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   mom2tristan Teacher
   Middle School

   eNotes Editor

   The most serious of the broken promises center around the changing of the seven commandments, which first appear in the last pages of chapter 2. These commandments are a promise between all of the animals on the farm, and one by one Napoleon breaks his word, and covertly changes the commandments.

   By the end of the book, each of the seven commandments has been broken, and all of those violations consitute a serious broken promise.  Some of the most serious include the slaughter of animals (by other animals) in chapter 7 and the elimination of all but the last commandment, which is changed to read "All animals are equal but some are more equal than others" in chapter 10. The pigs also begin consuming alcohol and sleeping in beds, both of which violate the original commandments.

   More minor broken promises include Frederick's passing of forged currency to Napoloen in chapter 8, the promise that animals would be given a nice area to graze, upon their retirement (which we see violated to the extreme in Chapter 9, when Boxer is sold to the knackers [glue makers]), and Mollie's promise to give up sugar cubes, which she breaks in chapter 5.

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   http://www.enotes.com/animal/summary-analysis

   http://www.enotes.com/animal/themes

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   Posted by mom2tristan on Sunday November 16, 2008 at 11:14 AM