Room 101, Meet your worst fear. What is it's cultural Impact?

Room 101 is the most feared room in the Ministry of Love. It is essentially a torture chamber, created to extract the thoughts of those that are known to be disloyal to Big Brother. Such is the state of society of 1984 that even a citizen's nightmares are known to the Party. The nightmare and therefore the threatened punishment of Winston Smith is to be attacked by rats. Smith saves himself by begging the authorities to let his lover, Julia, have her face gnawed out by the ferocious rodents instead. The torture and what Winston does to escape it breaks his last promise to himself and to Julia: never to betray her emotionally. The book suggests that Julia is likewise subjected to her own worst fear, and when she and Winston later meet in a park, he notices a scar on her forehead. The original intent of threatening Winston with the rats was not necessarily to go through with the act, but to force him into betraying the only person he loved and therefore break his spirit. The core theme of Room 101 in the novel is more than just a place of dramatic plot climax, where Winston's spirit of freedom is broken. Orwell is implying that it is possible for an all-powerful state to use terror to create any reality it wishes. The impact that this single room has on people is a very powerful statement because it takes your worst possible nightmare and turns it into reality until it breaks you emotionally to a point where you can no longer sustain mental thought and adhere to what you think is right. In todays cultures, there are many different things we consider torture but no culture sees anything like this. George Orwells use of this single room has led to being referred to in many fictional works as a place where unpleasant things are kept. We see it in horror films as well when a character is about to enter the room where we know something is waiting for them and it just so happens to be room 101. Our culture has taken this room number and turned it into somes worst fear alone.