1984 Book 1, Chapter 1 - 5
Winston Smith, a Party worker from the Ministry of Truth of Oceania, comes to his apartment in Victory Mansions in Airstrip 1, the city that had once been London. Winston climbs the stairs of the dilapidated building since the elevator is shut off to save electricity for Hate Week, and he focuses on the posters of Big Brother that are plastered on every floor warning everyone that they are being watched. Winston reaches his shabby apartment and stares across the once glorious city through the windows. He tries to remember a time when London hadn’t been so gravely marked by the scars of war. The only buildings with any kind of majesty now belong to the Party, which now houses the ministries of its government. He turns down the volume of the Telescreen, a large TV that also serves as a camera, which can never be turned off.
Winston understands that coming home for lunch means that he’ll have to go hungry since he can’t have the food at the office canteen and he doesn’t have anything other than a moldy piece of bread. He doesn’t care. He’s been thinking about this moment for a long time, and he’s finally gathered the courage to go through with it. Winston makes his way to an alcove in his living room, which is a small inconsistency in the room’s layout that allows him to be shielded from the view of the Telescreen. He takes out the diary and struggles to use the pen. Winston marks the page with the supposed date since he isn’t sure whether it is 1984 or not. Words suddenly spring forth as Winston hurriedly scribbles a paragraph about how the Party normalizes violence against enemy nations and the rebels within Oceania. He recalls the incident that morning that had precipitated his desire to return home to write in the journal. Winston had met O’Brien, an inner-Party worker, and Julia, another member of the ministry of Truth during that day’s ritualized Two Minute Hate. As always, the hate had begun with Emmanuel Goldstein, the prime public enemy who had betrayed Big Brother, and then they had moved on to those who had committed smaller crimes against the Party.
Winston was deeply affected by both of these individuals. He was affected by Julia because of her snug overalls, and the anti-sex league banner that she had tightly wound across her hips. He fantasized about dominating her and hurting her. Winston was affected by O’Brien because of a significant look they had shared, and though it had been brief he had realized that they shared the same bitterness for the Party. He realizes the depth of his crime as he returns to the moment, and ends his paragraph with a final sentence, “Down with Big Brother.” Thoughtcrime. He had sealed his fate with those words, since they could never truly be taken back, and when they would be found he would certainly be sentenced to death. Mrs. Parsons chooses to knock on his door at that exact moment, and Winston nearly leaps out of his skin at the thought of being apprehended so quickly by the Thought police. She asks Winston for help with her clogged pipe, and he is forced to confront her devilish children who are thoroughly indoctrinated about the Party’s ideology. The Party had turned children into Spies and encouraged them to report even their parents to the Thought Police at the slightest hint of a thoughtcrime. He returns to his apartment as the haggard Mrs. Parsons struggles to get her children to obey her. He wonders about the purpose of the diary and its intended audience, but he realizes that the very act of writing is a rebellion against Big Brother.
Winston dreams of his mother, and younger sister that night, and the dream fills him with regret as he realizes that they had sacrificed their lives for him. This recalling of memories is also prohibited, and is labeled as “OldThink.” Winston struggles through the morning calisthenics session in front of the Telescreen as he lets his mind wander over history, and how the world had reached a state in which only three nations existed: Oceania, Eurasia, and Eastasia. Oceania was currently at war with one of the other powers and allied with another, which was an arrangement that often changed, yet people around him never seemed to notice. The instructor screams at Winston through the Telescreen and pushes him to perform the exercise with more vigor. He follows her instructions with a placid face without giving any visible indication of the discomfort he feels at her words and the exercise.
Winston works to correct past facts in the Ministry of Truth, as he receives information about all the things that Big Brother had said or predicted in the past which hadn’t truly come to pass. Winston and the other members of the Records department correct the past so that Big Brother can never be proven to have ever uttered any falsehood. In his work, Winston also erases the existence of vaporized individuals, people who had committed crimes although there were no laws under the rule of Big Brother unlike before the revolution when the whole world had been under the grasp of the evil capitalists. Winston’s thoughts then turn to the other eighty-five percent of the population, the Proles, who don’t have to live like the Party workers. However, their position and means in life are severely limited, and they are never given the remotest chance to organize themselves.
Winston heads to lunch after a morning of somewhat engaging work and collects the sloppy food that he is given at exorbitant rates. He reluctantly seats himself next to Syme, who is working on the Newspeak dictionary for the ministry. Syme immediately dives into a discussion about the concept of Newspeak as he tries to explain how the new language is a means to limit consciousness. The government is deliberately trying to create fewer words that could have a wide range of meanings so that in the near future words and concepts like freedom would cease to exist. Winston doesn’t particularly like Syme, but he would certainly be saddened by Syme’s vaporization although it wouldn’t be too surprising. Syme was too intelligent for the Party’s like and too outspoken for his good. They are soon joined by Parsons, an extremely fat man who is too stupid to ever be a threat to the Party. Parsons brags about his young daughter who had overheard a man commit a ThoughtCrime and reported him to the thought police. Their discussion is interrupted by an announcement from the Ministry of Plenty, which is responsible for rationing supplies along with its other roles, and Winston is struck by how the name of the ministry itself is a form of DoubleThink.
Analysis
This first section of the novel introduces us to the Dystopian world of 1984, a genre of writing that had been non-existent before George Orwell. The author paints a bleak picture as he describes the reduced state of what was certainly one of the greatest cities in the world during his time, London. In the very first few paragraphs, Orwell introduces the readers to some of the slogans that belong to the government of Oceania:
WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
The contradictory nature of these slogans is not only indicative of the reduced state of individual thinking capacity, but it also foreshadows the concept of DoubleThink, which is a central tenet of living under the Party. The concept of DoubleThink pervades all aspects of life under the Party, an aspect that is further exemplified in this first section of the book through the names and roles of the various ministries. The Ministry of Love is responsible for maintaining law and order, which often requires them to torture and punish criminals, while the Ministry of Plenty is responsible for maintaining strict control on the rations that are given to the citizens. The Ministry of Truth, where Winston works, is mostly occupied with creating and spreading falsehoods, and finally, the Ministry of Peace is responsible for waging war.
The author indicates that fear and hate are the primary means through which the Party propagates its power. The Party has instituted ritualized expressions of hate for all its citizens that allow them to express the terrible feelings they are all experiencing. However, the Party ensures that the hate the people express is directed towards figureheads who have rebelled against the Party. These ritualized hate meetings allow the Party workers to vent the terrible feelings that naturally come about in the toxic environment of the Party. In addition, the Party creates an environment of fear through constant surveillance using the Telescreen, and by training children to be spies.
