1984, George Orwell’s novel warning about the dangers of totalitarianism in a society governed by propaganda, surveillance, and censorship.
The main character, Winston Smith is a low-ranking member of the ruling Party of the nation of Oceania. Wherever he is, even at home, the ruling Party is always watching him through telescreens. Everywhere he looks he sees the face of the Party’s leader, known as Big Brother
Big Brother, is a figure whose face is displayed on posters and coins. Every citizen is compelled to feel love and allegiance to him. The Party organises occasional hate rallies and public executions of prisoners to keep ‘patriotism’ alive
Big Brother, is a figure whose face is displayed on posters and coins. Every citizen is compelled to feel love and allegiance to him. The Party organises occasional hate rallies and public executions of prisoners to keep ‘patriotism’ alive
Oceania is divided into three classes: The Inner Party, The Outer Party, and the proletariats. The Inner Party makes up 2% of the population, effectively governs. The Outer Party, who number about 13% of the population, unquestioningly carry out the Inner Party’s orders
The remaining 85% of the population are proletariats (proles), who are largely ignored because they are seen as intellectually incapable of organising revolt. The Party keeps its citizens under constant surveillance, monitoring even their thoughts using the Thought Police.
The Party’s screens churn out daily propaganda: compared to last year, there’s more food, more clothes, more houses, more furniture, more cooking-pots, more fuel, more ships, more helicopters, more books, more babies, more of everything except disease, crime, and insanity.
The Party controls everything in Oceania, including history and language. It enforces the implementation of an invented language they call Newspeak, which is aimed at preventing political rebellion by eliminating all words related to such.
In Oceania, even just thinking rebellious thoughts is illegal. This is called Thoughtcrime and is actually the worst of all crimes. Winston feels frustrated by the oppression and control by the Party, which prohibits free thought, sex, and any expression of individuality.
Winston hates the Party and has illegally purchased a diary where he writes his criminal thoughts. He also has become obsessed with a powerful Party member, O’Brien, whom he suspects to be a secret member of the Brotherhood, a mysterious group working to overthrow the Party
Winston, a gifted writer, works for the Party in the Ministry of Truth, where his job is to alter historical records by rewriting news articles to fit the narrative of the Party. He is very troubled by the Party’s control of history.
For instance:
The Party teaches that Oceania has always been allied with Eastasia in permanent war(s) against Eurasia, but Winston is quite certain that there was a time when this was not so.
In fact, the real reason for the wars between the superpowers is to keep their economies productive without adding to the wealth of their citizens, who live (with the exception of a privileged few Party members) in a state of permanent fear and poverty
The Party also claims that Emmanuel Goldstein, the alleged leader of the secretive Brotherhood, is the most dangerous man alive, but this seems very unrealistic to Winston.
Winston keeps his diary in order to stay sane because the Party controls reality to the extent of requiring its subjects to deny the evidence of their own senses, a crime the Party calls Doublethink, and Winston knows of no one else who shares his feelings of hatred and anger.
At work, Winston notices a beautiful girl staring at him. Some days later he receives a note from the girl saying “I love you”. She says her name is Julia, and they begin a secret love affair, always watching out for signs of Party and Big Brother surveillance.
After a while, Winston and Julia rent a room above a secondhand store in the proletariat district of London where Winston bought his diary. Throughout the relationship, Winston is certain they will be caught and punished sooner or later
In contrast to Winston’s gloomy outlook, Julia is both more realistic and optimistic. As their relationship progresses, Winston’s hatred for the Party deepens. Then one day he receives the message he has long been waiting for: O’Brien wants to see him.
He takes Julia to O’Brien’s opulent apartment. As a member of the powerful Inner Party, O’Brien lives in luxury. Winston is in the Outer Party. O’Brien tells Winston and Julia that he too hates the Party and that he is working against it as part of the Brotherhood.
O’Brien educates the couple on the Brotherhood and gives Winston a copy of Emmanuel Goldstein’s book, which he says is the manifesto of the Brotherhood. While Winston reads the book to Julia in their rented room above the store, soldiers barge in and arrest them.
It turns out Mr Charrington, the owner of the store where Winston bought his diary, is a member of the Thought Police. Winston is separated from Julia and taken to a place called the Ministry of Love.
At the Ministry of Love, Winston finds that O’Brien is a Party spy who was assigned to trap Winston into committing an open act of rebellion against the Party and was never part of the Brotherhood, which may, or may not even exist.
Winston is brainwashed and tortured for months by O’Brien and continues to find it hard to resist. Eventually, O’Brien sends Winston to the dreaded Room 101, which is said to be the final destination for anyone who opposes the Party.
Winston will be confronted by his worst fear: rats. Throughout the novel, Winston has a fear of rats and has had a few nightmares about them, and O’Brien and the Party know this. So, O’Brien straps a cage of rats onto Winston’s head and prepares to let them eat his face…
Finally, Winston breaks and begs O’Brien to do it to Julia instead. This is what O’Brien wanted. With his spirit broken, Winston is released. He meets Julia but feels nothing for her. He has accepted the Party and has learned to love its leader, Big Brother.