1984 Symbolism Essay

St.Clement’s church picture - is another symbol connected with the past. The picture reminds Winston the old songs which Winston sings sometimes in apartment. But behind the saint object, lies the telescreen which leads Winston to the Thought Police.

An impression to the past is made throughout the novel when Winston discovers a beautiful relic; one the size of his palm that fills his soul with nostalgia and is “fixed as a sort of eternity at the heart

He is soon proven wrong. His mistake is clearly symbolized when the paperweight is broken in the frenzy of Julia 's and Winston 's arrests and separation. The beauty and wholeness of the paperweight shatters along with the relationship.

Later in the book the thought police discover Winston and Julia through a hidden telescreen behind the painting of the church. The thought police raid them and the glass paperweight symbolically shatters to the ground.

In his novel 1984, George Orwell writes of a utopia-gone-wrong with many things resembling that of life under a dictatorship. Throughout the novel, the readers follow the main character, Winston, on a journey of self-discovery while finding out the truth behind the forever watching eyes of Big Brother. In this dark and twisted dystopia, there is an organization entitled The Junior Anti-Sex League, which is an organization to promote celibacy. Julia, Winston’s love interest, proudly displays the scarlet sash, an indicator of a member of the Junior Anti-Sex League, around her waist to make her devotion to the party known. Of all the symbols in the novel, the scarlet sash representing purity and celibacy worn around the waists of the Junior Anti-Sex League youths is the most puzzling and intriguing.

"'You are no metaphysician, Winston,' 'Until this moment you had never considered what is meant by existence. I will put it more precisely. [...] 'Where does the past exist, if at all?' 'In records. It is written down.' 'In records. And- ?' 'In the mind. In human memories.' 'In memory. [...] We, the Party, control all records, and we control all memories. Then we control the past, do we not?' 'But how can you stop people remembering things?' cried Winston again momentarily forgetting the dial. 'It is involuntary. It is outside oneself. How can you control memory? You have not controlled mine!'" [pg. 256].

Winston is immediately attracted to the coral paperweight because of its obvious hoariness. As Mr. Charrington claims, it “wasn’t made less than a hundred years ago” (84). The paperweight’s appearance of “belonging to an age quite different from the present,” distinguishes it from all the objects Winston encounters in his everyday world (84). The Party has already purged London of relics from the days of Capitalism, successfully destroying most of the artifacts from the time before its existence. For Winston to possess a little scrap of the past, however small it may be, gives him something unique, grants him a little individuality- something that is constantly denied to him by the Party. Also, Winston’s possession of the paperweight, one of the few objects remaining that was created before the Party’s rise to power, gives him a tangible clue to answering the question that has been continually

In the story, Winston keeps a journal where he jots down all of his inner thoughts that he can not express out loud, and must keep the journal hidden from the telescreens that constantly watch his every move. Additionally, Winston works for the part of the government in control of erasing the events before Oceania was created, and replacing the history with new, false information to trick citizens into believing that there was never a time before Oceania. With this being said, Winston has a taste of what the world was like before their current government came to be, and throughout the story he becomes more curious about what life would be like without Oceania. Although in the end Winston does conform to the ways of the government and to Big Brother, he inwardly questions for the most part of the

Winston uses inanimate objects to help him cope with his life today. Orwell uses this as a way to show how hopeful and somewhat sad Winston's character is. Winston uses these objects as a way for him to reminisce the days he loved life. The days were Big Brother was not in complete control. One of the main objects throughout the story is the paperweight.

Winston’s diary is revealed early on in the novel, and acts as the epiphany of Winston’s rebellious thoughts and ambitions. Winston’s diary is ultimately him acting upon his desire to be free, as he has given himself the opportunity to write down his thoughts. This desire to be free can be seen when Winston let’s his mind drift while his diary is open, shortly after Winston discovers, “That while he sat helplessly musing he had also been writing, as though by automatic action. [...] His pen had slid voluptuously over the smooth paper, printing in large neat capitals DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER DOWN WITH BIG

The novel begins with its main character Winston Smith, who has a need to remember. “Was he, then, alone in the possession of a memory?” (p59). He has always known that the world hasn’t always been like this. He knows the world used to be better, since he retains in his mind the farthest memories of his childhood, when the world was very different and Big Brother hadn’t risen to power. Winston tries to search for evidence in order to prove that the world was better. He asks an old man from the proles without much results, he

Literary concepts are often used in books to make the reading experience more enjoyable. In George Orwell’s 1984, Orwell uses a key literary element, symbolism, to do this. Orwell does this in a unique way. He makes the reader want to think one way, when the reality is far different. This causes the reader to be surprised when the truth of the matter is revealed. He is able to do this by having certain objects represent one thing, and then later reveal it is something far different. This unique use of symbolism is an interesting aspect of 1984. In 1984, George Orwell uses the concept of symbolism to make the reader think of things in a way far from the truth.

The use of symbolism throughout George Orwell's 1984 serves to enhance the reader’s understanding of one of the first examples of a dystopian future. When it was written it opened the eyes of the people showing them what might happen in the future and making them ask, “Could this actually happen?” When it was published in 1949 it was beyond its time in the sense that the world it was set in was a place that didn't exist yet. When one reads 1984 the reader will notice the extreme parallels between the novel and the world we live in today. Orwell who identified as a socialist used this as inspiration for the novel which can be seen through his use of the class system. The novel also discussed three superpowers in a stalemate

Their embrace had been a battle, the climax is victory. It was a blow struck against the Party. It was a political act”. Their consummation of their love was seen to be political act since their actions of love was forbidden from the society. Winston has departed from the Party’s reality and has embarked on journey to build his own reality with Julia as he engaged in political orthodoxy. Winston and Julia seek a place where they could build their own private reality in the shadows of the Party’s surveillance. The soon found a place that seemed to them as a safe harbor to begin their new lives, in Mr. Carrington’s antique shop. Winston and Julia continued to explore their relationship within their own risk and Winston keeps a paperweight to demonstrate a new future that will bring to Julie and him, will bring them back to the past. “The paperweight was the room he was in, and the coral was Julia’s life and his own, fixed in a sort of eternity at the heart of the crystal.” This quote compares Winston’s and Juliet’s private reality they have built together and the delicate object. It shows that their love and reality is fragile, and foreshadows their inevitable end.

Throughout the novel 1984 written by George Orwell symbolism is incorporated as the main character Winston Smith attempts to discover the truth about the past before his memory was manipulated and corrupted by Totalitarianism. As The Party continues to implement restrictions on society Winston becomes rebellious. Winston’s desire to test the power of The Party is represented by both the glass paper weight and the red armed prole woman. The possibility of destroying The Party seems unrealistic, however the glass paper weight and red armed prole woman enhance the possibility that Winston will successfully achieve freedom and independence.