On the ninetieth page of Nineteen Eighty-Four, Winston Smith writes in his diary: "If there is hope, it lies in the proles." Throughout the novel, Winston attempts to discover just how to overthrow the tyrannical Party, a mission that proves fatal to both his body and spirit. His diary entry expresses a certainty that the proletariat – the uneducated and economically deprived demographic which constitutes eighty-five percent of Oceania's population – could easily overpower the Party, if they could only pull themselves away from their hedonistic distractions. However, I believe that such a widespread revolution in the superstate would be utterly impossible. The Party can never be overthrown in Winston’s lifetime, nor in the lifetimes of any number of his successors.
In response to a comment in the 1689 British Bill of Rights, noted English politician Sir …show more content…
As the reader quickly learns, Winston’s world is one of ubiquitous surveillance, where even one’s facial expression could incriminate one as a thought criminal. Certainly, there may well be a large number of natural-born dissidents like Winston, unable to drown their conscience in doublethink and instead seething in silent discontent. However, with every medium of communication heavily monitored, potentially at all times, it would be impossible for one to identify another. Even if a tacit sign of rebellion – “a look in the eyes, an inflection of the voice; at the most, an occasional whispered word” (90) – gathered more than a handful of people to the cause, no communication system is completely watertight; the Thought Police would quickly sniff out and vapourize the whole ring of conspirators into unpersons. Not to mention, the underground of Oceania is crawling with double-agents, members of the Inner Party (like O’Brien) and Thought Police (like Mr. Charrington) who will wait for exactly the right moment to snare genuine objectors like Winston and
In response to a comment in the 1689 British Bill of Rights, noted English politician Sir …show more content…
As the reader quickly learns, Winston’s world is one of ubiquitous surveillance, where even one’s facial expression could incriminate one as a thought criminal. Certainly, there may well be a large number of natural-born dissidents like Winston, unable to drown their conscience in doublethink and instead seething in silent discontent. However, with every medium of communication heavily monitored, potentially at all times, it would be impossible for one to identify another. Even if a tacit sign of rebellion – “a look in the eyes, an inflection of the voice; at the most, an occasional whispered word” (90) – gathered more than a handful of people to the cause, no communication system is completely watertight; the Thought Police would quickly sniff out and vapourize the whole ring of conspirators into unpersons. Not to mention, the underground of Oceania is crawling with double-agents, members of the Inner Party (like O’Brien) and Thought Police (like Mr. Charrington) who will wait for exactly the right moment to snare genuine objectors like Winston and