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... him. In The Immorality Of Capitalism, Marx describes the inevitable collapse of capitalism and the united revolution of the working class proletariat. The proletariat working class in Marx's philosophy are represented by the proles of 1984.
Although the proles make up 80 % of the population, they are barely mentioned in the novel. The question remains, why did Orwell's proles not rise up as they should have according to Marx? The reader gets the impression that the proles are really seen as insignificant in Oceania. They are not monitored as are members of the party, and are basically left alone by the thought police.
Their safety in fact lies in their ignorance. When a member of the proles shows the least sign of a superior intellect, they are immediately vaporized by the thought police. The proles in reality are the only real humans left in Oceania, as they are allowed to keep basic human instincts of family, sexuality, recreation, and freedom from constant surveillance. Winston sees them as the only hope for the future of mankind.
He sees in the proles the continuation of human spirit and the only hope of rebellion. The basis of Goldstein's book (as well as Marx) was the accumulation of knowledge, spread of enlightenment, and ultimately the rebellion of the proles. The information which finally destroys Winston in the end, completely breaking his spirit, is the reality that the proles will never unify and revolt. The entire structure of Oceanic society is set against this possibility. While the outer party is controlled by surveillance and terror, the proles are merely distracted by state run lotteries, pornography, pop music and personal conflicts. Surveillance of the proles is not necessary, they do not constitute a threat to the order of Oceania.
By keeping the proles in a constant state of poverty, the party distracts them from higher political issues. Proles fight proles for material goods, such as the saucepan riot which Winston witnesses. Therefore, the failure of the party to provide is transformed into a personal conflict between individual proles over the goods which are available. When Winston questions an old man in a pub about his experience prior to the revolution, he only receives insignificant personal memories of unrelated events. The proles are in effect unconscious, oblivious to the higher issues of society, too immersed in their personal struggles to notice the greater problem. This reflects Orwell's own personal struggles with socialism.
He believed that in order for the proletariat to successfully seize power, there must be a union of the intellectual socialist and the common working class. He saw these two as completely irreconcilable, hopelessly different in nature and purpose. In this sense Orwell was Winston, conscious that the proletariat needed to unite but troubled by the fact that this would never occur as Marx said it would. Orwell had trouble finding a working class man who could understand the deeper implications of socialism. Winston saw the proles attack each other over cooking pots, not questioning why there were no pots. Marx saw that previous lower classes has progressed through the ranks of society, but that the current working class was not allowed this opportunity.
He saw that the industrial worker was only driven further down by the progress of society, not allowed the chance to elevate through the ranks but confined to eternal slavery by the system. This is what had happened to the proles as well. The party did not accept proles, they were a permanent underclass with no chance of elevation. Those who showed intelligence or potential for leadership were not elevated through the hierarchy of society into party positions, they were vaporized.
Thus instead of uniting and overthrowing Big Brother, the proles were kept ignorant and distracted. The vaporization of those who rose above this ignorance was, in effect a form of reverse-Darwinism employed by the party to ensure that this social structure would not change. In Marxism And The Open Mind, John Lewis describes the nature of society as thus: 'alternate periods of consolidation and reconstruction. After a forward step it halts for a time and elaborates a civilization. But the new structure creates conditions of strain and instability in the process of its development. The result is a period of movement and reconstruction which is also a period of advance.
At this stage, and in the period which precedes it, unrest and criticism are to be expected. ' In 1984, this natural unrest and criticism were systematically annihilated by the party, and as a result the progress of society had stopped. Winston's most devastating realization was that the proles would never revolt, and society would never move forward without their revolt. Ingsoc had stopped the natural progress of civilization and would remain in power forever. Political ramifications of Marxist utopianism aside, there are several other pertinent philosophical issues addressed in 1984. The original working title of 1984 was The Last Man In Europe. Orwell describes in Winston the struggle of the individual spirit and the search for personal identity.
This aspect of the novel contains echoes of Rene Descartes' Meditation in which the philosopher questions the nature of reality and of self. In his essay, Descartes explains that the laws of physics and the universe do not change with perception, that 'whether I be awake or asleep, two plus three makes five. ' This statement is almost identical to Winston Smith's revelation that 'freedom is the freedom to say that 2 + 2 = 4. 's smith decides that reality does exist, and that the nature of the universe does not change in accordance with party doctrine. Smith also realizes that the only freedom which exists lies in his thoughts. Descartes finally concluded in his essay that his thoughts were the only reality which assured him of his existence.
In 1984, the government systematically tries to destroy independent thought, and in effect deny even this freedom to its citizens. Big Brother can be seen as Descartes' evil genius, the ultimate deceiver, shaping reality as h...
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Research essay sample on Working Class Thought Police
