1984: Summary
Uploaded by kntridr on Apr 04, 2001
Summary
The Story starts, as the title tells us, in the year of 1984, and it takes place in England or how it is called at that time, Airstrip One. Airstrip One itself is the mainland of a huge country, called Oceania, which consists of North America, South Africa, and Australia. The country is ruled by the Party, which is led by a figure called Big Brother. The population of Oceania is divided into three parts:
1.The Inner Party (app. 1% of the population)
2.The Outer Party (app. 18% of the population)
3.The Proles
The narrator of the book is all-knowing and he is not participating in the action of the book himself. The protagonist is Winston Smith, a member of the OuterParty, working in the Records Department of the Ministry of Truth, rewriting and altering records, such as newspaper-articles, of the past. The action starts when Winston develops critic thoughts against the ruling dictatorship of the party, for the first time. Doing so he buys himself a book, a rare thing these days, to use it as a diary. As individual expression was forbidden by the Party, having a diary was a crime, which could even be punished with death. There were so-called telescreens in each room, showing propaganda and political pamphlets, which had a built in camera and microphone, in order to spy on the people. Therefore keeping a secret book was not only forbidden, but also very dangerous. When Winston makes the first entry in the diary ,he thinks about an experience he has made during the Two Minutes Hate, a propaganda film, that was repeated each day. During this Film he caught the eye of O'Brien, a member of the Inner Party, of whom he thought that he might alos stand critic to the regime, or that at least there is a bond of some kind between them. After the reflection, he finds that he has written the sentence :"Down with Big Brother" all over the page. In the same night Winston dreams about, his mother and sister, who had starved to death in the war, because he had been so greedy. Then he dreams of having sex with a girl he has seen in the Records Department, during the Two Minute Hate. Early in the morning Winston is waken up by the harsh voice from the telescreen. During the performance of the exercises, Winston's thoughts move back...