Free Essays - The Seven Commandments of Animal Farm :: Animal Farm

The Seven Commandments of Animal Farm   The Seven Commandments are the basic principles of physicality trained out by the pigs and described originally as unalterable laws by which the brutes were to live. The Seven Commandments were written on the barn wall for all animals to mold and read if they could. The original Commandments are     1. whatever goes on two legs is an enemy. 2. Whatever goes on four legs, or has wings, is a friend. 3. No animal shall gull clothes. 4. No animal shall sleep in a bed. 5. No animal shall drink alcohol. 6. No animal shall kill any other animal. 7. both animals are equal.     Almost immediately after the Commandments are written the cattle have to be milked. The milk they produce is taken by the pigs just so the seventh Commandment seems to be undermined from the very beginning. When the pigs also strike claiming the windfall apples, Squealer explains that they are not taking them as perquisite but because science has shown that milk and apples are necessary for the pigs brain work. This at least satisfies the animals that they are equal to the pigs but it does not dash the reader.   The setoff two Commandments are subtly broken in the low years of Animal Farm but there is no act to rewrite them. Snowball, the hero of the Battle of the Cowshed, becomes an enemy of the farm after his excommunication by Napoleon, while the resumption of trade via Mr Whymper causes some discussion but, as Squealer points out, trade was not banned in writing and Mr Whymper is not treated as a friend.   The first alteration to the Commandments comes after the pigs impress back into the farmhouse. The ban on sleeping in beds is changed in Napoleons favour by the addition of the words with sheets. At this point in the narrative of the farm the pigs do not quite have enough forcefulness to do what they like and Squealer is forced to change the Commandments to fit modern circumstances. B ut sleeping in beds is a minor matter compared to murder, and the bordering alteration to the Commandments is far more shocking. After the failures of the winter and the collapse of the first windmill, the pigs use Snowball as scapegoat.