Winston lives in London, which is part of the super state of Oceania, formerly known as Great Britain. Winston lives in the city of London, in Airstrip One. London is contained in the super state of Oceania, once in the past known as Great Britain. The opening segment of the book comprises to a great extent of Winston's own appearance on his reality and the world in which he lives. Though Winston is actually a Party member, his life is still under the Party's strict political control. In his rented house, an instrument called a telescreen—, which is always powered on, and it is through it that the Thought Police are known to screen the activities of subjects. Winston holds his back to the screen. From his window, he sees the Ministry of Truth, where he works as the officer in charge of propaganda modifying records to align to the Party's intended communication of past occasions

Winston dreams of his mom, who vanished in one of the 'Great Purge' that happened in the 1950s when Winston was ten or eleven years of age. In the dream, Winston's mother is sitting underneath him with his younger sister in her arms, in some kind of underground room. In this memory, he feels tremendously devastated in light of the fact that he realizes that by one means or another she has surrendered her life and that of his sisters for him. He remembers her death as a disaster since she passed away cherishing and giving him the personal loyalty that the party could not allow. Winston remembers Katharine, his wife from whom he separated but never divorced as per the party dictates. Winston depicts how the Party functions ceaselessly to remove all joy from sexual acts, considering pleasure an adversary. An advisory group must affirm marriage, and to obtain such endorsement, the man and lady in question must not exhibit any obvious physical attraction for each other. The objective of a marriage is to create children, not to look for particular delight or fulfillment. Factually, certain Party associations, including the Junior Anti-Sex League, advocate chastity and reproduction through arts, Newspeak for planned impregnation, and even propose that kids ought to be brought up by public organizations as opposed to by guardians.

Julia and Winston walk around the little enclave. Winston, remaining at the edge of their little clearing, all of a sudden notices the landscape: it is the Golden Country from his fantasies. A little thrush roosted close them starts to sing energetically, and the sound strikes Winston for instance of straightforward, unadulterated, relentless magnificence. They make a beeline for the clearing. Similarly, as he found in his fantasy, Julia detaches her garments, and they grasp. She uncovers that she hosts done this with many Gathering individuals, and Winston clarifies that the more men she has been with, the more he will love her. Oceania is governed under the belief system of Ingsoc, Eurasia under Neo-Bolshevism, and Eastasia under what can be deciphered as either "Death-worship" or "Obliteration of the Self." All nations host an Inner Party, a Party, a prole structure, and a worship figure, semi-divine leaders. Goldstein states, "When war becomes literally continuous, it also ceases to be dangerous...technical progress can cease, and the most palpable facts can be denied or disregarded." The general population have no chance to get off knowing the genuine condition of the world and must depend totally upon the Party

Winston has been discharged from the Ministry of Love. He sits in the Chestnut Tree Cafe drinking their exceptional clove-enhanced Victory Gin. Winston tunes in to the telescreen, eager for a unique announcement from the Ministry of Peace. There ought to be news about Central Africa. All of a sudden, his mind wanders. He experiences difficulty concentrating on any single idea nowadays. He can notice the gin, and considers how it is perpetually stirred up with the scent of the rats he confronted, in spite of the fact that he never names the brutes. A server who perceives Winston as a general presents to him a chessboard and a Times previously filling his gin glass. He starts to analyze the chess issue in the Times: "White to play and mate in two moves." He looks at Big Brother, contemplating internally, "White always mates."