The animals hope the windmill will make life easier.
Snowball has great things in mind for the windmill. He tells the animals that it will give them electricity and make their work easier. The farm has always been “old-fashioned” with “only the most primitive machinery.” Snowball’s vision is to bring the farm into the industrial age.
The animals had never heard of anything of this kind before … and they listened in astonishment while Snowball conjured up pictures of fantastic machines which would do their work for them while they grazed at their ease in the fields or improved their minds with reading and conversation. (Ch. 5)
Animal Farm is supposed to be a place of leisure and luxury in Snowball’s vision. The animals can sit back and relax while their stalls are lighted and warmed, and their work will be made easier by machinery. Napoleon pretends to be skeptical of the idea at first, urinating on the plans.
Besides Napoleon, not all animals are completely in favor of the windmill because it seems a fool’s business.
The whole farm was deeply divided on the subject of the windmill. Snowball did not deny that to build it would be a difficult business. Stone would have to be carried and built up into walls, then the sails would have to be made and after that there would be need for dynamos and cables. (Ch. 5)
The windmill is a boon to the pigs, though, because it gives the animals a goal to focus on and keeps them busy. As long as they can believe in the windmill, they will work hard and not think too much about what is really going on. It is a rallying point, and the pigs can claim that it is under attack or destroyed to keep the animals in a constant state of working on it.
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