Winston Smith, the protagonist, arrives home at Victory Mansions. The setting is dismal: Vile wind pushes gritty dust into the building as Winston enters, and the smell of boiled eggs and cabbage overpowers the hallway. The elevator is inoperable, so Winston takes the stairs to his seventh-floor flat, resting along the way to relieve a varicose ulcer on his right leg. There is the same oversized poster on each landing along the way up: A vaguely middle-aged man with a black mustache and the caption “BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU” (3).

A telescreen, a device that transmits audio and images in both directions, is speaking inside Winston’s flat. Winston turns the device down, but he cannot turn it off completely. Posters of Big Brother and another with the word “Ingsoc” dominate the landscape outside his window, and a police patrol helicopter drops among the buildings to spy on occupants. Winston observes that police patrols are nothing compared to the Thought Police, who might be watching anyone at any time, perhaps even through the telescreen in his own flat.

The Thought Police, Big Brother, Ingsoc, and Newspeak are all aspects of the war-ridden future under the Party’s rule.