Setting

Physical setting

The entire story takes place on a farm in England, close to the city of Willingdon (p. 80) in East Sussex. The farm is called the Manor Farm at the beginning (p. 1) and end of the story (p. 94), though the name is changed to Animal Farm while most of the plot unfolds. The farm is relatively large, containing several buildings and covering a significant amount of land. We get some description of the farm and its surroundings after the animals’ rebellion: "…they made a tour of inspection of the whole farm and surveyed with speechless admiration the ploughland, the hayfield, the orchard, the pool, the spinney.” (p. 14).

Almost all events described in the story are centred on this farm, with only very brief references to events in other areas. For this reason, we know relatively little about the farm’s surroundings, although we learn that it has two neighbouring farms.

The first neighbouring farm is Foxwood, owned by Mr. Pilkington. It is described as “…a large, neglected, old-fashioned farm, much overgrown by woodland, with all its pastures worn out and its hedges in a disgraceful ...