O'Brien (Nineteen Eighty-Four) O'Brien (Nineteen Eighty-Four) O'Brien (known as O'Connor in the 1956 film adaptation of the novel) is a fictional character and the main antagonist in George Orwell's novel "Nineteen Eighty-Four". The protagonist Winston Smith, living in a dystopian society governed by the Party, feels strangely drawn to Inner Party member O'Brien. Orwell never reveals O'Brien's first name. O'Brien is a member of the Inner Party and, like Winston Smith, works in the Ministry of Truth. There, he holds an administrative position that is so distant that Winston has only a vague idea of its nature. Winston suspects that O'Brien secretly opposes
Nations of Nineteen Eighty-Four better rendered as 'Obliteration of the Self'". Although Ego death is a common Jungian trope in mythology and is associated with Zen Buddhism, Orwell does not appear to have based this on any existing Chinese word or phrase. Regardless, like "Neo-Bolshevism" in Eurasia, "Obliteration of the Self" in Eastasia is a skewed, totalising ideology which parallels Ingsoc. "Obliteration of the self" is a major theme of "Nineteen Eighty-Four", and the phrase roughly sums up Ingsoc's goals. In Oceania, Ingsoc holds any sense of selfhood or individuality to be thoughtcrime, and every arm of the government works to promote the citizens'