Literature GCSE English Worksheets, Questions and Revision

Late in the novel, the other animals watch through the farmhouse window and 'looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.' Explain how this line presents the theme of corruption.

1. Identify the technique: the repeated, circling syntax 'from pig to man, and from man to pig' mimics the animals' own confused, repeated looking, slowing the sentence down at the moment of realisation.
2. Note the final clause 'impossible to say which was which': the pigs and the humans they once rebelled against have become visually and morally indistinguishable.
3. Explain the effect: this collapses the very distinction the revolution was fought to create, showing that power has corrupted the pigs as completely as it corrupted Farmer Jones.
4. Link to the wider novel: this final image completes a pattern begun when the pigs first moved into the farmhouse and altered the Seven Commandments, each change chipping away at the original ideals of Animalism.
5. Link to context: Orwell is satirising how the Soviet leadership, who overthrew the Tsar in the name of equality, came to resemble the old ruling class it replaced.
6. Final answer: the line presents corruption as total and cyclical, using confused, mirroring syntax and a final admission of indistinguishability to show that the pigs' revolution has ended exactly where it began.