1984

Oceania is a one-party state in which the Party monitors its members, rewrites records, and demands acceptance of changing official truth. Winston Smith, a thirty-nine-year-old Outer Party worker in the Ministry of Truth's Records Department, alters past newspapers and other records to match current Party claims. He secretly begins a diary, doubts the official history he helps manufacture, and interprets O'Brien's ambiguous behavior as a possible sign that another Party member shares his opposition. The appendix, 'The Principles of Newspeak,' separately explains that Newspeak is being designed to reduce vocabulary and meanings so that unorthodox ideas become increasingly difficult to formulate.

Julia, a worker in the Fiction Department whom Winston initially fears, slips him a note saying that she loves him. They begin a secret sexual relationship and eventually use the room above Mr. Charrington's shop, where no telescreen is visible. Julia hates the Party but is less interested than Winston in political doctrine or organized resistance. After O'Brien gives Winston his address, Winston and Julia visit him. O'Brien presents himself as connected to the Brotherhood, gives them instructions for clandestine work, and arranges for Winston to receive the book attributed to Emmanuel Goldstein. During Hate Week, Oceania abruptly changes its enemy from Eurasia to Eastasia; Winston helps erase the previous war from the documentary record and then reads the book's account of hierarchy, perpetual war, and doublethink.

The rented room is not safe. A telescreen is hidden behind the picture of St. Clement's, Mr. Charrington is revealed as a member of the Thought Police, and Winston and Julia are arrested. In the Ministry of Love, O'Brien directs Winston's torture and interrogation. He says that he collaborated in writing Goldstein's book, refuses to resolve whether the Brotherhood actually exists, and states that the Party seeks power for its own sake. Through pain, forced contradiction, and manipulation of memory and perception, O'Brien tries to make Winston accept Party claims internally rather than merely repeat them.

In Room 101, O'Brien confronts Winston with his most unbearable fear: rats in a cage designed to open against his face. Winston finally begs for the punishment to be inflicted on Julia instead, crossing the line he had previously insisted he had not crossed. After his release, Winston and Julia meet by chance and each says that they betrayed the other; Julia explains that under an unbearable threat the wish to transfer suffering becomes genuine, and both recognize that their feelings have changed. Winston returns to a largely empty life of gin, chess, and nominal work at the Chestnut Tree Café. When a bulletin announces a major Oceanian victory in Africa, he experiences genuine elation. The novel ends with Winston's struggle against the Party finished and with his recognition that he loves Big Brother.