1984 Social Standards

Is it okay to keep an entire society in poverty in order to benefit others? Social classes have always put others beneath more fortunate people. Can a person seem inferior due to their social class? In George Orwell’s, 1984, a person’s placement in the Party effects what social standards they will live with. 1984 is Orwell’s warning to what will happen if society continues to apply social standards to people. The Inner Party, the highest social class, is a direct line to the will of the omnipotent Big Brother. Members live in larger, higher quality, homes as opposed to the proles who live in poverty. Inner Party members actually try to keep the proles in poverty; in addition, they invoke ignorance upon the lower classes of the Outer Party
They are kept in mediocre conditions and are in constant surrender to Inner Party members. Telescreens hidden throughout Oceania strip away any privacy for all citizens. Citizens fear the telescreens for “it was terribly dangerous to let your thoughts wander when you were in any public place or within range of a telescreen” (Orwell 62). All Outer Party members are required to participate in many acts like the Two Minutes Hate, or else they risk vaporization. The Outer Party is always one step behind the Inner Party leaving them without their mental freedom to believe what they choose. The Outer Party represents a similarity to a modern middle class because they are always conforming to whatever methods their government uses to maintain power over lesser citizens, relating to a section explaining the principles of the Party’s slogan, “Ignorance is Strength” (Orwell 201), which means that the shortage of chocolate rations and the constant threat of war are illusions created to distract
The proles have the highest population in Oceania and Winston believes “if there is hope, it lies in the proles” (Orwell 82). In order to prevent a mass revolt, the Party uses “Ignorance is Strength,” to keep the proles believing that their lives aren’t so bad and to give them false hope through the lottery, pubs, songs, and the promise of victory of the ever changing war against Eastasia or Eurasia. The proles represent a lower class citizen in modern society because of their lives in poverty and reliance of others and their opinions, much like the Party through Newspeak, to explain and correct their current situations. 1984 is Orwell’s prediction that the wealthy will plot to keep people in poverty so as to keep their social stance in society.
In conclusion, 1984 depicts a clear class system in Oceania. Those who are trapped in poverty are stuck beneath the boot of the higher class. Big Brother forces the standards that a citizen must maintain for their placement in the Party. People placed in less fortunate situations are inferior to a higher class. 1984 is a warning that society will mold into a clueless dystopia as social standards become more