provide the farm with electricity, which will dramatically improve conditions and bring the animals into the industrial age. The majority of animals are astonished and excited about Snowball's plans for a windmill. However, Napoleon opposes Snowball's agenda and believes that food production is the most pressing concern for the farm at the moment. Napoleon tells the animals that if they spend their time building a windmill they will surely starve to death. The animals then split into two factions supporting either Snowball or Napoleon.Orwell writes,

"The animals formed themselves into two factions under the slogan, "Vote for Snowball and the three-day week" and "Vote for Napoleon and the full mange." Benjamin was the only animal who did not side with either faction. He refused to believe either that food would become more plentiful or that the windmill would save work. Windmill or no windmill, he said, life would go on as it had always gone on—that is, badly" (18).

During a Sunday vote among the animals, Napoleon ends up chasing Snowball off the farm and usurps power. He then steals Snowball's plans for the windmill and commissions building to begin.

After the animals’ successful rebellion against Farmer Jones, two pigs, Napoleon and Snowball, emerge as the new leaders of the farm. They announce to the other animals that not only have they taught themselves to read and write, but they’ve come up with seven commandments for the animals to live by. Although most of the animals learn to read and write to some degree, it’s only the pigs who are really literate. When some of the animals, including the sheep, have difficulty memorizing the seven commandments, Snowball comes up with the maxim “four legs good, two legs bad” (34). Later, when the animals divide themselves into two factions, those who support Napoleon and those who support Snowball, it’s the sheep who undermine Snowball by repeatedly bleating “four legs good, two legs bad” (48) during his speeches. It’s not long after that Snowball is scapegoated by Napoleon and run off the farm. Reducing the more nuanced commandments into a simplistic maxim points to the dangers of an uneducated citizenry.

Since the tenets of Animalism were too hard for the animals to memorize, Snowball shortened them to "Four legs good, two legs bad."  When the chickens inquired further, they were told that for Animal Farm's purposes, their wings could count as legs, thus making them fall into the "good" category.  The sheep soon picked up the chant, "Four legs good, two legs bad," and a motto for the farm was born.  

This attempt at humor by Orwell also demonstrates that the animals were incapable of abstract thought about their own governance.  The animals did not only have to have a mantra, but they had to have it chanted over and over.  When Napoleon exiled Snowball, he used the chant in order to drown out any anti-animalism sentiment.