Answer: c:the protesting hens being intentionally starved
Explanation:
George Orwell's<em> Animal Farm </em>(1945) is an allegory for the Russian Revolution. In the novel, a group of farm animals rebels against their farmer and takes over the farm.
In this particular excerpt, the hens refuse to cooperate and give their eggs to the pigs. This is why Napoleon (a pig that becomes a leader of the farm after the Rebellion and that represents Joseph Stalin) decides to starve the hens in order for them to give in. Many hens are starved to death, and the rest of them gives up. This is an allegory for the Great Purge (1936-1938), Stalin's campaign in which he murdered "anti-Soviet" people and sent them to labor camps (Gulags).
