Original artwork, not a still
Animal Farm · 1945
The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again.
Behind the line
What it means
Our interpretation.
The revolutionaries have become the thing they overthrew, so completely that the audience at the window cannot tell them apart. It is the book's last stroke and its most quoted image, used whenever a movement meant to free people ends up copying its oppressors.
Context reviewed
In context
Spoilers for Animal FarmShow the scene
The final page of Animal Farm, Chapter X. Years after the revolution, the pigs walk on two legs, carry whips and wear clothes. The farm's neighbouring human farmers are invited to dinner and the animals watch through the farmhouse window. The pigs and the men play cards, a quarrel breaks out over cheating at an ace of spades, and the creatures outside cannot tell pig from man. The Seven Commandments have by now shrunk to one.
Sources (1)
- Animal Farm, full text (Project Gutenberg Australia)Chapter X, final paragraphsReference checked
Context reviewed
