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One night(,) old Major(,) has a strange dream about the previous night and wishes to communicate it to the other animals. After all the animals arrive at big barn, Major begins to speak. He says that the lives of animals are miserable, laborious, and short. No animals are free; they are forced to work until slaughter. The hunger and overwork should be abolished forever. He stirs up all the animals to rise up in rebellion, and through the struggle overthrow the humans.

After old Major died, preeminent pigs, Snowball and Napoleon start teaching his idea to the other animals, which is a complete system of thought called Animalism. In past years, Mr. Jones has gone from a capable farmer to a drunkard. One night, Mr. Jones gets drunk and forgets to feed the animals. The animals are very hungry and they cannot stand it any longer. They rebel and force the human beings off the farm. They rename the farm “Animal Farm” and inscribe the “Seven Commandments of Animalism” on the wall of the big barn.

All through the summer, the animals are hard working and happy. Every animal works according to his capacity. Snowball forms several committees and organizes the other animals to join these committees. These projects are a failure except for the reading and writing. Mr. Jones, who does not accept the failure, comes back with all his men and attempts to recapture the farm, but the animals, led by Snowball, defeat the men.

Snowball and Napoleon have a great and constant disagreement over plans for the future of the farm, especially over the windmill. Snowball wants to provide the farm with electric power, and Napoleon wants to increase food production. At a routine meeting, Napoleon calls in nine dogs, that he has specially trained, to chase Snowball off the farm. Squealer, the pig who relays most of Napoleon's decisions to the other animals, tells them that Snowball was a traitor in league with Jones, and that the windmill was really Napoleon's idea, and it will go ahead.

All that year the animals work like slaves, but they are happy. Work on the windmill is plagued with unexpected difficulties. Only Boxer is a very strong and hard worker. Napoleon begins trading with nearby farms, and the pigs move into the farmhouse and sleep in the beds there - even though sleeping in beds, like humans, is forbidden by the original principles of Animalism.

The winter is bitter. The food falls short. The animals’ rations are drastically reduced. Napoleon and Squealer blame Snowball for everything that goes wrong on the farm, from broken windows to blocked drains. Napoleon's dogs attack four pigs, and force them to confess about plotting with Snowball. Other animals start a series of confessions of various “crimes.” The dogs slaughter all animals that confess. The survivors are shaken and miserable.

With animals working harder and longer hours than they have worked before, the windmill is finally completed. Napoleon plans to sell a pile of timber to farmers Pilkington and Frederick. He distrusts Pilkington, but Frederick does not offer a reasonable price. Napoleon cunningly forces him to raise the price. Later, he discovers that the banknotes that Frederick has been paid are forgeries. Frederick and his men then come on to the farm and blow the windmill to pieces with explosives.

Boxer is injured while working on repairs to the windmill. Benjamin notices that the van, which Napoleon sends Boxer to the vet in, has “Horse Slaughterer” painted on the side. Three days later it is announced that Boxer has “died in hospital” under care of the vet.

Years pass, life is just as hard as it ever was. There is no one who remembers the old days before the Rebellion. The pigs start walking on two legs. None of the old Commandments is left on the barn wall. A group of human farmers comes to see the farm, they quarrel with the pigs over a game of cards. The animals look, through the window, form pig to man, and form man to pig. They discover they can no longer tell which is human and which is pig.

Analysis:

Animal Farm tells an extremely ironic story of “Animalism” which is “all the animals are equal.” Unfortunately, the Animal Farm ultimately turns into a dictatorship of pigs. The dreams of communism become horrors of a totalitarian regime.

