Animal Farm Rules and Order Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #4

Boxer passed it off as usual with "Napoleon is always right!", but Clover, who thought she remembered a definite ruling against beds, went to the end of the barn and tried to puzzle out the Seven Commandments which were inscribed there. Finding herself unable to read more than individual letters, she fetched Muriel […]

"Muriel," she said, "read me the Fourth Commandment. Does it not say something about never sleeping in a bed?" […]

With some difficulty Muriel spelt it out... "It says, 'No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets,"' she announced finally. (6.10-6.13)

Luckily, we're much better at reading that Muriel, so we can flip back to the beginning of the book (Chapter 2, if you're wondering) and double check. And there it is—#4, "No animal shall sleep in a bed." Hm. Looks like the rules are changing on us.

Quote #5

They had just finished singing it for the third time when Squealer, attended by two dogs, approached them with the air of having something important to say. He announced that, by a special decree of Comrade Napoleon, "Beasts of England" had been abolished. From now onwards it was forbidden to sing it. (7.32)

Frankly, keeping up with the pigs' rules is harder than remembering what we're supposed to eat. (Eggs—no. Wait, yes! Eat a Mediterranean diet—no, eat a Japanese diet! Red meat will kill you; wait, nope, it actually will only kill you if you have a certain gene. Yeesh.)

Quote #6

A few days later, when the terror caused by the executions had died down, some of the animals remembered– or thought they remembered– that the Sixth Commandment decreed "No animal shall kill any other animal." And though no one cared to mention it in the hearing of the pigs or the dogs, it was felt that the killings which had taken place did not square with this. Clover asked Benjamin to read her the Sixth Commandment, and when Benjamin, as usual, said that he refused to meddle in such matters, she fetched Muriel. Muriel read the Commandment for her. It ran: "No animal shall kill any other animal WITHOUT CAUSE." (8.1)

We could let the "sleep in a bed with sheets" revision slide, but this one? This one seems a bit less harmless. In fact, it seems downright harmful. Pretty soon, the commandments are going to be as complicated as… well, the U.S. Constitution.