a feeling of abundance for the first time. They have more leisure, and their food tastes all the better for their having gathered and portioned it out themselves.

On Animal Farm, everyone works “according to his capacity.” Boxer is invigorated and pushes himself to work harder than ever; because he is strong and big, he contributes to the most strenuous labor. In contrast, the hens and ducks work at gathering small bits of corn that the bigger animals would not be able to gather. The system of Animalism is working well: every animal is satisfied with his share of the labor and its fruits. No one steals or argues, and very few shirk their responsibilities, with the exception of the cat and frivolous Mollie.

Every Sunday is a day of rest and devotion to Animalism on Animal Farm. The animals hold an hour-long ceremony at which they raise their new flag. The flag is green to represent England’s pastures and features a hoof and horn that “represent the future Republic of the Animals” that will exist “when the human race [has] finally been overthrown” (48). A gathering called Meeting follows the flag raising, in which the animals plan the coming week and the pigs present resolutions for debate (none of the other animals are intelligent enough to think up resolutions). Snowball and Napoleon tend to debate the most and take opposite sides. The animals end each meeting by singing “Beasts of England.”

The pigs set up a study center for themselves in the harness-room, where they study trades using Mr. Jones’s books. Snowball begins organizing the animals into Animal Committees, including the Egg Production Committee, the Clean Tails League, the Wild Comrades’ Re-education Committee (to tame rats and rabbits), and the Whiter Wool Movement. These committees generally fail to produce results or remain cohesive. Snowball does succeed in teaching some of the animals to read, although most of them lack the intelligence needed for literacy. In fact, many of the animals lack the intelligence needed to memorize the Seven Commandments, so Snowball reduces Animalism’s tenets to one simple saying: “Four legs good, two legs bad” (50).

As time goes by, the pigs begin to increase their control over the other animals. For example, when Jessie and Bluebell give birth to puppies, Napoleon takes them to an isolated loft where he can teach them. Napoleon believes that educating young, impressionable animals is more important than trying to re-educate older ones. It turns out that the pigs are mixing the cows’ milk with their food. When the wind knocks ripe apples out of the orchard trees, the pigs claim the right to take them all, as well as the bulk of the coming apple harvest. The pigs claim that they need milk and apples in order to power their “brainwork.” Squealer says that, were the pigs to stop eating milk and apples, they could lose their powers of organization and Mr. Jones could come back. The threat of Mr. Jones’s return is enough to quell the other animals’ doubts and questions.

Source: http://www.gradesaver.com/animal-farm/study-guide/section3/

Animal Farm: Chapter II - Summary

Old Major dies three nights after the meeting that united the animals. Over the next three months, the more intelligent animals begin to approach life differently. They now anticipate the Rebellion, for which they assume the task of preparing. The pigs take on the task of organizing and teaching the other animals because they are “generally recognized as being the cleverest of the animals” (35).

Snowball, Napoleon, and Squealer have taken charge especially, and they have expanded Old Major’s concept into a “complete system of thought” called Animalism. They hold frequent meetings in the big barn to espouse the views of Animalism to the other farm animals. At first, the animals are not convinced that they should follow Animalism. Some feel loyalty to Mr. Jones, some worry that they cannot be self-sufficient, and others, such as Mollie, worry about losing treats such as sugar and ribbons. Snowball contradicts Mollie, saying that the ribbons are “the badge of slavery” and that “liberty is worth more than ribbons” (37).

Moses causes trouble for the pigs by inventing an animal heaven called Sugarcandy Mountain., a utopia for another time. In contrast, Clover and Boxer are some of the pigs’ strongest collaborators. Not being very intelligent themselves, Clover and Boxer memorize simple pro-Animalism arguments that they pass on to the others.

Monetary troubles plague Mr. Jones, leading him to drink excessively. The farmhands are lazy and fail to tend the farm well, yet hard times for Mr. Jones mean a leg up for the animals. In fact, Mr. Jones’s misfortune makes the Rebellion come earlier than expected. On Midsummer’s Eve in June, Mr. Jones gets so drunk that he passes out and neglects to feed the animals. Having gone unfed for hours, the animals break into the store-shed and eat. Mr. Jones and the farmhands rush in and begin whipping the animals indiscriminately, and the animals respond by attacking them in unison. The men are frightened and forced to flee the farm.

After a disbelieving calm, the animals barge into the harness-room and drown or burn all the implements of their former bondage. Snowball makes sure to burn the ribbons, which he calls tantamount to clothing, and states, “All animals should go naked” (40). The animals then help themselves to double servings of food and sleep better than they ever have. When they awake the next morning, they survey the farm with new eyes, absorbing the fact that it is now their own. Finally, they tour the farmhouse, seeing in disbelief the “unbelievable luxury” in which the Joneses had lived. Then the animals agree to leave the farmhouse intact as a museum. They confiscate a few hams for burial and leave.

