Parson's remark is one of the most tragic utterances in the book, right up there with "Do it to Julia." A father's being proud of his daughter's turning him in for something he said in his sleep is a total perversion of "reality" as we known it. But it is testimony to the success of their indoctrination. It also seems to raise a fundamental question: if you can alter one of the most basic relationships between human beings, is there anything you can't change?
In Part III when Winston is sent to the Ministry of Love he is in a holding cell at first where he meets Ampleforth and to his great surprise, Parsons- the most idiotically loyal man he has ever known. When Winston questions Parson about his crime and his guilt, Parsons confesses that he must indeed be guilty. He had been denounced by...
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his daughter for saying,"Down with Big Brother"in his sleep. He is extremely proud that his daughter had the strength and courage to denounce her father. He feels he grateful to have been caught and even more so that it was his daughter who caught him. He tells Winston,
"She listened at the keyhole. Heard what I was saying, and nipped off to the patrols the very next day. Pretty smart for a nipper of seven, eh? I don't bear her any grudge for it. In fact I'm proud of her. It shows I brought her up in the right spirit, anyway."
What it actually shows is that the Party has brought her up in the right spirit and this incident illustrates very well that the Party is successful in drawing all loyalty toward Big Brother and completely away from family units.