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“Be careful what you wish for.” That’s the plot of Animal Farm. For 58 more seconds on the action that moves George Orwell’s allegory forward, just check out this Recap.

Video Transcription:

The plot of Animal Farm in one sentence. After this.

Have you ever heard the expression, “Be careful what you wish for”? That’s the plot of Animal Farm. Be very careful what you wish for.

Old Major wished for an animal utopia where animals could live in equality and where humans were banished forever.

The animals wished for a rebellion to establish that utopia.

After the rebellion, the animals wished to work hard and to establish Animal Farm as the most revered farm in England.

But meanwhile, Napoleon the pig was wishing for something else. He was wishing for power and reverence and absolute control—and he gets it.

Napoleon overthrows his sole competitor, Snowball. He establishes Snowball as the enemy and the rest of the animals as his loyal subjects. He increases the animals’ workload and decreases their rations. He demands that they build a windmill—and when it’s destroyed by evil humans, he demands they build it again. (For the animals’ own good, of course.)

Napoleon rules with a violent, er, trotter. And all in the name of what those animals wished for to begin with—equality. But the only animals who get that equality, of course, are the pigs. And by the end, they’ve turned into their own worst enemies—humans.