In George Orwell’s novel 1984, Big Brother is the ruler of Oceania where the main character Winston Smith lives. Although Big Brother is not an actual character, he is constantly present through the novel. The Party uses him to intimidate the citizens, cause paranoia, and spy on them at every moment of the day. Not only do people see his face plastered on the side of buildings, but he is also present in every citizen’s mind from the time that they wake up to the time that they lay down for bed. The same is true for Winston. Throughout the novel, he grows an obsession with Big Brother and tries to find ways to overthrow his power (Orwell 1-3). Big Brother plays a larger than life character in the eyes of the Oceania citizens. They believe that he does no wrong and that he is always there to protect them. In reality, the government brought Big Brother to life to use as their scapegoat. Because the citizens love him, they believe …show more content…
He does not want to live with Big Brother’s constant rules and supervision. He hates lying to the citizens when he goes to work. He hates waking up to find that Big Brother has taken away the last of his freedoms. He also hates that the Party brainwashes the citizens into loving Big Brother (Orwell 31). In a sense, it is like they brainwashed Winston into hating Big Brother. In Orwell’s essay Notes on Nationalism, he discusses that fact that when a government brainwashes its citizen into being nationalistic, the citizens are then obsessive, instable, and show an indifference to reality (Orwell 4-6). While the Oceania citizens show these qualities in their loyalty towards Big Brother, Winston shows these qualities in his effort to defeat him. The desire to overthrow Big Brother’s power consumes Winston so much that he loses his own identity. He writes in the diary, has an affair with Julia, and joins the Brotherhood all because Big Brother’s actions brainwashed him into doing so (Orwell