Original artwork, not a still
1984 • 1949
If you want to imagine the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face forever.
Behind the line
What it means
Our interpretation.
O'Brien is not threatening Winston here; he is explaining the Party's purpose, and the calm of it is the horror. The boot and the face became shorthand for total control, trotted out in speeches, protest signs and op-eds whenever someone fears the state is winning for good. Most people quote it as 'imagine the future', which is the smoothed-over form we keep on the page.
Context reviewed
In context
Spoilers for 1984Show the scene
Late in Nineteen Eighty-Four, Winston Smith is a prisoner in the Ministry of Love, strapped down and questioned by O'Brien, the Inner Party man he once took for a secret ally. In Part Three, chapter three, O'Brien explains that the Party wants power purely for its own sake, and that its world will be one of endless victory over helpless enemies. He sums it up in the image of a boot and a face. The novel was published by Secker & Warburg on 8 June 1949, and the wording is 'a picture of the future', not 'imagine the future'.
Sources (2)
- Wikiquote: Nineteen Eighty-FourPart III, chapter IIIReference checked
- Wikipedia: Nineteen Eighty-FourPlot summary; PublicationReference checked
Context reviewed
