Please choose one passage from the novel that is significant to you. Why is this passage meaningful? Please type it into one of your entries and comment on what you think about the passage."He gazed up at the enormous face. Forty years it had taken him to learn what kind of smile was hidden beneath the dark mustache. O cruel, needless misunderstanding! O stubborn, self-willed exile from the loving breast! Two gin-scented tears trickled down the sides of his nose. But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother." (Pg. 245)
This passage is very meaningful because it shows how powerful a totalitarian government is and what it can do with its power. This last scene from the book shows the audience how a controlling government and its followers can change even the deepest thoughts in a person. For a person, the last sanctuary he/she can have is his/her mind. The fact that a government can change what goes on in a person's mind is very scary and unethical.
At the beginning of this story, Winston is against everything the government says and everything it stands for. Even in the torture room, he says what he truly believes in, which is that he sees four fingers, and not what O'Brien wants him to say, which is five fingers. However, over the course of forty years, the totalitarian government and its brain-washed followers manage to triumph over another helpless human being. The government penetrated the defenses of Winston's last sanctuary, his mind and his thoughts, and changed all of it. So by the time forty years was up, Winston truly believed everything the government said. Totalitarianism had triumphed, and Winston loved Big Brother with all his heart and mind; his once safe sanctuary full of anti-governmental thoughts was washed away with nothing but a poster of Big Brother left hanging there.
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