Read time: 5 minutes &nbsp; &nbsp; <a href='https://youtu.be/quAW0ZS6QUs' target=_blank>Click here to view on youtube</a><BR><br><h1>1984 by George Orwell</h1>The year is 1984. Winston Smith lives in Airstrip One, a province of the Party-governed superstate Oceania. The Party, led by the mysterious Big Brother, watches everyone and controls everything. Winston works at the Ministry of Truth, where he changes historical records to fit the Party’s propaganda. He lives a lonely, oppressed life in a society where free thought and individualism are punishable by death.<br />
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Everywhere Winston goes, he sees posters of Big Brother's face with the slogan, &quot;BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU.&quot; The Party constantly monitors the citizens through telescreens, which both transmit and receive information, making privacy nearly impossible. The Party also enforces its control through Newspeak, a language designed to limit freedom of thought, and the Thought Police, who arrest anyone suspected of unorthodox thinking.<br />
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Winston secretly hates the Party and dreams of rebellion. He starts keeping a diary, an act punishable by death, where he writes his thoughts against Big Brother. At work, Winston notices a dark-haired girl named Julia. He initially fears she is a spy, but she slips him a note saying, &quot;I love you.&quot; They begin a secret love affair, meeting in rented rooms and remote places to avoid detection. Julia works for the Junior Anti-Sex League, but her outward loyalty to the Party is a facade.<br />
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Winston and Julia's relationship deepens, and they dream of overthrowing the Party. They believe that the Brotherhood, a secret organization led by the elusive Emmanuel Goldstein, is working to bring down Big Brother. They are eventually approached by O'Brien, an Inner Party member, who seems to share their discontent. O'Brien gives Winston a copy of &quot;The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism,&quot; a book by Goldstein that explains the principles of the Party and the concept of perpetual war used to control the masses.<br />
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Winston and Julia read the book together, learning about the Party’s manipulation of truth and history, its use of war to maintain power, and its strategies to keep people under control. They are filled with hope, believing that understanding the Party’s methods will help them defeat it. However, their hopes are shattered when they are arrested by the Thought Police in their rented room. They are betrayed by the shop owner, Mr. Charrington, who turns out to be a member of the Thought Police.<br />
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Winston is taken to the Ministry of Love, where he is tortured and brainwashed. O'Brien, who reveals himself as a loyal Party member, personally oversees Winston’s re-education. Through severe torture, O'Brien forces Winston to betray Julia and accept the Party’s version of reality. O'Brien teaches Winston that reality is whatever the Party says it is. If the Party says 2 + 2 = 5, then it is true.<br />
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Winston struggles to hold onto his own beliefs, but the relentless torture breaks him. He finally capitulates, genuinely believing the Party's lies. In Room 101, the most feared place in the Ministry of Love, prisoners are confronted with their worst fears. For Winston, it is rats. Faced with a cage of starving rats, Winston betrays Julia, screaming for the torture to be inflicted on her instead.<br />
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After his release, Winston is a broken man. He and Julia meet again but feel nothing for each other. They have been completely defeated and reprogrammed by the Party. Winston spends his days at a café, numbly accepting the Party’s propaganda and playing chess. He has lost all his rebellious thoughts and feelings.<br />
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In the end, Winston looks up at a poster of Big Brother with tears of love in his eyes. He has been utterly defeated, loving Big Brother as the Party intended. His final thought is one of complete submission: &quot;He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother.&quot;