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Examples Of Hope In 1984 By George Orwell

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American author Margaret Weis once said, “Hope is the denial of reality.” Hope is a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen. Reality is the world or state of things as they actually exist, as opposed to an idealistic or notional idea of them. Having unrealistic hope can lead to an even messier reality. The dystopian novel 1984 made by George Orwell is a novel about a protagonist who suffers in his society, which is so highly suppressive that it restricts thought. This oppression makes him hope for freedom, but these hopes are dangerous in his society because just by the thought alone he could get killed. Throughout the novel, the protagonist, whose name is Winston, does reckless acts that he thinks he can get away with, …show more content…

In the book, the proles are seen as the hope that has the power to overthrow the Party. An example of this is “If there was hope, it must lie in the proles, because only there, in those swarming disregarded masses, eighty-five percent of the population of Oceania, could force to destroy the Party ever be generated” (Orwell 69). This evidence shows that this disregarded minority that is seen as subhuman is the hope to change their society as they know it. To further emphasize this, Winston follows up by saying that the party wouldn’t have the chance to build themselves against the vast majority of the proles. In contrast to this, a dark reality kills this hope and this is shown in the quote, “Until they become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious” (70). This quote shows that the proles aren’t conscious of their power and don’t seem too bothered by their society. The only way they can realize this power is by rebelling, but the only way they can rebel is by realizing their power. The proles are an underlying hope that everyone has because if the proles decide to use their power and rebel, society would benefit from it, and change for the better. All in all, this topic and evidence support the thesis statement by showing that hope is a big theme throughout the novel, but it’s conveyed specifically with the

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This is another connection to the ideology found in “1984”. It is the concept that Winston happens upon while reading the manifesto of the Brotherhood; “…the key lies in the proles.” This is the response the Winston finds after reading the book, and it is an answer that he believes unequivocally. However, Winston also considers that there is a strong unlikeliness of the proles ever rebelling, (potentially due to the instilling of “doublethink”). The proles are distracted by the everyday struggle to survive; they can never be bothered or take the necessary time to organize.

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“War is peace, freedom is slavery, and ignorance is strength.” (4) Language can be viewed as a creator of power because of the Party’s manipulative slogans, Winston’s journaling, as well as the Party changing history. These ideas and manifestations have brought manipulation, as well as drive for furthering one’s hidden intentions. The Party’s assertion of distraction and manipulation gives a false sense of security to the proles, because it ensures that the proles remain content with their lives and do not challenge the status quo. The Party’s manipulation of depicting the “people and animals a[s] free” (72) serves as a distraction, diverting attention away from the oppressive regime of the Party.

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876 Words | 4 Pages

This idea is demonstrated when Winston walks among the proles and thinks about them. During this period, Winston meets with an old man in a bar and talks with him about Oceania before the Revolution, during this time, he learns more about the proles and their activity. For example, he notices that bombs are only shot at proles, not party members, but the proles seem to be aware of when the rockets are coming, even several seconds before they hit (pg. 87). This may mean that they may have the knowledge to figure out patterns and may be more intelligent that made out to be by the party. Winston also says that “the hope lies in the proles” due to the fact that the large numbers of the proles would be required to be capable of overthrowing the Party (pg. 72).

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English 10 Honors-1 May 16, 2023 (End of period) “Until they become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious” (70 Orwell) These words were written out of significant thought on Winston's part. Winston was beginning to learn why the proles and many others weren’t rebelling, it is simply because they were so brainwashed. That there was an imaginative brick wall in their cognitive thought.

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Hope and defiance are played within 1984 by the Party and Orwell. Orwell instills fear, hate, obedience, and respect in his characters to follow the Party, but he tampers with the concept of hope, but only in small amounts. Orwell puts little emphasis into hope and defiance compared to the emotions stated before. Hope is expressed little by little as the story continues, having the main two who prove to have hope or defiance towards the Party is Winston and Julia. The first instance in Winston is expressed while he is writing about the Proles.

