How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
'There, there.' He patted her on the shoulder. 'You must try to be sensible. Try to be modern. An intelligent woman like you. Leave motherhood to the lower orders, as nature intended.' (1.1.9)
Dr. Acheson tells Beatrice-Joanna that "nature" intends for lower-class citizens to do the job of bearing children; however, The Wanting Seed makes it clear that social expectations concerning reproduction and child-rearing aren't "natural"—they are fundamentally classed.
Quote #2
He was thirty-five and had been a schoolmaster for nearly fourteen years. He earned just over two hundred guineas a month but was hoping, since Newick's death, to be promoted to the headship of the Social Studies Department. That would mean a substantial increase in salary, which would mean a bigger flat, a better start in the world for young Roger. (1.2.8)
Overpopulation in Beatrice-Joanna and Tristram's world means that there isn't a lot of extra space to go around—especially in the cities. But, even so, it seems that the wealthiest and most powerful people in England are able to afford more space for themselves. This isn't a strictly egalitarian society: those with more, can afford more.
Quote #3
Even though she had no real standards of comparison, she was always, on each entrance, struck afresh and aghast by the exiguity of the living-space (standard for people of their income-group)—the box of a bedroom, kitchen-coffin, bathroom almost to be worked into like a dress. (1.7.2)
Although we've already been told that Tristram and Beatrice-Joanna's apartment isn't very big, this passage reveals just how uncomfortable and oppressively tiny it really is. If someone has to describe their living space as a "coffin," you know it's pretty bad.
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?
Quote #7
A wild-eyed workers' leader stood on the plinth of a street lamp, hugging the pillar with his left arm. 'Brothers,' he called, 'brothers. If they want a fair day's work they've got to bloody well feed us proper.' (2.6.3)
Although select passages in The Wanting Seed make it seem as though every English citizen receives the same food rations, the workers' strikes and demonstrations suggests that the system isn't quite as egalitarian as it appears.
Quote #8
'Let them listen to the crying-out of the empty guts of the workers.' Roars. 'Solidarity,' yelled this solid man. More roars. Tristram was crushed, pushed. Then two greyboys from the State Provisions Store (Rossiter Avenue branch) appeared, armed only with truncheons. Manly-looking, they began vigorously to belabor. There was a great cry of pain and anger as they jerked at the right arm of the lamp-clutching leader. (2.6.7)
As the working classes begin to fight for their rights, the British Government introduces a more violent and repressive police force. What does this tell us about class distinctions in The Wanting Seed?
Quote #9
We're better without the morons and the enthusiasts. Which means also the corner-boys and the criminals. And, as far as the women are concerned, the cretinous over-producers. That's genetically very sound, you know. (6.2.28)
In order to maintain the illusion of a peaceful, egalitarian society, the British Government decides to funnel the lower classes into the British Army, where they will be killed off in droves. We just want to know which evil villain came up with that plan.
Quote #10
The War Department is a bit like prostitution: it cleanses the community. If we didn't exist, a great deal of nastiness would bubble up in the State. We're the mother-of-pearl, you see. The ruffians, the perverts, the death-wishers: you don't want those in the civil community. So long as there's an army there'll never be a police state, no more greyboys or rubber truncheons or thumbscrews or rifle squads an inconveniently early hours. The final problems of the body politic have been solved.
Although he protests against the British Army major's logic, does Tristram offer any real opposition? Are the working classes right to believe that they have been betrayed by "intellectuals" like Tristram?