1984

"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...