When Winston Smith is captured in Part 3 of 1984, what is his serial number?

's number
of 6079 doesn't have any particular significance in itself. What is significant, however, is the
very fact that Winston has a number in the first place. Most people have official numbers given
to them by the government for ID purposes, whether it's Social Security numbers or the numbers
you have on passports. But Winston has his official ID number simply by virtue of being a
citizen of Oceania. Like everyone else, he's been given a number by the state since birth, a
number that doesn't just identify him, but makes it easier for him to be monitored and
controlled by the powers-that-be.

In this totalitarian state, all citizens
have been stripped of their identity as human beings, deprived of all those special
characteristics that make each and every one of us unique. Mindless conformity is now the norm.
Everyone's expected to act the same way and think the same way, and woe betide those who don't
get with the program. The state has effectively reconstructed each citizen's identity, with the
sole purpose of controlling them. A mere number is an entirely appropriate emblem of this
artificial identity as it is wholly impersonal, giving us no inkling as to the personality of
the citizen to which it is attached.