What is the significance of the paperweight to winston

Not Finding What You Need? Copying content is not allowed on this website. Ask a professional expert to help you with your text. ASK writer for help. Give us your email and we'll send you the essay you need.

Send me the sample. By clicking Send Me The Sample you agree to the terms and conditions of our service. We'll not send you spam or irrelevant messages. Please indicate where to send you the sample. Please check your inbox. SparkTeach Teacher's Handbook. Charrington Emmanuel Goldstein. Why is the war in never ending? Why is the photo of Jones, Aaronson, and Rutherford important? Is Julia a spy working with the Thought Police?

Why is Julia attracted to Winston? Why is Newspeak so important? The paperweight, a piece of coral suspended in glass, was purchased just before Winston spotted Julia following him. He considered murdering her with it, but decided against it.

Later, when he rents the room from Mr. Charrington to share with Julia, he admires the beauty of the paperweight again. It is a useless item that brings him joy because of its ties to the past. However, it is just like his relationship with Julia in that it is beautiful, meaningless, and completely against the rules. Then, when the Thought Police enter the room to arrest them both, the paperweight is knocked from the bedside table to the floor where it shatters and Winston realizes just how small that piece of coral really was.

Winston's time of freedom and enjoying the lifestyle of the past was small and fleeting just like the coral and its place of sanctuary, the safety of the room for Winston and the glass for the coral, were completely destroyed leaving nothing but despair. The paperweight symbolizes Winston's hope.

Hope is a rare thing in and, if it can be found, it is beaten out of its people in the Ministry of Truth because people with hope are hard to control. When Winston discovered the paperweight, he discovered his first glimpse of the past and he began to hope for a life of freedom with Julia. The coral looked large when it was magnified by the glass surrounding it just as Winston imagined this grand future.

However, when the paperweight was destroyed, he found the coral to be quite small, just as his time with Julia had been. Orwell utilizes a variety of different symbols in order to carry out different functions such as the foreshadowing of different events, development of the setting, creation of the dreary mood, unveiling of the true natures of the characters, introduction to and reinforcement of themes, and so forth.

The paperweight is the single most significant symbol in the story because unlike the other symbols, it embodies all the literary aspects of the novel and combines the ideas and functions of all the other symbols. Every symbol mentioned in the text has its significance and plays some sort of literary role. The painting of the church also represents freedom and the idyllic past and the nursery rhyme associated with it foreshadows the downfall of Winston and Julia. Overall, all these different symbols have a literary function of some sort whether it is introducing the conflict, characterizing the characters, developing the setting, or reinforcing the themes.

Although all the symbols mentioned above may play a certain role in molding the novel, the paperweight is the most effective. In the novel, Winston buys the glass paperweight when he wanders through an antique shop.

There was a peculiar softness, as of rainwater, in both the color and the texture of the glass. The shop owner then informs Winston that the pink object at the heart of the glass is a coral and he comments on the rarity of such an object.

He finds it even more attractive because of its apparent uselessness and the fact that it could be beautiful for the sake of being beautiful.