A Comparison of Social Classes in America vs. 1984

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Social Classes in America vs. 1984

If you have ever read the book 1984 by George Orwell, then an interesting topic may have crossed your mind. The way the classes of people break down can be quite similar, and very different at times. In the United States, we have classes like the lower class, the working class, and the middle class. In 1984, there were such classes as the Proles, the Outer Party, and the Inner Party. The way the classes are broken down in 1984 reminds me a little bit of my old history class. When I studied medieval times and the classes back then were broken down into the nobles, the bourgeois, and the serfs.

It is really interesting to break down the separate classes and find their similar details and their different details. Obviously the differences are greater in number and some of them fairly extreme. But that is to be expected.

In my opinion, the way Orwell wrote the book makes his world seem more like a dystopia than a utopia. The only community that I have seen that I would even consider calling a utopia is "Star Trek." I just can't see Oceania as being a perfect vision of happiness. Everyone is constantly being watched, people aren't allowed to have their own thoughts, their past history is entirely made up. I don't see how it could get much worse than that. Unless you are a member of the Inner Party. They can have their own thoughts and aren't watched all the time. The lowest class in Oceania, the Proles, can also have their own thoughts. But "Nobody cares what the proles say"(Orwell, p11). So their thoughts never really get heard or paid any attention to at least. The Inner Party basically runs things and they only do what they want. They have no reason to listen to the proles.

To more clearly describe the classes in 1984, I will describe some of the characteristics of the three parties. Each member of the Outer Party had a telescreen in their home that monitored every move they made. The telescreen could not be turned off. They were forced to wear an expression of quiet optimism when facing the telescreeen (Sheppard). The party members had to wear blue overalls and were given a limited number of coupons to trade for clothes, food, and other things such as that.

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