Orwell, George — Nineteen eighty-four [231]

His whole appearance was that of a little boy grown large, so much so that although he was wearing the regulation overalls, it was almost impossible not to think of him as being dressed in the blue shorts, grey shirt and red neckerchief of the Spies. In visualising him one saw always a picture of dimpled knees and sleeves rolled back from pudgy forearms. — Orwell, George, Nineteen eighty-four, 231

Note

Parsons is rendered as a grown child — ‘a little boy grown large’ — a physical embodiment of arrested development that the Party fosters, with the Spies’ uniform superimposed visually on his adult body.