Have you ever woken up one morning with the warm sun gleaming in your face and the humming birds chirping outside your window, to have an eerie feeling that someone(the FBI, a neighbor, a family member) may be watching you? In 1984, Winston Smith, a low ranking member of society, is watched every day by the party's omniscient leader, Big Brother. Due to the totalitarianism in his society, Winston feels frustration from the oppression and control of the party, a group which controls everything from the people's history to how the townspeople act around others. One day, Winston receives a note from a young women called Julia saying "I love you" and their emotional and passionate affair begins. As their affair progresses, Winston purchases a room above Mr. Charrington's store. They will soon find out that O'brien, who Winston believed was a secret member of a rebellious group named the Brotherhood, and Mr. Charrington, a secret member of the thought police, that they will be faced with thought crime. Thought crime occurs when an individual doesn't use doublethink, the idea that an individual can hold two contradictory idea's in his head at the same time, and believe each of them. For example, using doublethink would be to believe that in 1969 Neil Armstrong did land on the moon and to also believe that he never made it to the moon. After they are charged with thought crime, they are both faced with torture and their worst fear in the dreadful room 101. After Winston and Julia's spirits are broken, they are released into the outside world having no feelings for eachother and they learn to love the thing they always hated, Big Brother. Orwell's understanding of totalitarianism is represented through the book as it illustrates how government can shape ones mind to think a certain way, but can not overpower the innate human nature to love. .
Winston illegally, if there were laws, purchases a diary and begins to write his thoughts in it.
