"If I could save Julia by doubting my own pain, would I do it? Yes, I would." (Pg. 184, Nineteen Eighty-Four) After Winston betrays everyone except Julia, he still believes he can withstand his torture and not betray Julia. "You have whimpered for mercy, you have betrayed everybody and everything. Can you think of a single degradation that has not happened to you? Winston had stopped weeping, though tears were still oozing out of his eyes. He looked up at O'Brien 'I have not betrayed Julia,' he said." (Pg. 217, Nineteen Eighty-Four) Yet when the trial comes and his worst fear is realized, he betrays her in the end. "Do it to Julia! Do it to Julia! Not me! I don't care what you do to her. Tear her face off, strip her to the bones. Not me! Julia! Not me!" (Pg. 227, Nineteen Eighty-Four) In the Left Hand of Darkness, Estraven steals food and supplies for Genly Ai and himself even though he knew stealing was so despised. "Stealing is a vile crime on Winter; indeed the only man more despised then the thief is the suicide." (Pg. 205, The Left Hand of Darkness) Estraven betrays Genly Ai because he left him alone after their long journey by purposely allowing himself to be shot. "'He could have stopped. He saw the guards. He ran right into the guns.'(Genly Ai) The young physician said nothing for a while. 'You're not saying that he killed himself?' 'Perhaps-' 'That is a bitter thing to say of a friend.'" (Pg. 286, The Left Hand of Darkness) .
A friend fills many roles from tormenter to lover, but serves the main purpose of helping a person survive. In the book Nineteen Eighty-Four, Winston has only one friend left after the interrogation and makes this comment about O'Brien. "He was the tormenter, he was the protector, he was the inquisitor, he was the friend." (Pg. 193, Nineteen Eighty-Four) Being a friend allows O'Brien to fill many roles in Winston's life. Genly Ai questions friendship on Winter because the people were able to change from friend to lover each month.