Animal farm: and related readings by George Orwell

Author:George Orwell [Orwell, George]
Language: deu
Format: epub, mobi, pdf
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 7.

It was a bitter winter. The stormy weather was fol owed by

sleet and snow, and then by a hard frost which did not

break til wel into February. The animals carried on as best

they could with the rebuilding of the windmil , wel knowing

that the outside world was watching them and that the

envious human beings would rejoice and triumph if the mil

were not finished on time.

Out of spite, the human beings pretended not to believe

that it was Snowbal who had destroyer the windmil : they

said that it had fal en down because the wal s were too thin.

The animals knew that this was not the case. Stil , it had

been decided to build the wal s three feet thick this time

instead of eighteen inches as before, which meant

col ecting much larger quantities of stone. For a long time

the quarry was ful of

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snowdrifts and nothing could be done. Some progress was

made in the dry frosty weather that fol owed, but it was cruel

work, and the animals could not feel so hopeful about it as

they had felt before. They were always cold, and usual y

hungry as wel . Only Boxer and Clover never lost heart.

Squealer made excel ent speeches on the joy of service

and the dignity of labour, but the other animals found more

inspiration in Boxer’s strength and his never-failing cry of “I

wil work harder!”

In January food fel short. The corn ration was drastical y

reduced, and it was announced that an extra potato ration

would be issued to make up for it. Then it was discovered

that the greater part of the potato crop had been frosted in

the clamps, which had not been covered thickly enough.

The potatoes had become soft and discoloured, and only a

few were edible. For days at a time the animals had

nothing to eat but chaff and mangels. Starvation seemed to

stare them in the face.

It was vital y necessary to conceal this fact from the outside

world. Emboldened by the col apse of the windmil , the

human beings were inventing fresh lies about Animal Farm.

Once again it was being put about that al the animals were

dying of famine and disease, and that they were continual y

fighting among themselves and had resorted to

cannibalism and infanticide. Napoleon was wel aware of

the bad results that might fol ow if the real facts of the food

situation were

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known, and he decided to make use of Mr. Whymper to

spread a contrary impression. Hitherto the animals had had

little or no contact with Whymper on his weekly visits: now,

however, a few selected animals, mostly sheep, were

instructed to remark casual y in his hearing that rations had

been increased. In addition, Napoleon ordered the almost

empty bins in the store-shed to be fil ed nearly to the brim

with sand, which was then covered up with what remained

of the grain and meal. On some suitable pretext Whymper

was led through the store-shed and al owed to catch a

glimpse of the bins. He was deceived, and continued to

report to the outside world that there was no food shortage

on Animal Farm.

Nevertheless, towards the end of January it became

obvious that it would be necessary to procure some more

grain from somewhere.

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