1. GEORGE ORWELL’S NINETEEN EIGHTY FOUR
PART 1
CHAPTER 1

2. PLOT SYNOPSIS
Winston Smith, Party member Oceania introduced as protagonist
Dystopic / post-apocalyptic world
Individuality denied
Constant surveillance acts as controlling force (Big Brother, Telescreens)
‘Pillars’ of society are Ministries (Truth, Peace, Love, Plenty)

3. Winston engages in rebellious / criminal act of opening diary – attempt to store meaning in increasingly meaningless world
Julia and O’Brien also introduced
Julia is anti-sex league member – personification of everything Winston despises
O’Brien is Inner Party member – represents hope that there is alternative to ‘political orthodoxy’

4. Substitute for emotional expression is Two Minutes Hate directed at enemy of the Party – Goldstein
Party Slogans are provided (War is Peace...)
Winston’s character develops with passionate expression in diary (Down with BB)
Winston knows he will be apprehended by thought police, charged with thoughtcrime and vaporised

5. CHARACTERISATION – WINSTON SMITH39
Has varicose ulcer on right ankle
Fair hair, naturally optimistic expression
Physically broken down
Psychologically conflicted
Party rebel
Works at Records Department in Ministry of ‘Truth’ rewriting history / falsifying records

6. READER POSITIONING – WINSTON SMITH
Reader positioned to feel sympathy for Winston who is presented as an ‘everyman’ struggling to attain some degree of authenticity in hostile / unreal world

7. CHARACTERISATION – JULIA
Works for Fiction Department
Presented to reader through Winston’s eyes as orthodox party female ardently anti-sex and completely indoctrinated by Party Propaganda
Of interest in novel’s opening because Winston is attracted to her and repelled by her in equal measure

8. READER POSITIONING – JULIA
Reader is positioned to associate Julia with danger – works as foreshadowing to further development of plot

9. CHARACTERISATION – O’BRIEN
Inner Party member. Holder of important position
Perceived through Winston’s eyes as possessing some latent unorthodoxy

10. READER POSITIONING – O’BRIEN
Reader positioned to believe O’Brien could represent source of hope for Winston
Foreshadows that reader will be manipulated as Winston is – increases reader sympathy, allegiance with Winston

11. THEMES Dehumanisation / Repression of Individuality / Isolation
Power of the State / Political Control
The nature of language and truth

12. SYMBOLS
Big Brother
Two Minutes Hate

13. QUOTES
It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen
BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU
WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
A day never passed when spies and saboteurs acting under his directions were not unmasked by the Thought Police

14. QUOTES The Brotherhood, its name was supposed to be
The horrible thing about the Two Minutes Hate was not that one was obliged to act a part, but that it was impossible to avoid joining in
At this moment the entire group of people broke into a deep slow rhythmical chant of B-B!...B-B!

15. QUOTES DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER
The Thought Police would get him just the same
You were abolished, annihilated: vaporized was the usual word
Theyll shoot me i dont care theyll shoot me in the back of the nect i dont care down with big brother they always shoot you in the back of the neck...

16. LANGUAGE FEATURES AND DEVICES
Foreshadowing
Satirical description of totalitarianism
Third person narration favours Winston’s point of view
Language is jargonistic. Use of capitalisation for emphasis
Paradox and irony (War is Peace...)
Flashback device to fill in earlier detail of Two Minutes Hate (used throughout to represent memory / dreams)