The Last Hope In the world of Oceania created by George Orwell in his novel 1984, there were posters everywhere telling one that “Big Brother is watching.” Every move anyone made was watched by the intricate technology of the telescreen. Everything was controlled so tightly that even the thought of rebellion was rare. However something eventually brought the fall of Big Brother’s tyrannical reign according to “The Principles of Newspeak.” The rising of the proles is the only plausible way that Big Brother was able to fall. The other three ways in which a ruling group can fall from power were present, however, not strong enough to be the reason to take down the government of Big Brother. Being “conquered from without,” meaning being conquered from an external enemy, is a far-fetched contribution to the fall of Oceania. This is the most unlikely case because “none of the three superstates could be definitely conqured even by the two in combination” because they are “too evenly matched” with formidable “natural defenses” according to Goldstein (186). Like Goldstein said, there is never any progress in the war because they are equal in power and cannot overthrow one another. The only reason for fighting the meaningless wars is to use up human labor and commodities so there is always a shortage within the city of Oceania to strategically control its citizens. Though the superstates of Eurasia and Eastasia are powerful, they are not enough to overthrow the government established by Big Brother. Another contrary reason for its fall is that it governed so inefficiently that the people of the government were stirred to revolt. The people of Oceania believe anything Big Brother willed, even history (35). If he said that there was a surplus of food when in fact there was a shortage, no one made an effort to question it. The power of perception from Big Brother was huge. Big Brother controlled how one thought, and as a result, also controlled how one acted. There was little chance that anyone was able to realize that there was inefficiency in Oceania. Because of the never-ending war, Oceania had a reason for people never having too much. This dismantles any thoughts of being able to rise in the Big Brother society, and therefore, keeping its citizens believing that The Party was running efficiently.
Another inconceivable idea still is the idea that The Party lost the willingness to govern. O’Brien told Winston that The Party wanted power entirely for its own sake (263). That was all that he ever wanted and will want; only pure power. There is always something to conquer in the eyes of power-hungry people such as The Party. It is clear that The Party was able to conquer the thoughts of the people with the strongest will. The pain that O’Brien had put Winston through was enough to break him to