Big Brother (Nineteen Eighty-Four) their real purpose, the Ministry of Love is perhaps the most straightforward as "rehabilitated thought criminals" leave the Ministry as loyal subjects who have been brainwashed into adoring (loving) Big Brother, hence its name. Like the Nazi salute, Ingsoc has its own salute to Big Brother, which consists of crossing one's arms above the head during Two Minutes Hates and Hate weeks, showing loyalty to Big Brother and the Party. Note that it is only mentioned and shown in the movie adaptation of the novel. Since the publication of "Nineteen Eighty-Four", the phrase "Big Brother" has come into common use
O'Brien (Nineteen Eighty-Four) however is more sadistic than the cold, detached Gletkin, and prefers to use torture himself, whereas Gletkin prefers to torment his prisoners psychologically. The torture scenes (undertaken by O'Brien) were influenced in part by the stories leaked out of the USSR of the punishments inflicted on political prisoners in mental hospitals and the Gulag. The choice of the clearly Irish surname is regarded as a reference to Brendan Bracken, 1st Viscount Bracken, under whom Orwell worked during the war creating propaganda, and whom Orwell detested. In what has been described as "one of the strangest coincidences in literature", it was