Paperweight In 1984

In the novel, 1984, George Orwell warns his readers about the damage that can come from following a totalitarian regime and the measures that governments will go to in order to gain control over its people. Orwell creates a story that is very powerful and utilizes a variety of symbols. All of his symbols are very important in his story, but the most significant is the glass paperweight, which represents the past of Oceania and the bond between Winston and Julia. At the beginning of the novel, Winston walks into an antique shop and catches sight of the paperweight. The shop owner, Mr. Charrington, tells Winston that inside the glass is a piece of coral: “‘It is a beautiful thing,’ said the other [Mr. Charrington] appreciatively. ‘But there’s …show more content…
Someone had picked up the glass paperweight from the table and smashed it to pieces on the hearthstone. The fragment of coral, a tiny crinkle of pink like a sugar rosebud from a cake, rolled across the mat. How small, thought Winston, how small it always was!” (Orwell 223). When the paperweight is smashed by the Thought Police, Winston notices that the piece of coral is very small. This implies that the relationship that he shared with Julia was not as strong and powerful as he had thought it would be. The pieces of the paperweight on the floor represents the impossibility of erasing the Party. It symbolizes the ending of Winston’s and Julia’s relationship and dreams. The world that Winston longed to be inside of it shatters. This also foreshadows the torture that Winston and Julia would go through by the Thought Police. The shattering represents the defeat of the couple, and all hopes of them being able to defeat the Party are all gone. The glass paperweight’s beauty represents the past of Oceania, where beauty was appreciated by all the people of Oceania, and its fragility serves as a representation of Julia and Winston’s