1984
SynopsisPlot
Winston Smith toes the Party line, rewriting history to satisfy the demands of the Ministry of Truth. With each lie he writes, Winston grows to hate the Party that seeks power for its own sake and persecutes those who dare to commit thoughtcrimes. But as he starts to think for himself, Winston can’t escape the fact that Big Brother is always watching...
Story
About this book
Published in 1949, George Orwell's 1984 is set in a future London within a superstate called Oceania. Society is controlled by the Party, which maintains power through constant surveillance, propaganda, and the suppression of independent thought. Citizens are monitored in their homes, and unapproved thinking is classified as thoughtcrime. At the center of the system is Big Brother, whose image appears on posters and screens across the city.
Winston Smith works at the Ministry of Truth, where his job is to alter historical records so they match the Party's current claims. Each correction removes a fact and replaces it with an approved version. Over time, Winston begins to resist the system he serves, keeping a secret diary and forming private judgments. Both acts place him in direct conflict with a regime built to eliminate personal memory and individual reasoning.
Orwell wrote the novel shortly after the Second World War, drawing on the totalitarian states of the twentieth century. The book examines how language can be narrowed to limit thought and how records can be rewritten to serve authority. Several of its invented terms, including Newspeak, doublethink, and Big Brother, have since entered everyday English.
