Winston's Home

Winston Smith, a thirty-nine year old member of the Outer Party, is going home from work. The building he enters is his apartment building and it is a decrepit and worn out Victorian structure. As Winston enters his apartment, the reader is shown how Winston and everyone else in the Outer Party is deprived from any luxuries or leisurely delights. All Winston has for furniture is a mat for a bed, a single table and a cabinet to hold his Victory Gin (which tastes awful), a mandatory telescreen, and a forbidden journal. By just having this journal within his apartment, Winston is guilty of a number crimes but Winston is so desperate for any feeling he is willing to risk death just to have something to speak his mind. To even speak ill of the The Party and its doings is punishable by death and to take this further Winston wrote in page 18 “DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER, DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER, DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER, DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER”. By writing this, Winston has just signed his own execution but knowing that he was able to speak his mind gave Winston all the satisfaction he needed. The journal, although it is only a temporary sanctuary, is only one of two places where Winston can have privacy. The other place being his mind but even the privacy of his own head is being pried into by The Party. That “telescreen” is just like a television but in reverse, you don't watch the telescreen, the telescreen watches you. The telescreen is a finely tuned machine that can effectively read your heart rate, your breathing patterns and even your facial expressions. If a person does anything that is considered “strange”, as in speaking in your sleep or have some physiological reaction to The Party's propaganda then the police will be there immediately to question you. Not many come back from these questionings and those who are not immediately killed spared long enough for them to admit their crimes to lie of a courtroom and then publicly executed. With the constant surveillance, it is apparent that all of the Outer Party members are despairing for any relief but knowing they have no place to turn to their spirits are broken and they have lost all hope. Its exactly what The Party wants.