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1984 by George Orwell

The book opens on a cold April day with 39-year-old Winston Smith returning to his dilapidated flat in Victory Mansions. The hallway sports an enormous poster of a man known as _Big Brother_; the caption reads, "BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU." The eyes of the poster seem to follow Winston as he moves.

Upon entering his flat, Winston dims the telescreen (where someone is reading statistics about pig-iron production), which can never be turned off completely, and which both receives and transmits. Outside, Winston can see "BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU" posters, a poster with the word "INGSOC" on it, and the police patrol spying on people.

Winston is living in London, the predominant city of the province known as Airstrip One in Oceania. Bombed sites reveal that some sort of war is going on. Winston tries to recall his childhood, to see if things have always been like this, but cannot.

Outside his window stands the Ministry of Truth (a.k.a. "Minitrue" in Newspeak, the official la...

Posted by: Tamara Moore

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