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STRUCTURE
Animal Farm follows a conventional narrative structure. Its event are told
in a chronological order by the narrator. Once Boxer has been taken to his death
in Chapter 9, the pace of the story rapidly increases. The placing of the speech
at the start of the novel means that the reader shares the animals' enthusiasm
for the vision of the future and becomes more disappointed as the novel progresses
and we see those ideals being destroyed, we are told for example that the animals
work like 'slaves'. The recurrent appearance of the menacing dogs also ensures
that the reader never forgets the terror and violence that underpins Napoleon's
rule. In a similar way, the repeated breaking of the Commandments and the animals'
continual checking of the wall, makes clear to the reader, the gradual distortion
of Major's ideals until we reach the shocking climax which is signified by the
whips. Their presence shows that all pretence of following the Commandments
is abandoned by the pigs, in favour of open terror and oppression.
The structure of Animal Farm helps to clarify the theme of the betrayed revolution
by showing the reader in several stages, through the repetition of certain key
images and phrases, how the pigs pervert Major's ideas.
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