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"Of course he exists. The Party exists. Big Brother is the embodiment of the Party."<br />
"Does he exist in the same way as I exist?"<br />
"You do not exist," said O'Brien.<br />
Once again the sense of helplessness assailed him. He knew, or he could imagine, the arguments<br />
which proved his own nonexistence; but they were nonsense, they were only a play on words. Did not<br />
the statement, "You do not exist," contain a logical absurdity? But what use was it to say so? His mind<br />
shriveled as he thought of the unanswerable, mad arguments with which O'Brien would demolish him.<br />
"I think I exist," he said wearily. "I am conscious of my own identity. I was born, and I shall die. I<br />
have arms and legs. I occupy a particular point in space. No other solid object can occupy the same<br />
point simultaneously. In that sense, does Big Brother exist?"<br />
"It is of no importance. He exists."<br />
"Win Big Brother ever die?"<br />
"Of course not. How could he die? Next question."<br />
"Does the Brotherhood exist?"<br />
"That, Winston, you will never know. If we choose to set you free when we have finished with you,<br />
and if you live to be ninety years old, still you will never learn whether the answer to that question is<br />
Yes or No. As long as you live, it will be an unsolved riddle in your mind."<br />
Winston lay silent. His breast rose and fell a little faster. He still had not asked the question that<br />
had come into his mind the first. He had got to ask it, and yet it was as though his tongue would not<br />
utter it. There was a trace of amusement in O'Brien's face. Even his spectacles seemed to wear an<br />
ironical gleam. He knows, thought Winston suddenly, he knows what I am going to ask! At the thought<br />
the words burst out of him:<br />
"What is in Room 101?"<br />
The expression on O'Brien's face did not change. He answered drily:<br />
"You know what is in Room 101, Winston. Everyone knows what is in Room 101."<br />
He raised a finger to the man in the white coat. Evidently the session was at an end. A needle<br />
jerked into Winston's arm. He sank almost instantly into deep sleep.<br />
III<br />
"THERE ARE THREE STAGES in your reintegration," said O'Brien. "There is learning, there is<br />
understanding, and there is acceptance. It is time for you to enter upon the second stage."