How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
'You know as well as I do that the job of breeding's best left to the lower orders. Remember that the very term proletariat comes from the Latin proletarius, meaning those that serve the State with their offspring or proles. You and me, we're supposed to be above that sort of thing, huh?' (1.8.11)
In the first half of the novel, the offspring of the proletariat (the working classes) are supposed to serve the State by maintaining a minimum human population. This role changes dramatically in the second half of the novel, where it is understood that they will serve the state by getting conscripted into the British Army, killed, and then canned into tinned meat.
Quote #5
'Finding jobs for them,' said a man next to Tristram—an unshaven man in rusty black, a roll of fat on his chin though his body was meager. 'The out-of-work, they are. Were,' he corrected himself. 'About time the Government did something about them. That's my brother-in-law there, see, second from the end of the first row.' He pointed, vicariously proud. 'Giving them jobs,' he repeated. (1.10.3)
When Tristram catches sight of the new police recruits, he's convinced that a new era of police repression is about to begin. But, the stranger who speaks to Tristram on the street has a different perspective: to him, the government is simply taking care of its citizens by providing jobs for the unemployed. Which one of them is closest to the truth?
Quote #6
The only intoxicant available these days was a pungent distillation from vegetable and fruit-peel. It was called alc, and only the lowest-class stomach could take it neat. Tristram put down a tosheroon on the counter and was served with a glass of this vicious viscous spirit, well diluted in orangeade. (1.10.9)
This passages tells us a little something about Tristram—that is, that he doesn't have a "low class" stomach. In a world where everyone in the nation lives on strictly-regulated food rations, what else might this suggest about who is getting what kind of food?