Part I sets up the misery of Winston's world before he outwardly expresses any sort of rebellion. Winston Smith is living in London, chief city of Airstrip One (formerly known as England), in the superstate of Oceania. It is‹he thinks‹1984. Oceania is a totalitarian state dominated by the principles of Ingsoc (English Socialism) and ruled by an ominous organization known simply as the Party. Oceania and the two other world superstates, Eurasia and Eastasia, …showed first 75 words of 4384 total…

…showed last 75 words of 4384 total…of Stalin's rule. It can even be conjectured that "Big Brother," with his dark, heavy mustache, is actually Stalin. Orwell wrote 1984 while seriously ill with tuberculosis, and afterward commented that had he not been so ill, the book might not have been so bleak. To his consternation, after its publication, 1984 was used as propaganda itself, especially by western forces in post-World-War-II Germany; although he tried to distance himself from this, he was not very successful.