Animal farm starts out at Manor Farm, which is owned by Mr. Jones. The animals on the farm are malnourished and poorly treated. All the animals are over it, decide to rebel and take over the farm for themselves; they succeed. They then rename the farm "Animal Farm" and create a government following the seven commandments of Animalism. The two animals who run the government are Snowball and Napoleon, the two smartest pigs on the farm. They struggle to produce food and goods; however, it is 'better than when Mr. Jones ran the farm'. Snowball and Napoleon disagree on what steps should be taken to save the farm. Consequently, Napoleon runs Snowball out of the farm with his dog bodyguards and informs the other animals that Snowball is a traitor. Soon, Napoleon becomes very powerful and steals Snowball's idea to build a windmill to power the farm.
Napoleon has the animals work hard for two years to build the windmill. Meanwhile, he stays in a house and the other animals sleep outside on the farm. Then, Animal Farm is attacked by humans and the windmill is destroyed. Napoleon makes the starving, restless animals build it again, while he sits inside with plenty of food and neglects to help. If anything on the farm goes wrong, Napoleon perpetually blames the traitor, Snowball. Throughout the book, the seven commandments change and anyone who disagrees with Napoleon is deemed a traitor and executed. The Farm is weak but Napoleon is well-off. He receives the best whilst the other animals receive the worst. At end of the book, Animal Farm comes to an agreement with the neighboring humans. The author wanted to get the point across that giving all power to one individual is communism. Communism makes everyone else equal -- equally poor. The book warns readers about the dangers of communism.