Questions about 1984

I’ve been rereading 1984 for my Senior English class. I’ve read it before but only really got the basis of the plot and how authoritarian the government was. However, this time around I’ve noticed way more details that honestly kind of ruin the book’s message for me.

First off, what’s with the proles? Winston spends most of the book wondering why the prole masses won’t rise up, but everytime he describes them it sounds like the proles are doing pretty good honestly. The proles are constantly under threat of bombings and have inadequate housing but are also mentioned to be fed, have pubs, have access to entertainment including football games, films, and even porn, have free commerce, and have better products than the Outer Party. That’s better than the majority of cities in the world even now! Even the Party in the book states that proles, like animals are free. If Winston values freedom so much he be willing to die for it, why doesn’t he just become a prole?

Also, why is Winston as a protagonist so … unlikeable? Dude is mean to his wife, mean to Julia, and mean to people he tries to talk to. First off, he only really wants a wife so he can have sex with her, he doesn’t really try to reach out to her, pretty much just giving up and calling her brainwashed even though he would have to live with her for the rest of his life if they conceived a child per party rule, and then straight up leaves her when the sex isn’t good. He treats Julia in much the same way, except the sex is good so he stays with her, but the Winston literally fantasied about killing and raping her earlier in the book like wtf?! He also treats Julia as stupider than her, not even bothering to wake her up when he reads the book. It seems more like he likes the act of rebelling by having sex with her more than he actually likes her. Finally, there is an instance where Winston tries to find out more information by talking to an old prole in a pub. The guy is clearly drunk and could have memory problems from his age, but Winston still gets frustrated because he doesn’t get the info he wants. It’s even funnier when you realize he DID get the info he wanted, Winston asked about capitalists wearing top hats and the guy replies that once wore a top hat to a funeral, but according to Party doctrine only the capitalists could wear the top hats and were also exterminated. If Winston was actually listening, he would have caught a party lie about the past like he wanted as the man is clearly not a capitalist but a prole living in the slums, but instead he just gets pissy this drunk old guy can’t give an accurate recount of political history from the last 20-30 years.

Is Winston supposed to be this unlikeable? It feels like if the oppressive government didn’t exist, he would still have no friends and be generally a jerk.

by ReallyOysterCupcake