On a cold day in April of 1984, a man named Winston Smith returns to his home, a dilapidated
apartment building called Victory Mansions. Thin, frail, and thirty-nine years old, it is painful for
him to trudge up the stairs because he has a varicose ulcer above his right ankle. The elevator is
always out of service so he does not try to use it. As he climbs the staircase, he is greeted on each
landing by a poster depicting an enormous face, underscored by the words “ B I G B R O T H E R IS
W A T C H I N G Y OU . ”
Winston is an insignificant official in the Party, the totalitarian political regime that rules all of
Airstrip One—the land that used to be called England—as part of the larger state of Oceania.
Though Winston is technically a member of the ruling class, his life is still under the Party’s
oppressive political control. In his apartment, an instrument called a telescreen—which is always
on, spouting propaganda, and through which the Thought Police are known to monitor the actions
of citizens—shows a dreary report about pig iron. Winston keeps his back to the screen. From his
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