What is the significance of the windmill in Animal Farm?

The windmill represents technological achievement and gives the pigs a way to distract the animals with hopes of a better future.

The windmill was the future that was never meant to be.  It was easy living, and the good life.  A windmill meant electricity, and less work.  It is a fantasy and pure propaganda.

The animals had never heard of anything of this kind before, … and they listened in astonishment while Snowball conjured up pictures of fantastic machines which would do their work for them while they grazed at their ease in the fields or improved their minds with reading and conversation. (Ch. 4)

 Snowball, the idealist, had the grand idea.  He was going to make things better for the animals.  They believed it too.  He probably did as well.  The problem with ideals is that this is all they are.  Snowball’s ideals got him killed, most likely.  He is driven off the farm and used as a scapegoat thereafter.  Everything that goes wrong is blamed on Snowball. 

However, his idea of the windmill is very convenient.  Whenever the animals need a distraction, they can be building the windmill, and they won’t look too closely at what is really going on.  When the windmill gets too close to getting done, it can mysteriously be destroyed in a battle or other disaster.  This can go on indefinitely, so that the pigs are always in control, and the animals never get their freedom.  Animals resting and free would be very bad for the pigs indeed.

Notice how Napoleon was against the windmill, which Snowball painstakingly designed, when it was Snowball’s idea, until he found a way to work it to his advantage?

All of them came to look at Snowball's drawings at least once a day. Even the hens and ducks came ... Only Napoleon held aloof. He had declared himself against the windmill from the start. One day, however, he arrived unexpectedly to examine the plans. (Ch. 5)

As soon as the plans are done and Snowball presents them, Napoleon produces guard dogs to chase Snowball out.  Squealer goes into propaganda mode, telling everyone that he had never in fact been opposed to the windmill, that it had been his idea all along, and that he only pretended to be against it to get rid of Snowball.  He explains why they need the windmill, and that everyone will work hard to build it.  The dogs growl, and everyone goes along with it.

This pattern continues.  The windmill is the symbol of hope, and as long as the animals are distracted with working toward hope, they do not notice how terrible their lives actually are.  As long as they have hope to look forward to, they do not realize how hopeless their lives are.  As with many revolutions, they have simply exchanged one tyrant for another.  Animalism promised equality, but what they got was animals subjugating animals.

In Animal Farm, what is the windmill called?

Although Napoleon initially rejects Snowball's idea of building a windmill, after he runs Snowball off the farm as a traitor, he adopts the idea as his own. Even so, he approves faulty windmill plans so that after all the hard work and sacrifice of the animals, the windmill collapses and has to be rebuilt with walls twice as thick.

Napoleon has been little more than a headache when it comes to the building of the windmill. He also does no work on it, yet he takes full credit for it when it is done and decrees that it be named after him:

Napoleon himself, attended by his dogs and his cockerel, came down to inspect the completed work; he personally congratulated the animals on their achievement, and announced that the mill would be named Napoleon Mill.

Napoleon then pooh-poohs reports that the windmill will be attacked, only to have Frederick and his men blow it up so that it must be rebuilt again.

What quote from Animal Farm suggests the windmill's benefit to the farm's industrialization?

The animals hope the windmill will make life easier.

Snowball has great things in mind for the windmill. He tells the animals that it will give them electricity and make their work easier. The farm has always been “old-fashioned” with “only the most primitive machinery.” Snowball’s vision is to bring the farm into the industrial age.

The animals had never heard of anything of this kind before … and they listened in astonishment while Snowball conjured up pictures of fantastic machines which would do their work for them while they grazed at their ease in the fields or improved their minds with reading and conversation. (Ch. 5)

Animal Farm is supposed to be a place of leisure and luxury in Snowball’s vision. The animals can sit back and relax while their stalls are lighted and warmed, and their work will be made easier by machinery. Napoleon pretends to be skeptical of the idea at first, urinating on the plans.

Besides Napoleon, not all animals are completely in favor of the windmill because it seems a fool’s business.

