Winston Smith, the main character, lives in a world of dystopia and fear. He has memories of what life use to be like and what he wishes could be like again. His conflict with his journal goes stronger and stronger. It becomes a way to express his feelings and pains while dealing with the governmental tortures. After talking to an old man in a bar, thinking he is a link to the past, he only becomes more confused and distressed. He leaves the bar to go to a pawn shop. In the pawn shop he buys another journal and a pink paper weight. The idea of writing relaxes and places fear into Winston’s mind. He dearly wants to but he knows there are consequences. The paper weight has great symbolism. It is used to represent how the past will never be back. The weight is for paper and Winston uses paper to write his dreams and thought of the past and present. Therefore his dreams and thoughts are being weighted down, never to be released. The color pink has many different interpretations of symbolism. It is represents marriage to the Chinese, relaxation, and even creativity to the working. If these are true it would mean Winston is also loosing his creativity (work ability) and is hurting because of the lost of is wife. The paper weight can be interpreted many ways, but these seem to be the most logical when relating to 1984.
3 comments:
Matt: Some good thinking here. I like your ideas about the paperweight. It does become a part of Winston's life, that's for sure, as he tries to gain some measure of individual freedom. You might want to go back to the descriptions of the pawn shop and see how Orwell uses that to make other points about the past. Remember, in the book the government says "Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past." What is so special about the past?
Nice job and keep reading. Good luck at Odyssey of the Mind, too!!
Its adam. You said "After talking to an old man in a bar, thinking he is a link to the past, he only becomes more confused and distressed" I agree totally with you on this point. I think talking to the old man just made him more curious and he didnt get any answers from him. I think that eventually he will probably going to find out about what happened before the revolution just because he seems not afraid to ask questions.
Matt, upon first glancing at your posting, I was intrigued by your illustration. It wasn't until I continued reading that I figured out that the picture is of a paper weight. I agree with your different interpretations regarding its symbolism.
I especially find it interesting that you say that Winston feels relaxed and fearful from the idea of writing. Ironic, right? Nice interpretations...
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