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Summary: Chapter I: "Big Brother Is Watching YOU."

Winston Smith returns home to his dilapidated apartment building in a cold April day in 1984. As he climbs the stairs, he sees posters of Big Brother watching everywhere. Winston is an official in the totalitarian Party that rules Oceania, though his life is still under their control. In his apartment, a telescreen shows propaganda while potentially monitoring him. Winston gets a diary to write in secretly, knowing it is an act of rebellion against the Party. He begins writing about the previous night and his feelings, but realizes he has written "Down with Big Brother" repeatedly, committing the crime of thoughtcrime.

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Mateo Argenio
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229 views2 pages

Summary: Chapter I: "Big Brother Is Watching YOU."

Winston Smith returns home to his dilapidated apartment building in a cold April day in 1984. As he climbs the stairs, he sees posters of Big Brother watching everywhere. Winston is an official in the totalitarian Party that rules Oceania, though his life is still under their control. In his apartment, a telescreen shows propaganda while potentially monitoring him. Winston gets a diary to write in secretly, knowing it is an act of rebellion against the Party. He begins writing about the previous night and his feelings, but realizes he has written "Down with Big Brother" repeatedly, committing the crime of thoughtcrime.

Uploaded by

Mateo Argenio
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Summary: Chapter I

On a cold day in April of 1984, a man named Winston Smith returns to his
home, a dilapidated apartment building called Victory Mansions. Thin,
frail, and thirty-nine years old, it is painful for him to trudge up the stairs
because he has a varicose ulcer above his right ankle. The elevator is
always out of service so he does not try to use it. As he climbs the
staircase, he is greeted on each landing by a poster depicting an
enormous face, underscored by the words B I G

B R O T H E R I S W ATC H I N G

YOU.

Winston is an insignificant official in the Party, the totalitarian political


regime that rules all of Airstrip Onethe land that used to be called
Englandas part of the larger state of Oceania. Though Winston is
technically a member of the ruling class, his life is still under the Partys
oppressive political control. In his apartment, an instrument called a
telescreenwhich is always on, spouting propaganda, and through which
the Thought Police are known to monitor the actions of citizensshows a
dreary report about pig iron. Winston keeps his back to the screen. From
his window he sees the Ministry of Truth, where he works as a
propaganda officer altering historical records to match the Partys official
version of past events. Winston thinks about the other Ministries that exist
as part of the Partys governmental apparatus: the Ministry of Peace,
which wages war; the Ministry of Plenty, which plans economic shortages;
and the dreaded Ministry of Love, the center of the Inner Partys
loathsome activities.
WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH

From a drawer in a little alcove hidden from the telescreen, Winston pulls
out a small diary he recently purchased. He found the diary in a
secondhand store in the proletarian district, where the very poor live
relatively unimpeded by Party monitoring. The proles, as they are called,

are so impoverished and insignificant that the Party does not consider
them a threat to its power. Winston begins to write in his diary, although
he realizes that this constitutes an act of rebellion against the Party. He
describes the films he watched the night before. He thinks about his lust
and hatred for a dark-haired girl who works in the Fiction Department at
the Ministry of Truth, and about an important Inner Party member named
OBriena man he is sure is an enemy of the Party. Winston remembers
the moment before that days Two Minutes Hate, an assembly during
which Party orators whip the populace into a frenzy of hatred against the
enemies of Oceania. Just before the Hate began, Winston knew he hated
Big Brother, and saw the same loathing in OBriens eyes.
Winston looks down and realizes that he has written D O W N
BROTHER

WITH BIG

over and over again in his diary. He has committed

thoughtcrimethe most unpardonable crimeand he knows that the


Thought Police will seize him sooner or later. Just then, there is a knock
at the door.

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