chapter 8

  This chapter starts out when Winston is walking around where all the proles live, because he wants to find someone who remembers before Big Brother came into power. The dialogue used between the proles is very familiar to us, because its "old speak" but they use their own kind of slang, for example they call the rockets "steamers."In this chapter we see the proles in a very different light, they are just as human as everyone else, and their world has changed far less than those in the party.
    Winston meets quite an old man in a pub and buys him half a liter of beer hoping to get some useful information about the world before the party. Even though it seems like a waste of Winston's time, it advances the theme of the yearn for freedom. You can see how Winston wants to go back to a time before the party, it seems like he would even rather be a prole. The proles are as free now as they were before the revolution, and though life may not be as glittery as it was before, they live better lives than the party members. Proles are not afraid of the government, because the government has no reason to fear them, therefore they are more trustworthy than the governments own supporters.
    The theme of The yearn for freedom is very prevalent in 1984 as so it is in America. "give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free" is the quote on the statue of liberty, and it definitely catches the spirit of America, but it addresses the way winston feels exactly. Winston is very much like the immigrants seeking to come to America for a better life, but he is simply trying to be free of this dictatorship. the dialogue in this chapter advances the theme because Winston is desperate to find some sort of freedom and so far is not having any luck.