“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.”
-p 298
Those last sentences may make up the most depressing end of a novel that I’ve read. Orwell ends his novel rather abruptly, with a quick and painful shot to the gut. Orwell jumps from Winston’s submission to the Party straight to a scene some time later, showing Winston as a blubbery, pathetic shell of the independent man he once was. The reader can only observe in shocked disgust as Winston actually cries with joy at Oceania’s probably falsified victory over Eurasia. Winston has become completely in line with Party ideals, yet in doing so, the physical regression in his body is evident. Winston has become much more bloated and, to be honest, seems to have a somewhat slimy sense about him. Yet he is, as far as his now limited mind can tell, extremely happy over his ability to beat his free will into submission. With the absolute defeat of his protagonist, Orwell leaves a sobering message with his readers: the society of 1984 must be prevented, for if it does occur, no man will be able to stop it, no matter how resolute. Man will lose.
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