The Paperweight of the Past: Analyzing Orwell's 1984

“The Paperweight of the Past”
In the novel 1984, the author George Orwell uses diction and symbolism to convey the message that in order for a government to obtain absolute control over its people, it must demolish the past and human spirit. When Winston revisits Mr.Charrington’s shop, he finds himself searching through endless, insignificant items from before the Revolution. Rummaging through more meaningless items, Winston comes across an exquisite and precious item. The paperweight “[had] such depth of it, and yet it was almost as transparent as air. It was as though the surface of the glass had been the arch in the sky, enclosing a tiny world with its atmosphere complete…” (80,81). Orwell uses diction to describe how delicate and beautiful the coral paperweight was, and to accentuate the sentiment Winston felt towards it; it represented another world which was enclosed inside the coral. Through his description of the coral and his diction choices such as “enclosing” and “depth”, Orwell illustrates the idea that the coral not only represents the past, but is metaphorically trapping the past beneath the surface of the glass, “enclosing” it within its “depths”, concealing it from the outside world. Similarly, Orwell uses symbolism to show that the coral is a representation of the government and the Party; while the past is inside, the government is “enclosing” itself around it, creating a barrier so that it may not escape. Not only does the coral symbolize the government, but it also represents Winston’s and Julia’s life as well. The paperweight was not mesmerizing to Winston due to the appearance of it, but “What appealed to him about it was not so much its beauty as the air it seemed to possess the belonging to an age quite different from the present one” (80,81). Although he found the coral beautiful and delicate, the real attraction was what it symbolized. Being an object from the past, the coral represents the past Winston and Julia had dedicated their life to uncovering. However, soon after Winston purchases the coral paperweight from Mr.Charrington, he and Julia were revealed to the Thought Police. Fear strikes their bodies, paralyzing them, making their senses alert to everything around them. “Someone had picked up the glass paperweight from the table and smashed it to pieces on the hearthstone. The fragment of the coral, a tiny crinkle of pink...rolled across the mat” (142,143). In addition to representing the past and Winston and Julia’s life, Orwell also uses symbolism to represent how the government obtains control over its people. As he directly makes the coral a symbol of the past, he also fabricates a member of the Thought Police to destroy the paperweight, representing that the past is destroyed with the coral. Orwell uses symbolism in this passage to illustrate the idea that the government and the Party would destroy every aspect of the past identically to how they destroyed the coral; it would be crushed into tiny fragments, too small to piece back together to its original form. While the paperweight was crushed, not only did it symbolize the destruction of the past, but it also represented the destruction of Winston’s and Julia’s spirit. They had both risked their lives in an attempt to rediscover the past, yet their journey had resulted in the Party destroying every last drop of hope and spirit they had to keep them sane in their world. By crushing their spirit and their desires to recollect memories of a time that seemed better than the present, the Party had destroyed everything that set them apart from each other, everything that individualized them and gave them an ounce of power over themselves. Through the use of diction and symbolism, George Orwell transmits the idea that the past and human spirit must be extinguished in order for a government to obtain absolute power over its people.