Squealer continues his work of mollifying the animals who object to Napoleon’s plans. As he figuratively rewrites history when explaining that there never was a resolution against using money or trading and that the animals must have dreamed it, he literally rewrites history when he changes the Fourth Commandment from “No animal shall sleep in a bed” to “No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets.” When Clover learns of the two added words, she is naturally suspicious but has been so brainwashed by Napoleon’s regime that she concludes that she was mistaken. Squealer’s explanation of why the pigs sleep in beds hinges on semantics rather than common sense: “A bed merely means a place to sleep in” and “A pile of straw is a bed, properly regarded” are examples of his manipulation of language. His most powerful word, of course, is “Jones,” for whenever he asks, “Surely, none of you wishes to see Jones back?” all the animals’ questions are dispelled.
The destruction of the windmill marks the failure of Snowball’s vision of the future. It also allows Orwell to again demonstrate Napoleon’s incredible ability to seize an opportunity for his own purposes. Afraid of seeming indecisive and a failure while all the animals stare at the toppled windmill, Napoleon invokes the name of Snowball as Squealer does with Jones: “Do you know,” he asks, “the enemy who has come in the night and overthrown our windmill? SNOWBALL!” For the remainder of the novel, Snowball will be used as a scapegoat for all of Napoleon’s failings; his commands to begin rebuilding the windmill and shouting of slogans occur because he does not want to give the animals any time in which to consider the plausibility of his story about Snowball. Although he shouts, “Long live Animal Farm,” he means, “Long live Napoleon!”
