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Proles is a Newspeak term in George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four to describe the proletariat class. Image File history File links Information_icon. ...
Newspeak is a fictional language in George Orwells novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. ...
Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903[1][2] – 21 January 1950), better known by the pen name George Orwell, was a British author and journalist. ...
Nineteen Eighty-Four (commonly written as 1984) is a dystopian novel by the English writer George Orwell, published in 1949. ...
The proletariat (from Latin proles, offspring) is a term used to identify a lower social class; a member of such a class is proletarian. ...
Proles as a social class
According to this dystopian vision of the future world, the society of Oceania was divided into 3 distinct classes: Inner Party, Outer Party, and proles (upper, middle and lower classes). In the novel, 85% of the population of Oceania (former Britain, Ireland, Australia, the Americas and a large part of southern Africa) are proles. They were given little education, worked tough physical jobs, lived in poverty (but relatively richer than the Outer Party members), had plenty of children, and usually died by the age of sixty. They are represented allegorically in Animal Farm by Boxer, Benjamin and all the working animals. A dystopia (from the Greek δυσ- and τόπος, alternatively, cacotopia[1], kakotopia or anti-utopia) is a fictional society that is the antithesis of utopia. ...
Oceania is red on the fictitious 1984 world map Note: At the end of the novel, there are news reports that Oceania has captured all of Africa, though as propaganda, the credibility of the reports are uncertain. ...
In the world of George Orwells Nineteen Eighty-Four, The Party which controls Oceania is split into two halves: the Inner Party and the Outer Party. ...
In the world of George Orwells Nineteen Eighty-Four, The Party which controls Oceania_fiction is split into two halves: the Inner Party and the Outer Party. ...
Oceania is red on the fictitious 1984 world map Note: At the end of the novel, there are news reports that Oceania has captured all of Africa, though as propaganda, the credibility of the reports are uncertain. ...
This article or section contains a plot summary that is overly long. ...
The Party's control over proles Proles were still free. As the Party's slogan put it: "Proles and animals are free." This is a sharp contrast to the control of the members of Inner and Outer Parties. The Party members were constantly monitored by telescreens - a TV-like box that could receive and send information simultaneously. These telescreens were placed everywhere, in both private and public places. However, prole quarters were more or less free of telescreens. That is mostly due to a fact that proles were not considered to be human beings. They did not have the intellectual power to understand that they are exploited by the Party (as a source of cheap labour) and were unable and/or unwilling to organise resistance. Their functions were simple: work and breed. They did not care much about anything else than taking care of home and family, quarrelling with neighbours, watching some films and football, drinking beer, and above all buying lottery tickets. They were not required to express their support to the Party. They were only required to show primitive patriotism. The Party created special meaningless songs, novels, even pornography for the proles. Proles did not have to wear a uniform; they could use cosmetics; they had a free market where Outer Party members could get some deficit product (examples from the novel were shoelaces and razor blades); they were free because they posed no danger to the Party. Big Brothers face looms on giant telescreens in Victory Square Telescreens are featured in George Orwells novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. ...
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A budget deficit occurs when an entity (often a government) spends more money than it takes in. ...
| “ | To keep them in control was not difficult. A few agents of the Thought Police moved always among them, spreading false rumours and marking down and eliminating the few individuals who were judged capable of becoming dangerous; but no attempt was made to indoctrinate them with the ideology of the Party. It was not desirable that the proles should have strong political feelings. All that was required of them was a primitive patriotism which could be appealed to whenever it was necessary to make them accept longer working-hours or shorter rations. And even when they became discontented, as they sometimes did, their discontent led nowhere, because, without general ideas, they could only focus it on petty specific grievances. The larger evils invariably escaped their notice. The great majority of proles did not even have telescreens in their homes. Even the civil police interfered with them very little. There was a vast amount of criminality in London, a whole world-within-a-world of thieves, bandits, prostitutes, drug-peddlers and racketeers of every description; but since it all happened among the proles themselves, it was of no importance. In all questions of morals they were allowed to follow their ancestral code. The sexual Puritanism of the Party was not imposed upon them. Promiscuity went unpunished, divorce was permitted. For that matter, even religious worship would have been permitted if the proles had shown any sign of needing or wanting it. They were beneath suspicion. As the Party slogan put it: 'Proles and animals are free.' [1] | ” |
Proles as the only hope If there is hope, wrote Winston, it lies in the proles.[1] One of the recurring themes in the novel is if proles revolted they could establish something like a utopia. It's a struggle between a wild hope carried by Winston Smith, the main character, and his realisation that proles were incapable of such an act. Winston admired proles because as he said, “Proles remained human.” That means that they preserved emotions which Party members had to avoid because they were in constant surveillance of telescreens. Any “non-patriotic” emotion expressed, even involuntarily, by a Party member resulted in “vaporisation” (i.e., total deletion from all the records – such people, for all intents and purposes, never existed). Thus Winston believed that if there were any hope, it lay with proles. Proles preserved the essence of life, human emotions, and even the English language (Oldspeak) and the Party could not control it. However, Winston's hope clashes with O'Brien’s view that the proles would never revolt because they would never have the need to do so. Winston also recognised that proles were not capable and/or willing of organising a revolution. It is also important to note, that nobody (even Winston) had any thoughts that the Party could collapse by itself. It had too tight control over the Party members who had already lost their human feelings (Winston himself recognised that he no longer felt compassion; children reported their parents to the Thoughtpolice on a daily basis; sex became a “duty to the Party” with the only purpose to produce children). The younger generation (represented by Winston’s love Julia) showed a rapid degradation of humanity. Peter Cushing as Winston Smith in the 1954 BBC Television adaptation of Nineteen Eighty-Four, with Donald Pleasence as Syme. ...
The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...
Newspeak is a fictional language in George Orwells novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. ...
André Morell as OBrien in the 1954 BBC Television adaptation of Nineteen Eighty-Four. ...
Julia is the name of a fictional character from George Orwells dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. ...
Until they become conscious they will never rebel,
and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious.[1]
References - ^ a b c Orwell, George (1949). Nineteen Eighty-Four.
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