Still human?

[walter women]

About half way through the book Winston realizes that he is, in some ways, not human anymore. He has been stripped by all means of emotion. He thinks this because earlier there was a bomb struck right in front of him, he saw a severed hand in the road. He then proceeds to kick it into the gutter and keeps walking. He also realizes that everyone he knows between the inner and outer party are also stripped of their emotions. He thinks that the proles are the only humans left.

My question is why do the proles still have emotion while the inner and outer party are "not human"?

[Eryk]

The proles are left alone because they are not a threat to the Party. Revolutions are usually led by the upper-middle class. Any prole suspected of these tendencies is going to be removed and as for the rest, "The animals and the proles are free." The vestigial humanity of the proles is innocuous, irrelevant.

There is hardly any depth of feeling or subtlety of thought among the proles. Their entertainments are escapist pulp, something to take their minds off the daily, competitive struggle of a subsistence economy and the bombs coming down.

[storcaccekr13]

I believe that proles are considered human still because the government could care less about them. Proles don't have to worry about the war or not cheering loud enough at 2 minuets of hate. All they worry about is little things like the lotery. They aren't smart enough to care about what's going on, they just go on living their lives completly unaware of what's going on. That's why they aren't being controlled by the government.

[Blasphemy]

The proles simply have more freedom in what they can do. They are unsupervised and therefore can show their true expressions without being arrested for thought crimes or face crimes. Winston and others alike are always being controlled. Leaving no time for them to be human anyways.

[Coco]

The proles are human because they are allowed to form their own opinions and their own connections, unlike Party members. They marry for love and give birth to children whom they love. They live very simple lives, unencumbered by all the Party nonsense. Winston envies the proles despite their poverty and ignorance.

[The Atheist]

The proles simply have more freedom in what they can do. ....


The proles are human because they are allowed to form their own opinions and their own connections, unlike Party members. ....

These are both slightly wrong.

The proles don't have their own opinions - they're cattle not smart enough to have opinion. Any capable of having opinions are liquidated.

They are just as controlled as any Outer Party member, just in more subtle ways.