The Paperweight

The paperweight is a beautiful symbol in this novel. Winston, in his second visit to Charrington's shop, buys a glass paperweight with a fragment of coral in the center. This paperweight really couldn't fit the bill for symbol any better if we wrote it ourselves. The definition of a symbol is something that represents a larger idea or concept. The paperweight is not only a remnant of the past that the party is nearing completion in destroying, it is a symbol of that very same past. When Winston holds it in his hands and revels in the smoothness of the glass and the beauty of the coral, we see that it is not the aspects of the paperweight he is appreciating but the aspects of the past it represents.When Winston is arrested and one of the men smash the paperweight we can physically feel the grief of the party winning, and this is a testament to the quality of writing involved.