The whole farm was deeply divided on the subject of the windmill. Snowball did not deny that to build it would be a difficult business. Stone would have to be carried and built up into walls, then the sails would have to be made and after that there would be need for dynamos and cables. (Ch. 5)

The windmill is a boon to the pigs, though, because it gives the animals a goal to focus on and keeps them busy. As long as they can believe in the windmill, they will work hard and not think too much about what is really going on. It is a rallying point, and the pigs can claim that it is under attack or destroyed to keep the animals in a constant state of working on it.

What quotes from Animal Farm symbolize the windmill?

Absolutely!  Although a bit hidden, there are a few really important quotes about the building of the windmill.

First, let's discuss why the windmill project is important in Orwell's Animal Farm.  The windmill was originally proposed by Snowball as a really wonderful method to make the animals' work easier.  In this way, more work could be done with less effort, allowing the animals to have more free time and leisure activity.  Originally, Napoleon is against the project and is upset when the other animals are about to take a "vote" in favor of building the windmill. At this point, Napoleon unleashes his dogs in order to chase Snowball off the farm; however, Napoleon then suddenly is in favor of the windmill and proceeds with the plan for building it.  Of course, after the windmill is built, Napoleon simply uses it to increase production so that he, as the main dictator, can reap the spoils of the profits.  What was originally Snowball's idea to give the animals leisure time now has become a simple tool to make the animals work longer and harder.

Now look at three important quotes:

No one believes more firmly than Comrade Napoleon that all animals are equal. He would be only too happy to let you make your decisions for yourselves. But sometimes you might make the wrong decisions, comrades, and then where should we be? Suppose you had decided to follow Snowball, with his moonshine of windmills ‒ Snowball, who, as we now know, was no better than a criminal?

Here we have the explanation as to why Snowball was kicked off the farm by the dogs that were secretly Napoleon's weapon.  Note the wording of "moonshine of windmills," showing that it is against Napoleon's wishes for this machine to alter their states and give the animals a bit of pleasure.  No.  It would be the "wrong decision" to make the windmill for any other reason than to further the dictator's plan.  This is a perfect example of enticing propaganda.

Windmill or no windmill, he said, life would go on as it had always gone on--that is, badly.

Such is one of the truest quotations in the book.  When the dictator, Napoleon, is in charge, life cannot be anything but bad.  Even though the windmill was designed to lighten the work load, under the dictatorship of Napoleon it would be used for profit and not for help.

Even when the windmill is completed, it is destroyed by the humans.  Now let's look at the battle cry from the "Battle of the Windmill":

What are the outcomes of the three windmill implementations in Animal Farm?

First, Snowball's plans for a windmill were rebuffed by Napoleon, who sent Snowball scampering from the farm for good with a pack of dogs on his heels. Then Napoleon decided to begin work on the windmill, claiming that the idea was all his. In November, a "raging southwest wind" sent the windmill toppling, though Napoleon blamed Snowball for its destruction. Work began again and this time the walls would be twice as thick. It was completed the following autumn, but just a few days later Frederick's men came and blew it up, though the animals eventually triumphed in what became known as the Battle of the Windmill. Although Boxer did not live to see the rebuilding of the windmill a third time, it was eventually completed, though it failed to generate the electricity that was originally promised. Instead of providing warmth for the stalls of the animals,

It was used for milling corn, and brought in a handsome money profit. 

Why is the windmill important in the novel Animal Farm?

The windmill represents the animals' entry into the world of self-sufficiency. At first Napoleon is against it because Snowball favors it. However, once Snowball is banished, Napoleon suddenly changes his mind and is all for it. The allegory to this is Stalin's plan to modernize Russia and bring it into the 20th century. Russia was still a county using 19th century tools in a 20th century industrialized economy and in order to compete on the world markets, they had to industrialize quickly. This is why Napoleon, who represents Stalin, pushes the animals so hard in order to finish the windmill. It's also a reason the neighbors see the windmill as a threat because they don't want any more competitors in their neighborhoods.