1984 Book Summary. In Book One, the novel begins with the main character, Winston Smith, returning home to his uncomfortable and dilapidated apartment. It is a cold day in April and as he returns home, he is greeted by a poster that warns, “BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU.”. Context is set in the first chapter that Winston is a low-ranking
2. George Orwell had trouble deciding what year to set the story in. Before assigning his fearful prognostications to the year 1984, Orwell based the novel in both 1980 and 1982. 3. Before
Summary and Analysis Part 1: Chapter 2. Summary. The knock at the door is Winston's neighbor, Mrs. Parsons, who asks him to unclog her sink because her husband, Tom Parsons, who works with Winston in the Ministry of Truth, is not home. Winston Smith obliges her and is accosted by her children, who call him a traitor, a thought criminal, and 1984 Summary and Synopsis. At lunchtime on April 4, 1984, Winston Smith takes time off from his job at the Ministry of Truth to go home and begin a secret journal. He has a lovely old notebook bought at Mr. Charrington’s junk shop a few days before, a dangerous act in 1984, when secret thoughts and relics from the past are forbidden.