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NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR
Big Brother is a dictatorship party that controls the minds of the educated population in Oceania, one of the three superstates in the world of Nineteen Eighty-Four. The party is all seeing and hearing with the use of telescreens, oblong metal plaques much like dulled mirrors, and microphones, situated all over the countryside. The Party's aim is to abolish all unorthodox thought within the community through the technique of mental manipulation.
Winston Smith is a member of the Outer party, working in the ministry of truth, altering records of the past. He doubts the principles of the Inner party and therefore puts himself in great danger of being caught having unorthodox thoughts. To contain his thoughts, Winston buys a diary from a junk shop in which his first words are 'Down with Big Brother". He also believes that freedom lies in the right to say the two plus two equals four. Winston starts to wander whether he is alone in the world, the only educated person who can remember past events, the only person with a silent hate of the party, the only person to remember life before Big Brother. He returns to the junk shop and rents a room above the store which contains no telescreen or microphones, allowing Winston to be free in his thoughts and write in his diary.Winston discovers that he is not alone in the world when he is approached by a coworker, Julia, who hands him a note saying 'I love you'. Winston and Julia meet at a secret place in the bush where they confirm their hate of the party and become lovers. They arrange other secret places to meet, including the room above the junk shop, where they can express their feelings towards each other. During this time, the pair are approached by another of their coworkers, O'brien, who invites them back to his flat. At his flat, Winston and Julia are convinced by O'brien that the rebel group, the Brotherhood, does exist and are given a copy of 'the book', which contains the beliefs of the group. Winston and Julia return to the room above the junk shop to read the book together. Back in the room, Winston and Julia lay on the bed and Winston reads the book to Julia. Julia falls asleep so Winston decides to stop and starts to think about the circumstances that they are now in. The realizes the danger of the situation and says aloud "We are the dead". A hidden telescreen repeats the words and members of the police file in to arrest Winston and Julia.
Winston and Julia are separated and taken to the ministry of love where they are tortured into loving Big Brother. They are forced to believe that two plus two equals five and both Winston and Julia betray each other. They are released back into society and finally realize how pointless it was to resist the love of Big Brother.
"Reality exists in the human mind, and nowhere else
...In the mind of the Party, which is collective and immortal.
Whatever the Party holds to be truth is truth."