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Big Brother is the nominal leader of Oceania in Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell's chilling dystopic novel. The name is now used to mean government surveillance in general."Big Brother" is a dictator in a totalitarian state, taken to its utmost logical consequence. In the society that Orwell describes, everybody is under complete surveillance by the authorities. 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 Horatio Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener of Khartoum. In the novel, it is not clear if he actually exists as a person, or is an image crafted by the state. However, since Inner Party torturer O'Brien at one point tells Winston Smith that Big Brother can never die, the implication is probably that Big Brother is merely the Party personified. In a book supposedly written by the rebel Goldstein (but later revealed to have a more complex origin) it is stated that "nobody has ever seen Big Brother. He is a face on the hoardings, a voice on the telescreen... 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 organisation." (See: Goldstein's book.)
In Party propaganda, however, Big Brother is presented as a real person, who was one of the founders of the Party along with Emmanuel GoldsteinEmmanuel Goldstein is a key character in George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four''. In the novel, Goldstein is rumored to be a former top member of the ruling (and sole) Party who had broken away early in the movement and started an organization known. His real name is never mentioned, and it is not even clear whether it is publicly known.
Since the publication of 1984, the phrase "Big Brother" has entered general usage, to describe any overly-inquisitive authority figure or attempts by government to increase surveillance. The reality TV program Big Brother takes its name from 1984, and a similarly named figure is big mamaBig mama is the informal name given to an Internet censor on web bulletin boards in the People's Republic of China. The big mama is usually an employee of the company sponsoring the board whose job it is to take down politically sensitive postings. Big ma - the informal name for the internet censor on web boards in the People's Republic of ChinaThe People's Republic of China PRC comprises most of the cultural, historic, and geographic area known as China. Since its founding in 1949, it has been led by the Communist Party of China (CPC). It is the world's most populous country, with a population.
see: Big BrotherBig Brother is: Big Brother, any omnipresent, seemingly benevolent figure representing the oppressive control over individual lives exerted by an authoritarian government. A reference to: Big Brother (1984), the leader of Oceania in Nineteen Eighty-Four b for related uses and alternate meanings of "Big Brother"
Nineteen Eighty-Four
Surveillance
