Winston Smith enters Victory Mansions on a bright, cold April day, notices the towering BIG BROTHER poster, discovers the lift is inoperative due to an electricity cut for the Hate Week economy drive, and climbs seven flights of stairs to his flat despite a painful varicose ulcer.
Winston’s flat is dominated by a constantly operating telescreen that broadcasts pig‑iron production figures and the Ninth Three‑Year Plan while also receiving any sound above a whisper, reinforcing the sense of relentless surveillance by the Thought Police. Outside his window, numerous BIG BROTHER posters—including one with the word INGSOC partially torn—and a police helicopter patrol the skies, underscoring the omnipresent watchfulness. Winston reflects on the decayed state of London’s architecture—shored‑up nineteenth‑century houses, bomb‑scarred ruins, and makeshift wooden dwellings. He observes the Ministry of Truth, an enormous white pyramidal building far in the distance, its façade emblazoned with the Party slogan “WAR IS PEACE” (among others), highlighting the regime’s propaganda apparatus.
Winston obtains a blank diary and begins his first secret entry, recalling the earlier Two Minutes Hate that introduced the dark‑haired Fiction Department girl and Inner Party member O’Brien; the chapter also outlines the four Ministries (Truth, Peace, Love, Plenty) with their Newspeak names and gives a detailed, ominous description of the Ministry of Love.
During the Two Minutes Hate, Winston watches the screen’s Big Brother image, joins the slow chanting of “B‑B!”, experiences a fleeting eye‑contact moment with O’Brien that suggests mutual dissent, muses on the possible existence of the Brotherhood, and, after the session, writes the bold diary entry “DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER” in larger, neater capitals while coping with his increasing physical discomfort.
Winston, still writing in his diary, spirals into hysteria, adds frantic defiant lines, then hears persistent knocking at his flat’s door and, despite overwhelming fear, rises to answer it.