Spies

The Spies form the Party's primary youth organization in Oceania, designed to mold children from an early age into unquestioning servants of the regime. Uniformed in blue shorts, grey shirts, and red neckerchiefs, members are systematically turned into "ungovernable little savages" whose ferocity is directed outward against enemies of the state, while they remain utterly devoted to the Party and its symbols, such as the enormous face of Big Brother.

Structure and Purpose

The Spies recruit children as young as six or seven, with the promise of a "glorious game" involving songs, processions, banners, hiking, drilling with dummy rifles, and the worship of Big Brother. The organization's scarlet banners and posters of Big Brother dominate the walls of Party flats, as seen in the Parson household, where the children's uniforms and equipment constantly reinforce the Party's presence. The aim is to instill a ferocious, outward-directed hatred of foreigners, traitors, and thought-criminals, while ensuring that children never rebel against Party discipline, adoring everything connected with it. The Spies also serve as a feeder for the Youth League, with members graduating after the statutory age.

Methods and Impact

The Spies turn children into enthusiastic informers and miniature enforcers. Parsons' nine-year-old son menaces Winston Smith with a toy automatic pistol, shouting accusations of treason and thought-crime, and later shoots him with a catapult. The same boy's seven-year-old sister imitates him, and their mother lives in terror of their escalating denunciations. The organization systematically encourages children to spy on adults, using devices like ear trumpets to listen through keyholes, and to report any heretical remark. The Times regularly reports cases where a child hero denounces a parent to the Thought Police, making it "almost normal for people over thirty to be frightened of their own children." The children's ferocity is channeled entirely against the Party's enemies, destroying the natural bonds of family and trust.

Significance in the Party's Control

The Spies are a crucial instrument for extending the Party's surveillance into the private sphere, turning the family into an extension of the Thought Police. By breaking the loyalty between parent and child and replacing it with loyalty to the Party, the organization ensures that orthodoxy is enforced from the earliest age. The Spies also divert children's natural rebelliousness outward, preventing any internal dissent and reinforcing the regime's total control. The universal fear of one's own children, as described by Winston, underscores the Spies' success in creating a generation of informers who feel no personal allegiance, only devotion to the Party and Big Brother.