Big Brother

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For the forum user, see User: Big Brother.

Big Brother (also refered to as simply "B.B.") is the fictional leader of Oceania in George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four. He is similar to America's "Uncle Sam", except this individual is the actual leader of the nation. In Oceania, Big Brother is worshiped almost as if he were a god, and is akin to the gods of most religions, in that there is no proof that he exists.

Orwell never refers to Big Brother by his 'real' name, and it would appear that nobody in Oceania possesses this information either. Winston's memory is a little foggy, but he does share some of the history of BB's rise to power with us:

"The story really began in the middle sixties, the period of the great purges in which the original leaders of the Revolution were wiped out once and for all. By 1970 none of them was left, except Big Brother himself. All the rest had by that time been exposed as traitors and counter- revolutionaries."

But this really doesn't answer the question of whether Big Brother is a 'real' individual or not. But elsewhere in the book there are hints that Big Brother is a fictional leader:

"Nobody has ever seen Big Brother. He is a face on the hoardings, a voice on the telescreen. We may be reasonably sure that he will never die, and there is already considerable uncertainty as to when he was born. Big Brother is the guise in which the Party chooses to exhibit itself to the world. 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."

It also fits the ideology of Ingsoc to have a fictional leader. It would go a long way to help the stability of the nation, since it would be difficult for any power-hungry Inner Party members to stage a coup d'etat against an imaginary phantom.

[edit] Merriam Webster Definition

This phrase Big Brother has found its way into everyday speech, and can be found in the Merriam-Webster dictionary:

big brother, noun, Date: 1863
1 : an older brother
2 : a man who befriends a delinquent or friendless boy
3 : capitalized both Bs [Big Brother, personification of the power of the state in 1984 (1949) by George Orwell] a : the leader of an authoritarian state or movement b : an all-powerful government or organization monitoring and directing people's actions [data banks that tell Big Brother all about us -- Herbert Brucker]