George Orwell. 1984. London: Secker & Warburg, 1949.

GEORGE ORWELL (1903-1950)
1984

Big Brother heads The Party, whose jargon is Newspeak, the governing body of Oceana. Winston, a worker at the Ministry of Truth, is in constant fear of the Thought Police who monitor all citizens through telescreens and demoralize the citizenry by altering the past, a fact easily concealed by The Party's principles of doublethink. The Party’s slogans are WAR IS PEACE; SLAVERY IS FREEDOM; and IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH. Winston’s job is falsifying documents, which leads to his breech of orthodoxy. He and his girlfriend, Julia, take vows to disrupt the Party. A false friend, O’Brian, lends them a revolutionary book. They are revealed, tortured with rats, and reindoctrinated. They are transformed from intelligent, strong willed rebels into broken spirited puppets of the party.