Question

Read the passage from chapter 2 of Animal Farm.

They explained that by their studies of the past three months the pigs had succeeded in reducing the principles of Animalism to Seven Commandments. These Seven Commandments would now be inscribed on the wall; they would form an unalterable law by which all the animals on Animal Farm must live for ever after. With some difficulty (for it is not easy for a pig to balance himself on a ladder) Snowball climbed up and set to work, with Squealer a few rungs below him holding the paint-pot. The Commandments were written on the tarred wall in great white letters that could be read thirty yards away.

Which prediction does this passage best support?

The Seven Commandments will become a new religion.
Snowball will fall off the ladder and injure himself.
The animals will not see the commandments on the wall.
The pigs will eventually change the Seven Commandments.

Answer 1

The pigs will eventually change the Seven Commandments.

Reason: the text’s insistence that the commandments are an “unalterable law” feels ironic and foreshadows corruption—pigs in positions of power (and Squealer’s role as propagandist) suggest they will manipulate the rules to suit themselves.