What are the most compelling and striking moments of the novel 1984?

There are so many worthy choices for this
response. Here are some of my own top contenders:

The moment
whenandare confronted.

Although as you're reading through the
sections where Winston and Julia grow closer and you know it really can't last (Big Brother
knows everything!), it's hard not to keep rooting for the couple to make it. You kind of hope
that they will somehow manage to fly under the ever-present radar and stage a huge overthrow of
the Party. So when an "iron voice" tells them, "You are the dead," it's easy
to be jolted back into reality right along with Winston and Julia. The dream is over, and you
know they will pay dearly for their actions against Big Brother.

The moment when Winston betrays Julia.

There is heavyin the final section when Winston is asked about a single
"degradation" that has not happened to him and he responds, "I have not betrayed
Julia." So a few chapters later,brings out "the worst thing in the world" for
Winston personally: the rats. As O'Brien approaches Winston with the rat mask, Winston does the
unthinkable:

Do it to Julia! Do it to Julia! Not me!
Julia! I don't care what you do to her. Tear her face off, strip her to the bones! Not me!
Julia! Not me!

This is what they have wanted all along:
Winston's total and complete submission. The last thing he has clung to is now finished. He is
willing to sacrifice anything and anyone to save himself.

The
final sentence.

He loved Big
Brother.

After all he has learned, after all he has
fought, after all he has sacrificed, Winston loves Big Brother. Really? Has his submission been
so total? Has he reached the point of no return? Has Big Brother consumed his soul through the
torture? Is it really possible that he has buried all the rest into his subconscious? It
certainly seems that way. If so, what does that mean for our society today? Are we as
susceptible to blindly accepting non-truths? The final sentence leaves us so much to
consider.