1984 book 3

In the end of 1984, Big brother has definitely won. Winston, in reality, was not an abnormal case. The reason that the ministry of truth exists is to make sure that people who begin to question big brother, like Winston, are “corrected”. The party’s compensation for the fact that people will always begin to question totalitarian power is to be able to repress those thoughts extremely effectively. The purpose of this book is to show that a totalitarian government could keep effectively indefinite power over its citizens and to show how dangerous totalitarian power is. The only way to bring down big brother would have to be a movement spread through the Proles to expose the party to the common people for what it is. The only unregulated people are the Proles, so only they could be able to plan this event. The party has the resources to suppress rebellious thoughts of a certain number of people at any one time. The demonstration would have to be large and powerful enough to cause more rebellion than the party could suppress. Then it would be possible to a real rebellion to form and for the party to be overthrown. In the end, Winston becomes another one of the many drones of the party who believe anything they are told. After Winston has been tortured and made to believe anything, O’Brien lets him ask questions. When he asks, “Does [big brother] exist in the same way as I” exist?” O’Brien replies that “you do not exist”. Winston knows that his nonexistence cannot be proved, but decides that arguing this is pointless, so he believes him. The reason for this is that humans have a breaking point where they can be physically forced to believe anything at all. The party can effectively control their general population by changing history and by occupying their thoughts with war. Anyone that isn’t convinced completely will be convinced by physical pain in the ministry of love. The combination of the three ministries and the repression of any secret communication ensures that the people will never rebel and will believe anything.