Question

Which statements do you think explain why the Seven Commandments, which are the principles of Animalism, change over the course of the novel?

The pigs revise the rules to gain privileges for themselves.
As life on the farm changes, the animals’ way of life changes.
The pigs alter the commandments to give themselves more power.
The commandments change to show how power can corrupt people.
The animals that can read take advantage of the animals that cannot.

Answer 1

Choose statements 1, 3, 4 and 5. Briefly:

- The pigs revise the rules to gain privileges for themselves (true) — they change wording to justify special treatment.
- The pigs alter the commandments to give themselves more power (true) — the revisions consolidate their control.
- The commandments change to show how power can corrupt people (true) — the gradual alterations dramatize the corrupting effect of unchecked authority.
- The animals that can read take advantage of the animals that cannot (true) — the pigs’ literacy lets them rewrite and reinterpret the rules without effective challenge.

Statement 2 is less directly an explanation: while life on the farm does change, the commandments are changed deliberately by the pigs to justify their behavior, not simply as a neutral response to changing conditions.