The symbolic interactionist perspective stresses the meaning of symbols. For example, the original Seven Commandments express the ideals of animalism and the hopes for a new life by the animals on the farm. It is noticeable that the treachery of these ideals begins almost immediately showing that power corrupts. First, the words of the Seven Commandments change in the course of the pigs'corruption. The fourth and fifth Commandments were: “No animal shall sleep in a bed.” and “No animal shall drink alcohol.” In order to enjoy these privileges the pigs changed the Commandments to “ - sleep with sheets” and “ - drink alcohol in excess.” As long as the elite pigs sleep without sheets and do not drink alcohol to excess, they do not violate the law. Ironically, the pigs own law! Next, Napoleon radically abandons Animalism. Napoleon removes the hoof and horn as a feature of animalism. It means the pigs have abandoned their initial idea, and symbolizes the pigs replace men to dominate the animals. Finally, the pigs all adopt the enemy ways of live, and use the way of human to rule other the animals. The pigs start to walk on their hind legs that are(-symbolic of humans) prohibited in the original commandments. They carry whips to supervise other animals'work; treating them as they are treated when humans ruled.
(Teacher wrote: Save for conflict theory) 
The Conflict perspective stresses equality. In Animal Farm, it is obviously unequal. When Elite pigs get power, they rewrite the rule to keep them on the top and other animals beneath them. First, the pigs write the Seven Commandments. One of them is “all the animals are equal,” but the pigs continually break the rules. For instance, they collect all the milk and apples those should share with all the animals. They get up an hour later than other animals. Secondly, The pigs use their power to revise the Seven Commandments to benefit themselves. The revised Commandments give the pigs more privileges. The pigs are free to sleep in the beds and enjoy alcohol. Finally, the pig's privilege produces more unequal. When there is a food shortage, the common animals work hard and their food rations are still reduced by the pigs. The pigs and the dogs never work, and their rations are never reduced. As the farm becomes more prosperous, the common animal becomes poorer and hungrier. The pigs and dogs become richer and fatter. Eventually, only a single commandment remains on the barn wall: “All Animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” (Need to see some key term here inequality exploitation etc.)

The Functionalist sees society as a system. This system needs rule so the society can function. When elite pigs change the rules, the rules only help the privileged class of pigs and dogs. In this case, the function of the Seven Commandments is to control the animals while justifying the pigs' actions. This dysfunction undermines the farm animal’s system of equilibrium. (Good) The pigs paint the Seven Commandments on the outside wall of the barn and, later, they alter the principles of Animalism. The working animals puzzle over this but accept the changes by the institution in power. The pigs have the power to change the commandments and to convince the other animals that their ruling is correct. If the working animals believe they must lie on the side of their rulers, they are less likely to question authority. Also, by revising the Seven Commandments from their origin, the pigs control the lower animals. Functionalist also stresses the social structure. Society needs high-qualified people to fill its important position. The clever pigs and the stupid animals are naturally divided into two groups. The pigs teach themselves to read and write. In the reading and writing degree, the pigs can read and write perfectly. With their superior knowledge and wisdom, the pigs naturally become the leaders and managers. Contrary,, the lack of education keeps the other animals in the lower class. Boxer and sheep are especially uneducated. Boxer only knows “work hard” and “Napoleon is always right.”  The sheep are very loyal to Napoleon and trust the other pigs. The sheep support the pigs by bleating “ Four legs good, two legs bad.” When the pigs start walking on two legs, the sheep show their support by bleating: “Four legs good, two legs better!” Since the other animals are stupid and ignorant, the pigs are able to establish a peaceful status of complete power.

Orwell's view of human nature is idealism ending in selfish, greedy totalitarianism. People are idealistic. In Orwell's satiric fables, the animals want to create a paradise of progress, justice, and equality. Yet, believes that although animalism (communism) is good as an ideal, but it can never be successfully adopted due to uncontrollable instinct of human nature: selfishness and greedy. People are lazy and greedy. They do not want to work hard, but they want to get more material enjoyment than others. Such as the pigs do not do hard work, but they enjoy a high quality of live. Lower animals are also lazy because they rely on leadership and do not want to think. Selfishness brings the hunger for power. Napoleon seems as first to be a good leader, he is often self-centered, resemble Napoleon is unable to tolerate the opposite opinion of others.