In the opening
chapter of , 's attitude towards Big Brother is one of intense fear. He
hides the diary he has purchased far away from the eyes of the telescreen, and scribbles 'Down
With Big Brother' on the pages as he thinks about the punishments meted out to party
rebels:
"Your name was removed from the registers,
every record of everything you had ever done was wiped out, your one-time existence was denied
and then forgotten. You were abolished, annihilated: vaporized was the usual
word."
But this fear slowly turns to scepticism. In
his job at the Ministry of Truth, for example, we learn how Big Brother and the party rewrite
history to suit their political and social agenda. In Chapter 1, Chapter 4, for example, Winston
seems jaded by the process:
"But actually, he
thought as he re-adjusted the Ministry of Plenty's figures, it was not even forgery. It was
merely the substitution of one piece of nonsense for another. Most of the material that you were
dealing with had no connexion with anything in the real world."
But Winston's relationships withandchange his attitude towards Big
Brother, once again. While he remains cautious about detection, his love for Julia and meeting
with O'Brien inspires his rebellion. He begins to understand the corrupt nature of Big Brother's
power and becomes a believer in the idea that human nature will eventually bring about social
change. As he says to O'Brien in :
"In the end they
will beat you. Sooner or later they will see you for what you are, and then they will tear you
to pieces."
Winston's experience in Room 101,
however, inspires another change in his attitude towards Big Brother. After being brought to the
pinnacle of fear, Winston betrays Julia and is released by the Thought Police. He is no longer a
threat to Big Brother because he has overcome his sense of individuality:
"Everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had
won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother."
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