1984

"The Party prisoners were always silent and terrified, but the ordinary criminals seemed to care nothing for anybody. They yelled insults at the guards, fought back fiercely when their belongings were impounded, wrote obscene words on the floor, ate smuggled food which they produced from mysterious hiding-places in their clothes, and even shouted down the telescreen when it tried to restore order. On the other hand some of them seemed to be on good terms with the guards, called them by nicknames, and tried to wheedle cigarettes through the spyhole in the door. The guards, too, treated the common criminals with a certain forbearance, even when they had to handle them roughly." This quote comes at the beginning of Part 3 Chapter 1. Winston has just awoken from an abduction by The Party and has been placed in a jail cell with other people that are deemed criminals. Winston notices that there seems to be a distinct division on how others have treated the situation they were in. ...

"The proles, it suddenly occurred to him, had remained in this condition. They were not loyal to a party or a country or an idea, they were loyal to one another. For the first time in his life he did not despise the proles or think of them merely as an inert force which would one day spring to life and regenerate the world. The proles had stayed human. They had not become hardened inside. They had held onto the primitive emotion which he himself had to relearn by conscious effort." (136) In this section, Winston realizes just how powerful the proles are. In previous chapters, the proles are described as this massive, huddled, and clueless group of workers. Though they were viewed as dirty and uneducated by Winston and his neighbors who worked in the Ministries, the proles were the ones who were really happy, because they were not monitored by Big Brother and were exempt from their rules. Winston even goes out to state ,"The proles are human beings" and "We ...

"Syme had vanished. A morning came, and he was missing from work; a few thoughtless people commented on his absence. On the next day nobody mentioned him. On the third day Winston went into the vestibule of the Records Department to look at the notice board. One of the notices carried a printed list of the members of the Chess Committee, of whom Syme had been one. It looked almost exactly as it had looked before – nothing had been crossed out – but it was one name shorter.  It was enough. Syme had ceased to exist; he had never existed." (122) We were first introduced to Syme in book 1, chapter 5. Syme was a language expert and was fine tuning the new language he was trying to implement on society. Winston described Syme as someone who was very intelligent and he thought his brain would pose a danger to Syme. Coming back to book 2, chapter 5, we see that Syme has been erased from the record books. Big Brother stripped away any evidence that proved Syme was an actual person a...

"'Top 'ats!' he said. 'Funny you should mention' em. The same thing come into my 'ead only yesterday. I dunno why. I was jest think. I ain't seen a top 'at in years Gorn right out, they'ave. The last time I wore one was at my sister-in-law's funeral. And that was-well, I couldn't give you the day, but it must'a been fifty years ago. Of course it was only 'ired for the occasion, your understand" (76) Winston took a stroll out one night and visited the proles. After a brief encounter with a bomb, Winston brushed off the explosion and the deadly consequences and continued his walk. He eventually found himself at a bar. There, Winston met a deranged-old man. He thought that this older gentleman could help him unlock the past. After offering the old man beer, Winston conjured up these questions to explore the past, however, the old man was far to strange with his answers. Winston did not receive his desired answer and left the...

"Even from the coin the eyes pursued you. On coins, on stamps, on the covers of books, on banners, on posters, and on the wrapping of cigarette packet- everywhere. Always the eyes watching you and the voice enveloping you. Asleep or awake, working or eating, indoors or out of doors, in the bath or in bed- no escape. Nothing was your own except the few cubic centimeters inside your brain." (pg. 26)           This passage was a description of the surrounding protagonist Winston Smith was consistently in. He was surrounded by watchful eyes that where everywhere. Furniture to small pocket items, there were images of eyes stitched into items creating a sense that there was always something watching where ever he would go. There was no privacy, except for the confines of your mind, and even that had its limits. The thought police was created to prevent people from having their own ideas. Another way to interpret this (excluding that last sentence) is that the...