Language and thought define reality. The party is creating a new language, it is called newspeak. Newspeak is similar to English with a large amount of words left out. For instance if you took a word like "good" and it's opposite "bad", in newspeak they would not use the word bad they would simply say "ungood". In this way they destroy words and with that the ability to express ones self. The idea behind this is, if there is no word to express an idea they can stop you from saying or thinking anything they don't want you to. When newspeak is finished thought crime will be impossible. The thought of not having a language that you can express yourself in even in thought is a frightening one.

The Party

War is Peace
Freedom is Slavery
Ignorance is Strength

These are the slogans of the Party. The Party is the political group in charge of Oceania, it is lead by Big Brother. There are huge posters of Big Brother every where in London and they say "Big Brother is watching you." The thought of a big brother brings images of protection, security, someone to look up to. This Big Brother is not quite the same though. He delivers, as most party ideas seem to, contradictory feelings. At once he is there to comfort and help you and also to observe you and make sure you do not step out of line. The party controls everything their members do. They rule with an iron fist. They have the power to rewrite history and with the help of the thought police they can make anyone disappear.

The party uses huge amounts of propaganda to control the minds of the common people. The posters, the telescreens even other people are constantly hurling propaganda at the characters in nineteen eighty-four. Party members have telescreens in their homes which can never be turned off, only down. There are posters of Big Brother on every corner watching. There is no privacy and propaganda is everywhere.

the beginning

Nineteen Eighty-Four starts on a bright cold day in April, this introduction would have automatically brought to the minds of Orwell's readers the poem the waist land by T. S Elliot, the first line of which says, April is the cruelest month. Automatically Orwell's readers would have perceived some for-shadowing. Also in the first sentence it says "the clocks were striking thirteen." As thirteen is in western society perceived as unlucky here is even more evidence that something bad is coming.