[Music] book 1 chapter 1 of 1984 starts out in London England now called airstrip 1 and part of a wider community of Nations called Oceania it's a dystopia 1984 is the future posters are everywhere captioned big brother is watching you and we meet our protagonist Winston Smith who works at the Ministry of Truth his division is in charge of news entertainment education and the Fine Arts and there are three other divisions of the government the Ministry of Peace in charge of war the Ministry of love in charge of law and order and the Ministry of
Plenty in charge of the economy we learn quickly that the government not only runs everything but watches and manipulates it too on his lunch break Winston returns home to his apartment victory mansions the name of it is not really fitting the electricity is often out the elevators doesn't work everything smells of cabbage London itself is pretty rundown - the main feature of Winston's apartment is a telescreen a device like a TV and it can be dimmed but never turned off and it transmits both ways so when you watch it can watch you as long as
Winston is within its field of vision everything he does is heard and every movement to see Winston moves to an alcove out of range of the telescreen to write in a diary which we find out quickly is illegal he writes of a monologue that's been running through his head here April 4th 1984 that morning two people were going through a daily ritual called two minutes hate one was a dark-haired woman and the other was O'Brien a member of his inner party that morning it had been Emmanuel Goldstein as the target of the two minutes hate
he's an early betrayer of the party and Goldstein was shown on screen abusing this big other figure when the program ended Winston had glanced at O'Brien he thinks about this as he writes down down with big brother this is considered thoughtcrime he'll be vaporized for it he puts down his pen as someone knocks at his door at the onset of 1984 the description of Winston Smith's home and workplace reveal a new London Society in 1984 the people are under the control of the party and there's absolutely no privacy or room for individuality Winston's decision to
write a diary is a dangerous act the words that he writes are even more dangerous his diary entries show where he stands regarding the party Winston is a natural rebel in a conformist world in a society where people are expected to swallow the lies the party feeds them they're encouraged to fear enemies real or imagined beer generates hatred and hatred keeps people under the party's control more well links the two minutes hate with fear and once fear manifests it becomes a permanent state that controls everyone [Music]
