He examined the chess problem and set out the pieces. It was a tricky ending, involving a couple of knights. 'White to play and mate in two moves.' Winston looked up at the portrait of Big Brother. White always mates, he thought with a sort of cloudy mysticism. Always, without exception, it is so arranged. In no chess problem since the beginning of the world has black ever won. Did it not symbolize the eternal, unvarying triumph of Good over Evil? The huge face gazed back at him, full of calm power. White always mates.

The Thought Police are those who suppress all dissenting opinion. He also often stayed at the homes of Ruth Pitter and Richard Rees where he could "change" for his sporadic tramping expeditions. He received electrotherapy treatment and was declared medically unfit for service.

In 2008 The Times ranked him second on a list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945". Considered perhaps the 20th century's best chronicler of English culture Orwell wrote literary criticism poetry fiction and polemical journalism. Orwell's work continues to influence popular and political culture and the term Orwellian — descriptive of totalitarian or authoritarian social practices — has entered the language together with several of his neologisms including Cold War doublethink thoughtcrime Big Brother and thought police.