Insanity is Unlike Beauty, for it has Nothing to With the Beholders Eye, but Instead the Public's View O'Brien insists that Winston is insane. In Winston's society it is suicide to go against Big Brother. A simple smirk can be a first degree crime in Oceania. Winston knew that he was guilty of thought crime, but he went farther and farther in his efforts to rebel against Big Brother. Eventually his original thoughtcrime had turned into action. First as writing creative works in his diary and eventually to sexual acts with other members of the party. Winston justified his writing. "He could not help feeling a twinge of panic. It was absurd, since the writing of those particular words was not more dangerous that the act of opening the diary........ Whether he wrote DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER, or whether he refrained from writing it, made no difference. Whether he went on with his diary, or whether he did not go on with it, made no difference.
Location of different versions of Big Brother
English: Rop Gonggrijp receiving the Winston Award...
"View of the Alabama Insane Hospital - Tuscaloosa....The Thought Police would get him just the same." This thought and many others like it justified Winston's insanity in O'Brien's mind. Winston was defying a power which he knew was undefeatable. O'Brien saw Winston as a madman struggling with the a straight jacket, fighting something which they both knew could not be undone. The idea of insanity as fighting a unwinnable cause is not original to Oceania, but instead a reflection of societies' beliefs.
Many people are labelled insane by society because they believe what seems impossible. The struggle in one's mind between what they think is true, and what others think is true can be taxing upon someone. Not unlike Winston, many "insane" people believe they can overcome things such as Gravity or Time. Insanity can be summed up as...