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1984’s Pessimistic View on Human Nature Samuel Welling Ms. Kirkpatrick ENG2D-07 11/26/2014 Throughout the book, the party describes to a large extent about how human nature can be seen with a negative perspective. The book 1984 gives a pessimistic view toward human nature and says how it should be eradicated. Evidence that supports the books pessimistic view is one of the parties most important slogans, “War is Peace, Ignorance is Strength, and Freedom is Slavery.”

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Winston creates the dream vision of the future through his fantasy of the Party being overthrown to result in a fair government. Winston believes the government is rotten and rigorous, which helps bring out his heroic characteristic of being an inspiring man. He has a vision for what he wants Oceania to become and Winston feels that the proles need “only to rise up and shake themselves like a horse shaking off flies” and if they want, they can “blow the Party to pieces tomorrow morning” and be “conscious of their own strength” (69). Winston indicates that “If there is hope” he continues in his diary, “it lies in the proles” (82). The proles take up about 85% of the population, and in Winston’s eyes, if they all work together they would be able to come against the Party and create a revolution against them.

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The future belonged to the proles." (Orwell 229). This fuels a deep reverence and respect for the lady, because she is free than Winston will ever be. The prole gives hope

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Free thought was not granted in the novel, which is why so few believed the government was ruling for the wrong reasons and had to hide their logic and reasoning. Anti-free thought was even more supported after seeing the punishment given to those who would practice thinking, this caused most citizens to shut out reality. With a totalitarian government, the party has the power to blind people of their rights and abilities by making citizens believe the most powerful is the government. Proles are what the human race can become with full government control, and a perfect example of why we should practice free thought.

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The world of George Orwell’s Oceania is an authoritarian society where the cultural hierarchy includes the inner party, the outer party, and the proles. By definition, an authoritarian society has no governing body to protect the rights of citizens. The outer party members of Oceania have no rights except the right to love and obey Big Brother; the inner party members are compelled, on pain of death, to love Big Brother. The only “citizens” that have any rights are the proles, the lowest of the low in Oceania. They are considered to be free like weeds growing in a meadow.

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Demonstrating how the party’s ideals have caused Winston to automatically make the assumption that all proles are subhuman. In the text, Winston never actively challenges this presumption; consequently, displaying his unconscious superiority complex caused by the government's orthodoxical ideals. Correspondingly, the use of the third-person in the second quotation serves to distance Winston from the proles; further empathizing the class division between Winston and the proles, which distinguishes the likelihood of insurgency to

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The Proles are lower class citizens of Oceania, and they represent the “uninvolved in politics” people of the real world that we live in today. These Proles represent about 85 percent

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In 1984, a dystopian novel written by George Orwell, proles are represented as being generally incompetent in the ability to think and rebel against their stolen rights. However, as the story progresses, Winston comes to a realization that proles are the only ones with the character of human beings and the strength to gain consciousness to overthrow the party. Through this characterization of the proles, Orwell satirizes the detrimental effects of Stalin’s totalitarian government in employing total control and perpetual surveillance of the people in USSR to maintain an established hierarchy. The nature of how the system views the proles is clearly visible through the treatment and description of the proles in the eyes of Winston.

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Winston also acknowledges the fact that the proles will remain ignorant to their power until they rebel but they will not rebel until they are aware of their power. This cyclic contradiction proves that the proles will never be able to overthrow the government. This ignorance of the people gives strength to the Party. The Ministry of Truth, where Winston works, has a big part in keeping the people ignorant. Winston’s job is to change the past.

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1539 Words | 7 Pages

He gives up and realizes that he cannot change anything or prove anything against the supreme power of the Big Brother. He pays his allegiance to the government. Winston had to go through a series of tortures out of which Room no. 101 was the symbol of pain. He is made to face his ultimate fear that is rats, which makes him betray Julia and he loses everything. What is shown here is how the people, who rebel, who try bringing change and or try to understand and remember the past are treated.

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