The pigs reveal that they have taught themselves to read and write from an old children’s book, which they burned in the bonfire of human belongings. Snowball uses paint to replace the title “Manor Farm” with “Animal Farm” on the farm gate. Back in the big barn, they reveal that they have reduced Animalism to Seven Commandments. The animals must live by these commandments “for ever after.” The commandments, which Snowball writes on the wall with some typographical errors, are:

1. Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy.
2. Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend. 
3. No animal shall wear clothes. 
4. No animal shall sleep in a bed. 
5. No animal shall drink alcohol. 
6. No animal shall kill any other animal. 
7. All animals are equal.

After reading the Seven Commandments out loud, Snowball declares that the animals must begin the hay harvest. Three cows interrupt his thought by lowing in pain, since their udders are full to bursting. Some pigs milk the cows, producing “five buckets of frothing creamy milk” (44). The animals wonder what to do with the milk, but Napoleon puts off that decision for a later time. The animals begin the harvest in the fields, and when they return the milk is gone.

Source: http://www.gradesaver.com/animal-farm/study-guide/section2/

Animal Farm: Chapter I - Summary

Mr. Jones, the owner of Manor Farm, stumbles drunkenly up to bed as the farm animals wait in still silence. The moment he is out of sight, they begin to bustle around, preparing themselves for the big meeting that is to take place that night. Old Major has called the meeting to discuss a strange dream he had the previous night. He is waiting for his fellow animals in the big barn.

The first animals to arrive are the three dogs, Bluebell, Jessie, and Pincher, followed by the pigs. Hens, pigeons, sheep, and cows arrive, as well as the horses, Boxer and Clover. Muriel, the white goat, and the donkey Benjaminfollow. A group of motherless ducklings wanders in and Clover, being the motherly type, forms a safe place for them to sit with her leg. Mollie, the young mare, arrives just before the cat, who settles in between Boxer and Clover. The only animal missing is Moses, the raven, who is sleeping on his perch behind the barn door.

Old Major addresses the animals, calling them, “Comrades.” He explains that, because he is getting old and may die soon, he wishes to impart his wisdom. Over his lifetime, he has come to the conclusions that “No animal in England is free” and “The life of an animal is misery and slavery” (28).

Old Major states that animals’ domination by Man is the sole reason they cannot be free, happy, and fulfilled. Man is “the only creature that consumes without producing.” His only job is to be “lord of all the animals,” which makes him “the only real enemy” animals have. Man overworks animals only to rob them of the fruits of their labor, and treats them only well enough to survive and provide more labor. When Man is done with an animal, he slaughters it cruelly.

According to Old Major, Rebellion is the path to freedom. Overthrowing the human race would make animals “rich and free” almost instantly. Old Major begs the other animals to devote the rest of their lives to the cause of Rebellion and to reject the idea that they have co-dependence with Man. Furthermore, the animals must be united in order to overthrow man: “All men are enemies. All animals are comrades” (31). Despite this saying, he is not sure whether wild animals count.

Old Major holds a vote to decide whether domesticated animals should unite with wild animals. Only the dogs and the cat vote no, although the cat is not paying attention and votes twice. After the vote, Old Major crystallizes his point, stating: “Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy. Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend.” He adds the additional point that, once they have achieved victory, animals must not emulate Man. They must not wear clothing, live in houses, or copy any of Man’s other “evil” habits.

Finally, Old Major relates his dream to the animals. His dream was about the state of happiness that will exist once Man is eliminated. In the dream, a tune his mother and the other sows sang to him in his childhood returned to him, and new words accompanied the tune. Old Major is sure that he has, in his dream life, uncovered an old animal anthem that has lain dormant for generations. It is called “Beasts of England,” and he sings it to the other animals. Orwell describes the song as “a stirring tune, something between Clementine and La Cucaracha” (32). The song glorifies the freedom and joy that will follow “Tyrant Man’s” overthrow, and he urges all animals to “toil for freedom’s sake,” even if they die before the cause is won.

The song rouses the animals, even the dullest of whom learn it in minutes. In fact, the animals are so taken with the song that they sing it five times in unison. The ruckus awakes Mr. Jones, who fires several bullets from his shotgun into the barn wall. The animals rush to their sleeping places, and the farm is silent once again.

Source: http://www.gradesaver.com/animal-farm/study-guide/section1/