“He examined the chess problem and set out the pieces. It was a tricky problem…” The motif of Winston’s chess game in the closing chapter is emblematic of the struggle of humanity in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds; he is the “everyman”, calculating the odds of the survival of humanity, and individual identity, in both tangible and metaphysical terms.

“...it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother.” The final lines of the text represent the essential victory of Big Brother; the obliteration of the sense of self of the “everyman”, and therefore, the death of hope. The irony of the fact that the “...struggle was finished…” alludes to the struggle between our individual self interest and the greater good, the irony being conjured by the fact that Winston’s surrender, for his individual benefit, represents a paradoxical loss for the greater good. The individual has been vanquished and hope for humanity is lost.