The End

I found the ending to this story very depressing.  Winston's last four words - "he loved Big Brother" - just suggest the complete and utter control that Big Brother has over all of Oceania.  Winston comes off in the story as one of the most intelligent, rebellious, strong-minded characters -  the one character the least likely to give in to the Party.  I never believed that Winston was going to survive till the end of the story, but I felt sure that he would protest the Party until his dying breath.  He believes to strongly in the freedom of man and the irrationality of the party.  Surely he could never agree with Big Brother let alone love it? No way, and yet the ending suggest otherwise.

Early in the story, Winston talks about the most frightening thing about the Party.  He says that the most frightening thing is not that the Party lies, or alters the past, or employs this contradictory principle of doublethink, "the frightening thing is that it might all be true. If the party could thrust its hand into the past and say of this or that event -- it never happened -- that surely was more terrifying than mere torture or death."

I'm going to have to disagree with Winston on this one and take it one step further.  I think the most frightening thing about the party is not that they lie, nor that their lies may become truths, but that the Party can convince you that their lies are truths even when you fundamentally disagree with them.  And this is what happened to Winston in the end. After his torture, he was convinced of the beauty and the righteousness of the Party.  He loved it, even though he knew that party was wrong and it was doomed to failure.  That's why this book is so frightening and depressing.