The Facts on File Dictionary of Allusions - Green Valley High School

Big Brother
52
proof that the military mind sometimes moves very
slowly.
Big Brother An oppressive government, or ga niza
tion, person, etc., that maintains a vigilant watch
over the lives of individuals. <strong>The</strong> concept was a
creation of British writer George Orwell (1903–
50) in his novel Nineteen Eighty- Four (1949), in
which Big Brother is the all- seeing dictator whose
regime exercises stifl ing control over the lives of
citizens. <strong>The</strong> name has acquired new meaning in
recent years with the advent of the pop u lar Big
Brother tele vi sion programs screened in many
countries around the world, in which disparate
groups of individuals spend several weeks living in
confi nement together under the watchful eye of
the camera. “Fear of big brother is abroad in the
land” (Stewart Lamont, In Good Faith, 1989). See
also room 101; thought police.
Biggles (bigblz) A pi lot, especially one with a
daring, adventurous character. <strong>The</strong> allusion is to
James Bigglesworth, the hero of the Biggles adventure
novels of Captain W. E. Johns (1893–1968),
beginning with <strong>The</strong> Camels are Coming (1932).
Johns based his hero upon a real man, Air Commodore
Cecil George Wigglesworth (1893–1961),
with whom Johns fl ew in the Royal Flying Corps
during World War I. Tell Biggles up there in the cockpit
that if he doesn’t get us into the air soon he’ll have a
riot on his hands.
big lie A lie, especially one told by a politician.
<strong>The</strong> phrase is particularly associated with the Nazi
Party and the often outrageous propaganda disseminated
to the German people under the direction
of Josef Goebbels. Adolf Hitler himself
admitted in Mein Kampf (1925), “<strong>The</strong> broad mass
of a nation . . . will more easily fall victim to a big
lie than to a small one.” <strong>The</strong> government has refused to
be drawn on the issue, presumably afraid it will be caught
out in its big lie.
Big Rock Candy Mountain An idealized place
where everything a person could possibly want is
in ready supply. <strong>The</strong> allusion is to a U.S. folk song
recorded in the 1920s by Mac McClintock and
later by Burl Ives. <strong>The</strong> song identifi es Big Rock
Candy Mountain as a kind of heaven were cigarettes
grow on trees and whiskey forms in lakes.
She thought of her husband’s family home as a Big Rock
Candy Mountain, supplying every luxury she had
dreamed of as a girl.
big sleep, the Death. <strong>The</strong> phrase is indelibly associated
with U.S. crime writer Raymond Chandler
(1888–1959), whose fi rst novel was <strong>The</strong> Big Sleep
(1939): “What did it matter where you lay once
you were dead? . . . You were dead, you were
sleeping the big sleep.” We never saw him again, so I
guess after all these years he’s sleeping the big sleep.
big stick <strong>The</strong> use of force, or the threat of force,
to persuade others to act in a certain way. <strong>The</strong>
concept of “big stick” diplomacy was introduced
by President <strong>The</strong>odore Roo se velt in 1901, in discussions
of U.S. policy toward Latin America. He
was drawing on a West African proverb, which
advises “Speak softly and carry a big stick.” “After
the big stick came the carrot: he offered to pay my
fi rst month’s rent at a hostel he knew” (Michael
Falk, Part of the Furniture, 1991).
bikini (bbkeenee) A revealing two- piece woman’s
bathing suit. <strong>The</strong> allusion is to the Pacifi c atoll
called Bikini (in the Marshall Islands), which was
the site of U.S. nuclear weapons tests in 1946. <strong>The</strong>
name of the island was fi rst applied to this then-