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Analysis Of The Book ' 1984 ' By Winston Smith

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1984: A Summary As 1984 opens, Winston Smith is coming home from his job at the Ministry of Truth, providing the reader with a view of the world around him as he walks to his house. After his arrival, he reveals a diary he had brought from a small store and proceeds to write in it, though he knows that revealing his thoughts in such a manner was likely to get him killed. However, despite the heightened threat in his small betrayal, life proceeds as seems to be normal for Winston. He goes to his job, editing real history and replacing it with what the Party, the almighty power of this society, claims to be correct, and interacts with several of his coworkers, including a young woman with dark hair, Syme, Mr. Parsons, and O’Brien. Winston holds the vague idea that O’Brien may be a thought traitor like himself, but he is too afraid to admit anything. The workers gather to celebrate the Two Minute’s Hate, during which time they watch a video of a man called Emmanuel Goldstein, a traitor to the party, and shout hate at the screen. Winston also has a very inappropriate daydream about raping the dark-haired girl before Big Brother, their leader, comes on screen to calm them down. Life continues as normal...until the fateful day when everything changes—the day in which the dark-haired girl hands Winston a note that reads “I love you.” Winston burns the note as soon as he reads it, but the thought is ingrained in his head. He spends the next few days trying to catch the girl alone.

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