“Animal Farm” Speech – Snowball

Comrades, I stand here before you on this Sunday morning to bring forth my final solicitation to you for the ratification of the building of the windmill. In a minute or so, I will make all the beauties of the windmill known to you.

Weeks ago, when I investigated our farm and surveyed the ground, I discovered that the knoll is the highest point on the farm, and it is certainly the ideal place to build the windmill on. Once the windmill is built, it can generate electricity through a dynamo with the energy from wind. This amount of electrical power will be so enormous that it will be able to run a circular saw; it will be able to run a chaff-cutter, it will be able to light up every stall in the farm, and warm them in winter.

I do not deny that building it would be a difficult business. Stone would have to be carried and build into walls, then the sails would have to be made, and after that there would be need for dynamos and cables (Orwell 65). But I guarantee that it would be all done in one year, if we all dedicate ourselves to it. When it’s accomplished, so much labour would be saved that we would only have to work three days in a week.

Comrades, could you imagine the luxury that a three day week brings to us? You would only have to work three days in a week, and get even more ration than what you now have. Your stalls would no longer be chilly in the winter; they will be heated and lightened up with electricity. You horses, there will be no more need for you to run that old and lousy chaff-cutter, it will be replaced with a new, and electrically operated one. The same thing will happen to the mangel slicer, the turnip slicer, and the circular saw. There will be no need for anyone to run them, because all the tasks will be done at a push of a button. For you cows, milking will become so much speedier and simpler with the help of electric milking machines; you might even be able to milk yourselves. To make these dreams come true, all you need to do is to take a vote, and you’ll get it all, all of that dignity and luxury.

The majestic pig that I admired by heart was Old Major. In the last speech he delivered to us before his passing, he asserted, “This single farm of ours would support a dozen horse, twenty cows, hundreds of sheep-and all of them living in a comfort and dignity that are now almost beyond our imagining. This till point, comrades, it is not crystal clear to you that building the windmill is the ideal way to implement Old Major’s vision?

What we need in Animal Farm is not blind toil; what we need in Animal Farm is not primitive labour; what we need in Animal Farm is not inefficient or obsolete ways of work, but invention and a new mechanical approach toward production and yield.

The windmill would be a prominent contribution to Animalism. If we’d only have to work three days a week, and with our production increased at the same time, we can easily help the animals in the other farms to trigger more rebellions. Very soon, tens of farms will be dominated by animals, and the future of Animalism will be rosy-bright.

May I please ask you to close your eyes, and picture with me a picture of the entire British Isles dominated by animals, all creatures that possess four legs, or have wings. Till that day we can sing Beasts of England out loud over and over to celebrate our victory, the ultimate success of Animalism.”

Building the windmill will be the first, and the most important step to our great success.