Big Brother (Nineteen Eighty-Four)
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Big Brother is a fictional character in George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, the enigmatic dictator of Oceania, a totalitarian state taken to its utmost logical consequence.
In the society that Orwell describes, everyone is under complete surveillance by the authorities, mainly by telescreens. The people are constantly reminded of this by the phrase "Big Brother is watching you", which is the core "truth" of the propaganda system in this state. The physical description of Big Brother is reminiscent of Joseph Stalin or Lord Kitchener.
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[edit] Purported origins of Big Brother
In the essay section of his novel 1985, Anthony Burgess states that Orwell got the idea for Big Brother from advertising hoardings current during World War II, for educational correspondence courses from a company called Bennett's. The original posters showed Bennett himself; a kindly looking old man offering guidance and support to would-be students, with the slogan "Let me be your father." When Bennett died, the company was inherited by his son, whose rather aggressive-looking face appeared on the posters instead, accompanied by the less-appealing slogan "Let me be your big brother."
The historical background during which Orwell wrote his work included several national leaders who had held considerable power, including British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, German chancellor Adolf Hitler, and Soviet premier Joseph Stalin. Stalin, among other leaders, is often cited to have developed a cult of personality around himself.
Additionally, Big Brother's omnipotent, omniscient, eternal, and non-verifiable nature (as well as his demand for absolute obedience) have led some to suggest that Big Brother may have been a satire of God.
[edit] Appearance in the novel
[edit] Existence
In the novel, it is not clear if Big Brother actually exists as a person or is an image crafted by the Party.
In a book supposedly written by the rebel Emmanuel Goldstein (but later revealed to have a more complex origin) it is stated that "nobody has ever seen Big Brother. His function is to act as a focusing point for love, fear, and reverence; emotions which are more easily felt towards an individual than towards an organization." (See Goldstein's book)[citation needed]
In Party propaganda, however, Big Brother is presented as a real person; one of the founders of the Party along with Goldstein. At one point in the year 1984, the protagonist of Orwell's novel tries "to remember in what year he had first heard mention of Big Brother. He thought it must have been at some time in the sixties, but it was impossible to be certain. In the Party histories, of course, Big Brother figured as the leader and guardian of the Revolution since its very earliest days. His exploits had been gradually pushed backwards in time until already they extended into the fabulous world of the forties and the thirties, when the capitalists in their strange cylindrical hats still rode through the streets of London in great gleaming motor-cars or horse carriages with glass sides. There was no knowing how much of this legend was true and how much invented."
In the year 1984, Big Brother (as seen on posters and on the telescreen) appears as a man of about 45. Goldstein's book comments: "We may be reasonably sure that he will never die, and there is already considerable uncertainty as to when he was born."[citation needed]
[edit] Love of Big Brother
A spontaneous ritual of devotion to Big Brother ("BB") is illustrated at the end of the "Two Minutes Hate":
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At this moment the entire group of people broke into a deep, slow, rhythmic chant of 'B-B! .... B-B! .... B-B!'—over and over again, very slowly, with a long pause between the first 'B' and the second—a heavy murmurous sound, somehow curiously savage, in the background of which one seemed to hear the stamps of naked feet and the throbbing of tom-toms. For perhaps as much as thirty seconds they kept it up. It was a refrain that was often heard in moments of overwhelming emotion. Partly it was a sort of hymn to the wisdom and majesty of Big Brother, but still more it was an act of self-hypnosis, a deliberate drowning of consciousness by means of rhythmic noise.[1] |
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Though Oceania's Ministry of Truth, Ministry of Plenty, and Ministry of Peace each have names with meanings inverse to their purpose, the Ministry of Love is perhaps the most straightforward, in that rehabilitated thought criminals leave the Ministry as loyal subjects who love Big Brother (albeit only having undergone a rigorous campaign of torture).
[edit] Response to Big Brother today
Since the publication of Nineteen Eighty-Four, the phrase "Big Brother" has entered general usage, to describe any overly-inquisitive or overly-controlling authority figure or attempts by government to increase surveillance. The reality TV program Big Brother takes its name from Nineteen Eighty-Four. The magazine Book ranked Big Brother #59 on its 100 Best Characters in Fiction Since 1900 list.
In October 2006, the book The 101 Most Influential People Who Never Lived listed Big Brother as #2. [2] Wizard Magazine rated him the 75th greatest villain of all time.[3]
In a play on the Big Brother name, some privacy advocates use the phrase Little Brother to refer to the increasing threats to privacy stemming not from institutional surveillance, but from individuals snooping on each other with the help of new technology such as camera phones, search engines, and social web sites.[4]
[edit] References
- ^ Orwell, George (1949). Nineteen Eighty-Four.
- ^ 101 Most Influential People Who Never Lived
- ^ Wizard #177
- ^ Maria Puente. "Hello to less privacy", USA TODAY, 2007-02-28. Retrieved on 2008-02-10.
[edit] See also
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