Freedom, the word, is thrown around in everyday language. You have the freedom to do this, to say that, to be your own individual person. The past few books we have read these freedoms that define us as people have been stripped away. Some worse than others but gone nonetheless. In 1984 there are two major life styles on can live as. You could be in the outer party also known as the "Proles" or you could be in the "Inner Party". Of course, there are disadvantages and advantages for joining each class.
While you might be naturally drawn to the inner party, the upper-class, especially if it's wealth that you seek. Yes, if you're in the Inner Party, you will have more power and control of the direction that your life goes. Money isn't an issue for you, you have plenty of it and can spend it anyway you like...to an extent. Better yet, the jobs you work are physically easy and one's that aren't life threatening, unless you make a mistake. There are some small downsides of being in the Inner Party though. For example you don't have the right to think you're own thoughts, everything you do must be for "Big Brother" or the Party. You can't show emotion in your face, it must remain like this: (-_-). You will obey any orders given to you, you can't be too smart, too dumb, foolish. You're watched 24/7 and any move you make will be noted. You can marry one person, once and you can't ever divorce them. Yes, this all seems a little bad but at least the consequences for breaking these rules aren't too bad. Wait, yeah they are. If you are to break any of these rules a majority of the time you will be vaporized, so that's something.
Now if we take a step back and examine the life of the Outer Party. The Proles live a tough life. They're poor and have a hard time affording anything, they struggle to find food or even places to live. They live in crowded arrangements. 85 percent of the population in the Party are the Proles, so you can imagine the situation.The Proles do work very hard and barely get paid, they do the heavy labor work for the party. As a Prole however, you aren't constantly being watched. You are free to have relationships with whomever you want. You can voice your opinions, break the rules (carefully), and you are free to be your own person.
With this brief summary of the two classes it's time to make your choice. Which would you rather be and why?
I would rather be a prole, maybe a farming prole. From the book, it seems as if the countryside still exists, and food production is obviously still going to be an issue so farmers will exist. I would like to be a farming prole. I would be able to have a small degree of true freedom, and living in the countryside would be nice, away from all the bleakness of the political world and possible war effects. There's a chance that farming proles would be in mass labors camps, and if that's the case, I might prefer the city.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Kevin, the life of a prole sounds (slightly) more appealing to me than the life of an Inner Party member. Even if daily life might require more work, at least you have a greater degree of control over your own fate. Tiny slip ups could be life threatening for an Inner Party member, but it seems like hard-working proles will be able to get by, if only barely. I also think that life would be much more enjoyable as a prole - the ability to socialize relatively freely is a huge advantage over the Inner Party. Their experiences could be at least somewhat comparable to ours, whereas political figures seem to lead entirely dystopian lives.
ReplyDeleteI would prefer being a prole as well because I believe that much of happiness is derived by the relationships you have and the experiences you have. In terms of relationships, obviously the inner party are severely hindered. Just as love has to be confessed secretly to avoid persecution in the inner party, relationships are weak. I think even if the work is a bit more strenuous, I would prefer to be a prole.
ReplyDeleteI agree with everyone else. The proles have the least amount of power, they're the most ignorant, but they're less closely watched (because their lives don't matter). While existentially, being a prole would be pretty depressing, it seems the most appealing. At least you're not going to be jumped on and killed if you step a toe out of line.
ReplyDeleteBeing a prole definitely seems to be the easy way out of this society. Unfortunately it does seem pretty depressing considering how pointless the life of the proles seem. But I guess they're still able to lead a life unlike Winston and the others in the outer party.
ReplyDeleteHmmm... very interested. I am free to say that I am in a great degree of agreement with almost every single one of the concepts that blog presented. Freedom is freely used all to often in writing. Although people should have the freedom to do so, I would like to restrict that freedom slightly.
ReplyDeleteI think that the points you brought up in this blog post are very interesting in nature. I agree that it is kind of funny that even though the Inner Party members should theoretically have it the best, they may not live the best lives. I think that I would choose to be a Prole to be honest. The level of restriction that the Party members in general have to endure feels stifling.
ReplyDeleteI, too, would rather be a prole. I think that the restrictions placed on party members would be way too much for me to put up with, and I wouldn't live a good quality of life. As a prole, I would have much more freedom to live my life peacefully, which is as much as you can ask in a world like this. Being a prole just seems like the easiest and best class choice.
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